electrical short, trips a breaker

SDE · Oct 28, 2015

Not my house
90s side by side
Found which wire that was tripping the breaker. It appears that all lights and outlets work, without this wire connected to the outlet.
Could this wire go to something in the attic that might be shorted?
I shook the wire and it sounded like it goes up the wall and not down. Although crawling under the house would be easier that going into the attic.
Thank you
SDE

CCer · Oct 28, 2015

Daughter's house had a lightening strike nearby. Tripped a breaker, like you described. Suspect wire fed an upstairs switch that was shorted.

boler76 · Oct 28, 2015

leave it disconnected until you find out what isnt working then you will be able to fix the problem

Spook · Oct 28, 2015

Does it have a power vent in the attic? My neighbor had one that got fried somehow, it was on the same circuit as his bedroom lights.

Greg K · Oct 28, 2015

There may be an outlet under the house to run heat tape for the water lines. One way to help figure out the issue is to hook the wire back up and alternately unhook the ground and neutral to see which is shorted to the hot wire. If it is the neutral it could be a bad incandescent bulb or power vent, basically an equipment malfunction. Of the ground is shorting out it could be a siding nail through the wire or a similar problem. Please don't fix it by leaving one unhooked so it doesn't trip the breaker. The attics on those are usually a truss filled maze which gets worse if there is a vaulted ceiling. Also many times there are Junction boxes in the attics near the access so that when they join the two halves together they Junction right near the access where it is easy.

Determined · Oct 28, 2015

Start checking all of the not so obvious things to see if they are still working.
-Doorbell transformer
-Outdoor outlets
-Porch lights
-Furnace
-Humidifier
-Smoke detectors
-Bathroom fan
-Range hood
-Central vac
-Plugs hidden behind furniture
....

MSD · Oct 28, 2015

Had a new house wired one time that every time you turned the outside lights on it blew a breaker. We finally tracked it down to when the electrician tightened the wire clamp in the outlet box, the metal tab to hold the wires tight had cut the insulation on one wire and the tab was making contact with the ground wire to short it out.

jeffcat · Oct 28, 2015

Wait till you find where someone hung up a picture. Look for the magic nail. I did that once with a screw through a trim piece.

glennster · Oct 28, 2015

check to see if a mouse or squirrel got up in the attic. they seem to enjoy chewing up electric wires. i have a rental property that has a problem with ants getting in the contactor on the outside compressor. they short out and fuse the contactor so it runs constantly. have to keep bug killer sprayed on it to keep em out.

SDE · Oct 28, 2015

Thank you for some very good information. We have had rain and even snow tonight. I think I will try to crawl under the house first and see if that wire might go to a heat tape. Although the water supply is on the other end. Then I might try to see if there is an access to the attic above that end of the house. The door bell and the smoke detector are two items I had not thought to check.
Thanks again
Steve

Anonymous-0 · Oct 28, 2015

How about, short across the breaker & see where the fire breaks out?

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Oct 29, 2015

You can get a wire tracer for $25 and up on line
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&am...bmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_76qgwd8sep_e They probably can be found at most any electrical supply place.

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Oct 29, 2015

Here is a picture of one

buickanddeere · Oct 29, 2015

No breaker manufacture will warranty or guarantee a breaker after interrupting a dead short.

electrical short, trips a breaker

SDE

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CCer

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boler76

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Spook

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Greg K

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Determined

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MSD

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jeffcat

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glennster

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SDE

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Anonymous-0

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john .?-!. cub owner

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john .?-!. cub owner

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buickanddeere

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