One of the breakers in my apartment keeps tripping even after resetting. It’s a 15 amp circuit that feeds a bedroom, being used as a home office/recording studio with a laptop, 2nd monitor, a mixer, stereo amplifier, synthesizer, modem, wifi router, printer etc.
It's been running trouble-free for five years, but after a big electrical storm a few days ago, which may or may not be related, that’s when the breaker started to trip once I began plugging back in all the things I had unplugged during the electrical storm.
I tested all devices one by one and found that the amplifier will trip when powered on every single time without fail. I also managed to trip it a few times turning on 2 computers, monitor, the mixer, etc., but this test was hard to repeat.
Just when I thought the amplifier was to blame, I took it around and tested it on different circuits throughout the whole apartment and it NEVER trips any other breakers—whether solo or with other appliances running.
The maintenance guy from the apartment came by, looked at the breaker briefly, reset it, tested the lights in the room and said, "it’s fine" and he still believes it’s my amplifier, not the breaker.
I am not so sure, but I need help ruling things out so I can have some ammo to go back to them and suggest what I believe could be causing it to trip.
Any suggestions on what it could be, what else to look for, or what else to test?
Best Answer
Probably the easiest way to determine whether the breaker has gone bad is to swap the breakers between two 15 A circuits. If the problem follows the breaker, then you know it's developed a hair trigger.
Another but more difficult possibility is to plug in something that draws just under 15 A. You didn't specify the line voltage, so I'll pick 117 V. 117 V at 15 A delivers 1.8 kW. If you've got a toaster, space heater, hair dryer, or something rated for 1.5 kW, that might be a good test.
Appliances that put most of the power into a heater would be best to not cloud the issue with large startup currents. Even heaters draw more when cold, but any properly-functioning breaker should be able to ride out the brief surge. If the breaker works fine at just under 15 A continuously but still fails when the stereo is first switched on, then it may not be riding out short surges like it's supposed to.
Your stereo probably has a much larger surge. It sounds like this breaker has developed a hair trigger, and is now more sensitive to short over-current conditions than it should be.