Does tripping a breaker damage it?

0 votes
asked Nov 21, 2022 in Other-Home/Garden by Blassinggill (1,000 points)
Does tripping a breaker damage it?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Jan 19, 2023 by Zoey123 (24,130 points)
Tripping a breaker once in awhile does not damage it.

However repeated tripping of the breaker constantly damages the breaker and wears it out.

Although a breaker is meant to trip it should only trip when there's an overload or a fault in the electrical circuit and if the breaker keeps tripping when you reset it then there's either too much load on the breaker or a loose wire or bad connection somewhere.

So if you reset the breaker and it trips again then you should leave the breaker off and call an electrician or find the problem yourself if you're comfortable working with electricity.

A circuit breaker that trips too often is and indication of either a problem with the circuit breaker itself or there is an overload or short circuit on the circuit it protects.

Either way the cause needs to be determined as any poetential fault could pose a fire or shock hazard.

Thermally tripped breakers get weak when the contacts oxidize causing extra heating due to contact IR loss.

In effect the contacts preheat the bimetallic bender so that it takes less heat due to current to cause it to trip.

If you want to force a circuit breaker to trip without risking your property, turn it off through the panel.

You'll need to plug in an appliance or turn on lights that are connected to the circuit and the corresponding breaker.

Afterward, you need to manually turn off the breaker from the panel.

Most circuit breakers are rated for around 2000 operations or 2-3 fault interruptions before they should be reconditioned.

102,628 questions

97,996 answers

1,297 comments

7,009,707 users

...