Breaker tips the second I turn it on. Exactly 5 outlets aren't working. None of the outlets are CFCI, all look like the one in the picture, but others outlets aren't next to light switches and have panels over them. All lights and everything else is working. No apparent damage to the outlets. These outlets used to work fine with no issues. The only recent change was I connected a toaster oven to this outlet, but the problem started a couple days later. I took the plate off of the outlet and it looks fine. The light switches next to it work fine. The other 4 outlets aren't damaged and used to work fine.
What I've tried:
- Remove everything from the outlets
- Replace the breaker
EDIT:
Is this the issue? This wire looks burned here on this outlet.
EDIT2:
It was the issue. I removed the outlet and the breaker stays on now and other outlets work.
Best Answer
Broken wires don't trip breakers, they just cause outlets to stop working. An insta-tripping breaker means a genuine short circuit aka bolted fault. (lots of things are incorrectly called that, but this really is that).
I don't think the toaster oven had anything to do with it. IF it had failed immediately AND it had failed "open" (outlets stopped working but breaker held), then yes. But not in this case.
You need to check every outlet (that is now off). Look for burning, arcing or spalling. Look on side screws, especially those sticking way out because nobody ran them down, too-long wires sticking out of backstabs, ground wires, and sides of metal boxes.
The most common is the bare ground wire gets too close to a hot screw or contacts a too-long backstab wire.