What is a Faulty Circuit Breaker

A faulty circuit breaker is a problem with one of the circuits on your electrical panel. There are several different types of faulty circuit breaker, but the most common compliant for many homeowners is that they have a circuit that continually trips. This can lead to power outage on items that plug into the particular circuit, and the homeowner may be continually going to their fuse box and resetting the circuit. If you believe you have a faulty circuit breaker, it is important to understand how a circuit breaker works and to test whether or not the circuit breaker really is faulty.

Do You Have a Faulty Circuit Breaker?

Your circuit breaker is designed to ensure that you don't overload the power lines and that the wires in your home don't carry more power than they can handle. If you request too much power from a given circuit (source of electricity) by trying to run too many things from that particular circuit then the circuit breaker will trip the circuit, cutting off power to the circuit so that the wires don't get overloaded by all of the energy you are requesting. You'll need to then go to your fuse box and reset the circuit so that it once again starts sending power through the wires. However, if you go back to the same behavior and once again request more power than the wires can carry, the circuit will trip again. This process can continue to occur, leading many homeowners to believe they have a faulty circuit breaker when in reality they are simply continually trying to run more power through a given circuit than it can handle.

In order to test whether the circuit breaker is broken or not, you should unplug everything plugged into that circuit and then reset it. If it resets properly, then plug one item in and see if it continues to work. If it does, continue to plug items in until it trips again. If it does not reset properly even when nothing is plugged in or if it trips again even when a single item is plugged in, then you likely have a faulty circuit breaker and need to call an electrician to replace that particular breaker within your system. You can also use a voltage tester, which is sold in hardware stores, to determine whether the circuit is sending voltage out. If no voltage is coming out of the system, then again this is a sign you have a faulty circuit breaker.