Electrical – Washer & dryer lost power after the main breaker tripped

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Some background. I am in a mobile home trailer type thing (not RV, this is stationary) in a mobile home park. Yesterday the main breaker tripped. This house has one on the inside in the electrical panel, and one on the outside rated 100A – the 100A tripped.

I'm not sure what caused it, we had our dryer going, swamp cooler and TV/lights, etc. Nothing we haven't done before. Anyway, it tripped and I reset it, things were fine, except our washer & dryer aren't getting power. They are on two different circuits, which I have tried resetting the breakers for with no luck.

The dryer has the special plug that I can't actually test, but the washer runs off of a normal outlet that I confirmed wasn't powering anything else, so for the washer at least I have ruled out a mechanical failure. I have also reset the 100A breaker outside the house again with no luck.

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Please let me know if there is anything else I can tell you to help diagnose this problem.

I have another album with some detailed pictures with the panel off, maybe someone can spot some damage?

Best Answer

Since neither the washer nor the dryer breaker are tripped, yet the main did trip and power to those circuits cannot be restored by resetting the main, I suspect either the circuit breakers, busbar section, or both have become damaged inside the panel -- this means the next steps involve turning the main breaker off and disassembling the branch circuit panel, looking for damage to the busbar tabs and breaker contact clips, as well as the breakers themselves.

If you're not comfortable doing this yourself, now's the time to get an electrician in; while you have them in, have them replace the misfit breaker with one of the correct type -- i.e. a THQL120 instead of the BR120 that was improperly fitted there, and install a blank over the gaping hole in the main panel.

(It's likely that the misfit breaker was making poor contact in the first place and just quit making contact with the busbar during whatever caused the main to trip. Replace it with a THQL120 and things should be good.)