Blew my breaker, plug grounded?

getogrow said:
commercial oven for 500 bucks! yea you better stick to that bad boy! This is the first i have ever heard of a half electric and half gas myself. i rock a whirlpool. 2001 classic. Electric cooking sucks! i need to grab a gas one.
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The lawyer I bought it from said his wife wanted all matching appliances.

It's not a huge unit, just the standard 30" wide, 5 burners on top. It for in the same spot the old stove came out of. It's already got the island kit so when I remodel I'll put it in the island, within reach of the bar side where it can keep dips and sauces warm and accessible.
 
Moabfighter said:
Changed outlet. Still no power. Pissed off. Guess I’m just gonna live with half power and stop growing. Fuck it
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Get another electrician to take a look. Not the same one you had before. Maybe the first guy is missing something. Changing a plug is one thing but don't go messing around at the breaker. Stay safe.

Good luck.
 
xtsho said:
Get another electrician to take a look. Not the same one you had before. Maybe the first guy is missing something. Changing a plug is one thing but don't go messing around at the breaker. Stay safe.

Good luck.
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Thanks man. I thought this plug replacement would fix it but it did zero difference when I try to flip breaker back on. Same quick flash of lights on then immediately back off and breaker flipped..... problem is in these cow field areas electricians are hard to find. I’ll keep looking. Thanks
 
Moabfighter said:
Thanks man. I thought this plug replacement would fix it but it did zero difference when I try to flip breaker back on. Same quick flash of lights on then immediately back off and breaker flipped..... problem is in these cow field areas electricians are hard to find. I’ll keep looking. Thanks
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If your breaker is still tripping with nothing plugged into the new outlet, you've eliminated that outlet as the problem. Good to know. My next step would be to change out the breaker but I get it if you're not comfortable doing that. That would be the next easiest step to check. Something is causing that breaker to trip, if it's not a bad breaker itself. Did any electric heat or anything new as far as appliances or equipment get plugged in and left on in the last couple weeks? Nails in the walls that could have nicked a wire? Heat tape on water lines under the building faulty? Just throwing out some examples.
 
Moabfighter said:
Thanks man. I thought this plug replacement would fix it but it did zero difference when I try to flip breaker back on. Same quick flash of lights on then immediately back off and breaker flipped..... problem is in these cow field areas electricians are hard to find. I’ll keep looking. Thanks
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Turn off the main breaker.
Take cover off panel.
Locate the breaker that is tripping...how many wires are attached to it?
Can you take a pic of the panel inside for us too.
Remove all wire(s) from tripping breaker. (Just bend them out of the way so they don't touch anything/metal.)

If there is only 1 wire on that tripping breaker then you most likely have a faulty wire somewhere in the wall(s)...thats if everything (tv's, radio, clocks etc) is unplugged in every room that is currently effected by the outage...1 bad electronics device plugged in still could also cause it to keep tripping...maybe even a light/lamp could be the cause.

If there is more then 1 wire then connect only 1 wire at a time and test/turn main on and tripping breaker back on to see if it stays on.
Also check/test the tripping breaker with nothing attached...if it trips without any wires then breaker is bad.

Hope this helps give you some more direction to solving this problem. :)

PS...Just think...it could be a mouse or some small rodent thats chewed a wire somewhere and has nothing to do with your grow room stuff at all...just bad luck and not you at all. :P
 
Fucked up thing is I believe that if I was there I could find the fault pretty quickly.

If you think the breaker may be faulty, simply disconnect the wire that is connected to that breaker. Then try to reset the breaker. If it fails to reset with no wire connected then it's faulty. Since your sparky said the breaker is good I suspect he already did just that.

Is there a ceiling fan on that circuit? Maybe there is a short in the motor winding. Turn it off and see if you can reset the breaker then.

I firmly believe that you can find and fix the issue if you don't get frustrated and use the process of elimination.
 
Do you have a multimeter? Even a cheapo will do the job.

