Discuss Havin random breaker fault issues with my home where random circuits trip breaker with no pattern . in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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SuttonA

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So bought my house in june . When i moved in I hooked ac window unit in my bedroom it tripped the afci breaker for that circuit so I temporarily ran extension cord from spare room to my bedroom to solve the issue . After a week i decided to try hook ac up normally again . Never tripped breaker again . Fast forward 3 months my kitchen circuit starts trippin randomly regardless of what appliance or light is on . At this time the living room afci and bedroom afci start tripping again. This without ac unit hooked up anymore . Started to get real frustrated called few local electricians who said afci are a big issue n they see em cause issues alot but that i cant remove them. Altho one electrician said he would . Then all of sudden everything works fine again no trippin on any circuit till about two weeks ago . Now its doin the same 3afci circuits and my fridge circuit has popped twice and its not afci breaker just a seimens doubles switch20amp breaker was told they are called wafer breakers? Sometimes ill reset the breaker n use same appliances (tv night light ceiling fan) n itll trip every 6 min it seems . Other times ill reset it and itll be fine all day . Im at a loss . My girlfriend cousin is electrician for city we live in for 30 years he came over n tightened all screws on nuetral buss n looked for any loose connection or anything that stood out but couldnt find anything . My house had burnt down in 2010 before i owned it and was rebuilt all execpt for exterior walls . It has all now outlets / wiring as of 2010 . I can conform this from looking over wiring in the attic crawl space . Any help with my issue would be greatly appreciated . Suggestions anything. Forgot to add that i have used amp clamp on problem circuits and they have tripped with a max 2.5 amp on a 15 amp circuit
 
So bought my house in june . When i moved in I hooked ac window unit in my bedroom it tripped the afci breaker for that circuit so I temporarily ran extension cord from spare room to my bedroom to solve the issue . After a week i decided to try hook ac up normally again . Never tripped breaker again . Fast forward 3 months my kitchen circuit starts trippin randomly regardless of what appliance or light is on . At this time the living room afci and bedroom afci start tripping again. This without ac unit hooked up anymore . Started to get real frustrated called few local electricians who said afci are a big issue n they see em cause issues alot but that i cant remove them. Altho one electrician said he would . Then all of sudden everything works fine again no trippin on any circuit till about two weeks ago . Now its doin the same 3afci circuits and my fridge circuit has popped twice and its not afci breaker just a seimens doubles switch20amp breaker was told they are called wafer breakers? Sometimes ill reset the breaker n use same appliances (tv night light ceiling fan) n itll trip every 6 min it seems . Other times ill reset it and itll be fine all day . Im at a loss . My girlfriend cousin is electrician for city we live in for 30 years he came over n tightened all screws on nuetral buss n looked for any loose connection or anything that stood out but couldnt find anything . My house had burnt down in 2010 before i owned it and was rebuilt all execpt for exterior walls . It has all now outlets / wiring as of 2010 . I can conform this from looking over wiring in the attic crawl space . Any help with my issue would be greatly appreciated . Suggestions anything. Forgot to add that i have used amp clamp on problem circuits and they have tripped with a max 2.5 amp on a 15 amp circuit
Sutton first off welcome to the forum I’ve got to agree with the other electrician on AFCI breakers. Some manufacturer come up with them and the NEC thought let’s make electricians use them. This happened before they could go through with further testing. Think about this that we have got by for 100 years without AFCI breakers and the inspector wants to see them to pass inspection. Me personally I will take them out when he leaves and install regular breakers back in the panel. One of the biggest problem is that electricians to make the panel look good install them side by side and the are taller than regular breakers and they get hot because they can’t dissipate heat so then they trip. I’m not telling you to violate the NEC but I’m not a big fan of AFCI BREAKERS
 
AFCI? is this Arc Fault Circuit Interupter??

if so, could something upstream of the panel be arcing and detected by the breaker.

just a thought.
 
AFCI? is this Arc Fault Circuit Interupter??

if so, could something upstream of the panel be arcing and detected by the breaker.

just a thought.
Yes James we are talking about arc fault breakers and that’s a good possibility but it’s not always the same circuit. An electrician does a new building and installs the required AFCI and we have to give 1year warranty and that gets old to keep coming back and before resetting the breaker then checking what’s on that circuit to verify all is good and reset the breaker with no pay
 
Was convinced it was afci till this weekend the fridge also set breaker on its own non afci breaker now im second guessing my previous thought . Hell i dunno its just annoying . I even suspected maybe somthin with the feed as it stopped for months the we had outage from someone hitting pole about a mile away then it started happening within 24 hours from pole repair n the elec company wants nothin to do with it
 
Was convinced it was afci till this weekend the fridge also set breaker on its own non afci breaker now im second guessing my previous thought . Hell i dunno its just annoying . I even suspected maybe somthin with the feed as it stopped for months the we had outage from someone hitting pole about a mile away then it started happening within 24 hours from pole repair n the elec company wants nothin to do with it
With all the crazy things that’s going on in your house you need to call the power company especially if they did some repairs. From my understanding the power company has to come out if you have an emergency with no charge. What else do you have to loose, if you have to lie but you want the power coming into the meter is right but that’s as far as they will go
 
Havin random breaker fault issues with my home where random circuits trip breaker with no pattern . A0A11E93-A37C-4DD3-9FB5-47FAB7B9931F - EletriciansForums.netHere is pic of whole panel
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Havin random breaker fault issues with my home where random circuits trip breaker with no pattern . A399D696-AF36-462B-A1ED-58D04FF996CA - EletriciansForums.netHere is one of the neutral buss
 
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