Amp tripping circuit breaker.

magneplanman OP1 posts

12-10-2019 11:44am

One thing I forgot to mention - the reason I suspected the amp is because it’s own protection was tripping earlier in the summer, often immediately when powering from a cold start. It ended up going away. Only thing I can think of that made the problem go away, was I went from having the thermostat set at 76 to 72, which definitely reduced the indoor humidity.

Now that’s more info. The breaker on the rear panel is a magnetic type breaker. If it was tripping that could indicate either a short circuit or very high inrush current when the Amp is first turned on. Repeated tripping and you repeatedly resetting it was a bad idea. You may have caused the contacts of the breaker to weld, fuse, themselves together preventing the breaker from tripping open. It looks from what I can tell the breaker is a 15 amp.

Now you are causing a 20 amp breaker to trip from a possible short circuit or high inrush current. I suggest you have the Amp checked out.

Repeatedly resetting a circuit breaker in an electrical panel can be dangerous. I know of an instance where a 20 amp Square D QO circuit breaker exploded and burned the fingers and hand of an electrician.


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The AFCI part can trip based on modest ground currents.

AFCI is Arc Fault. GFCI is Ground Fault. They are completely different. One is an arc that can be a fire hazard. The other is more a nuisance (when it trips) than a risk.

Long story short, the breaker only trips when the amp is plugged in, with statistical certainty.  Unknown if it matters if amp is on or not.

If it happens with the amp plugged in and turned off there is a statistical certainty its not the amp.

 the reason I suspected the amp is because it’s own protection was tripping earlier in the summer, often immediately when powering from a cold start.

And yet this did not trip the breaker. This is what we call a "clue".

It ended up going away.

So the amp was a Walker?

Only thing I can think of that made the problem go away, was I went from having the thermostat set at 76 to 72, which definitely reduced the indoor humidity.

Fascinating.

Call in an electrician. The breaker may be doing its job, that is, there could be an arc fault somewhere in the circuit. Did you nail anything to a wall over that time period?

I had a breaker fail once and (after shutting off the main power switch) I simply removed it, took it to Home Depot to make sure I bought the right replacement...installed it in a few minutes. Done.

@OP

By chance is the electrical panel/ AFCI breaker in the panel a Square D type? By chance does it have a white test push button? If so it is a CAFI AFCI and you can test whether the breaker is tripping on over load or short circuit,  or,  if it is tripping on arc fault.

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8exWpipJY

Here is another Link for a square D CAFI AFCI breaker. Click on the first video on the left hand side of the page.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-Homeline-20-Amp-Single-Pole-Combination-Arc-Fault-Circuit-Break...


*Do not attempt to change out the breaker yourself... Hire an electrician.