You do have everything on that circuit unplugged right? That means the fault is in the homes hardwired receptacles or maybe something like a ceiling fan or lighting that is on that same circuit. If any of those items is faulty it could be whats tripping the breaker. You say the problem just started happening, like out of nowhere? If thats the case then I really would want to eliminate all devices by unplugging them because the homes wiring was working fine.

If you find the first receptacle on that circuit you could disconnect the hot wires from it (black ones) then leave them so they aren't touching anything and then see if the breaker will reset. If it does then you can use the meter to test and see what one of the black wires is the live one (put one probe on the ground and the other on each black wire one at a time. Still with me? So now we know we are getting power that far and the fault is further down the chain. Turn off the breaker and reconnect those wires. Then find the next receptacle and pull it, and do the same. Sooner or later you will find the fault. I would have all of the receptacles on that circuit pulled and only re-stuff the boxes once the problem is pin pointed and fixed. Since the circuit is off it will be easy to find the involved receptacles.

Just get in there, get your hands dirty and start eliminating stuff. Remember to always treat any wires as live until you have tested them with a meter (one probe on ground, other to test wires for voltage). I don't like those little blinky power probes, ya know the little $4 ones that beep and flash when you put the tip by a live wire or receptacle. They often go off for no reason at all lol. A buddy didn't believe me and I took his Klein and stuck the end on my hand and it went off. lol

When working do remember that even if your breaker is off you could find voltage on the neutral. A loaded neutral is not fun to touch lol. Working with some dry leather gloves will make sure you can pull receptacles and not worry. Remember the right hand only, lefty in pocket.

I like to take a roll of electrical tape and after wiring up a side wire receptacle I will wrap tape around the receptacle covering the lugs on both sides. This helps make sure that when you stuff it all back in the box your ground won't end up touching a hot lug causing a short that would instantly trip a breaker. Of course it's always wise to visually inspect and make sure the ground is back out of the way. It's just something that I do, a signature of my work.

If you go down the line of receptacles on that circuit and keep disconnecting the hots and trying to reset the breaker, you can eventually find out where the problem is.
 
I did that with 220volts , was working 1 handed I thought when I felt a tingle go into my left hand
I realized I had grab a copper water pipe with my right after slipping and WHAMO................right through my chest and out the other arm
I had to kick away to break free . I got lucky but yrs later I know what most likely caused my heart flutter .
I don't touch power head wires any longer. I still will change a breaker and run a new line.
BE CAREFUL Please
 
BigBadAbe said:
BE CAREFUL Please
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Yeah being sober, patient and thoughtful is highly advisable throughout this process.

Wearing some gloves is always wise. Wearing safety glasses is advisable because if a live wire hits a metal box or whatever the resulting arc can throw molten copper in your eye and so I always wear goggles when working with live wires. I hate when some wannabe sparky puts 4 or 5 neutrals in a wire nut in some ceiling box usually and didn't properly twist the conductors together with electricians pliers first. You unscrew the wire nut to change out a light fixture and all the wires explode in all directions smh.

xtsho said:

:bigjoint:
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I can accept payment via a square account lol. No cheap lodging. I wonder what the airline would think about my tool bag.
 
Apalchen said:
How many amps is your grow pulling, remember the bulk of it is only 12 hours a day. I'm pretty sure they make something that lets you divert power from your dryer circuit. You would just have to do your laundry on the 12 hours your lights are off.
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Thats how i have my little shop is split with the dryer. it works but my old lady hates it. at some point I will up grade my power and get a dedicated 40 amp to the shop in the back.
 
Renfro said:
Yeah being sober, patient and thoughtful is highly advisable throughout this process.

Wearing some gloves is always wise. Wearing safety glasses is advisable because if a live wire hits a metal box or whatever the resulting arc can throw molten copper in your eye and so I always wear goggles when working with live wires. I hate when some wannabe sparky puts 4 or 5 neutrals in a wire nut in some ceiling box usually and didn't properly twist the conductors together with electricians pliers first. You unscrew the wire nut to change out a light fixture and all the wires explode in all directions smh.


I can accept payment via a square account lol. No cheap lodging. I wonder what the airline would think about my tool bag.
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I used to fly with a tool bag all the time. Just have to check it. I did usually find one of those notices of baggage inspection from the TSA inside after each flight.
 
Man I can’t believe we are twelve pages in and i honestly do not believe I can fix this problem. I expected to change that outlet and bam fire back up. No go unfortunately. With my lack of knowledge, that’s as far as I’m comfortable going and that was a stretch.

a quick story why electricity turned me off. You whizzes in here may find this funny.
So I was in I guess 10th grade or so, in shop class or something, went to the bathroom to pee, and I’m used to turning the light off as I leave a bathroom. So I tried to flip switch and it wouldn’t go down. I was like hm. The cover was off the switch, I reached inside for some reason and pinch the inside of the switch and got absolutely zooted. It’s weird electricity. Felt like an eternity, but at the same time I had enough brains then to think hmmmm I’m getting shocked and I cannot move my right side. The exactly right side of my body was perfectly juiced. Somehow I thought to take my left hand, and smack my right hand off the light switch. It worked. Hair was standing up and everything on my head. Scared the shit out of me.
 
Moabfighter said:
Man I can’t believe we are twelve pages in and i honestly do not believe I can fix this problem. I expected to change that outlet and bam fire back up. No go unfortunately. With my lack of knowledge, that’s as far as I’m comfortable going and that was a stretch.

a quick story why electricity turned me off. You whizzes in here may find this funny.
So I was in I guess 10th grade or so, in shop class or something, went to the bathroom to pee, and I’m used to turning the light off as I leave a bathroom. So I tried to flip switch and it wouldn’t go down. I was like hm. The cover was off the switch, I reached inside for some reason and pinch the inside of the switch and got absolutely zooted. It’s weird electricity. Felt like an eternity, but at the same time I had enough brains then to think hmmmm I’m getting shocked and I cannot move my right side. The exactly right side of my body was perfectly juiced. Somehow I thought to take my left hand, and smack my right hand off the light switch. It worked. Hair was standing up and everything on my head. Scared the shit out of me.
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Wellllll... At least you now know what NOT to do!
 
Moabfighter said:
Man I can’t believe we are twelve pages in and i honestly do not believe I can fix this problem. I expected to change that outlet and bam fire back up. No go unfortunately. With my lack of knowledge, that’s as far as I’m comfortable going and that was a stretch.

a quick story why electricity turned me off. You whizzes in here may find this funny.
So I was in I guess 10th grade or so, in shop class or something, went to the bathroom to pee, and I’m used to turning the light off as I leave a bathroom. So I tried to flip switch and it wouldn’t go down. I was like hm. The cover was off the switch, I reached inside for some reason and pinch the inside of the switch and got absolutely zooted. It’s weird electricity. Felt like an eternity, but at the same time I had enough brains then to think hmmmm I’m getting shocked and I cannot move my right side. The exactly right side of my body was perfectly juiced. Somehow I thought to take my left hand, and smack my right hand off the light switch. It worked. Hair was standing up and everything on my head. Scared the shit out of me.
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That was very likely a 277 volt lighting circuit. Not fun.
 
One quick question Moab- do you have an outside light that is not working? One that is in the weather, and could be getting wet? Fast and easy to check. Do all of the lights come on? Beyond that question, I defer to Renfro..... He knows his shit, as we all know....
 
xtsho said:
Years ago while working in a food production factory some guy was fiddling with a 480 volt plug for some industrial equipment. The floor was wet and he got zapped pretty good. They took him away in an ambulance.
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Yeah 480 volt power is not a joke. 480 volts leg to leg and 277 leg to neutral. In some parts of Canada they run a lot of 347/600 volt power. Once place I worked at in the 90's manufactured food processing equipment and we had a 100kVA transformer (480 to 600 volt) setup for testing equipment built for the 600v three phase power. Really makes good sense for large industrial motor loads and such, more voltage means lighter gauge wire to get the same watts/horsepower. When you have heavy motor loads that require massive gauge wire or several parallel conductors that 600 volt system can really save some copper.
 
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