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I just bought a house. When i'm in the kitchen cooking, and need to use the over the range, pre-installed microwave, it trips the circuit and ALL the lights in both the living room and kitchen go out, including the stove. I can only use the microwave when all lights in the first floor are out and the stove is OFF. This--to say the least---doesn't work for me. The inspection did not find this fault which is annoying to me because obviously something is weirdly wired here and could cost me a lot of money.
Question: How do I not go broke over fixing this? The circuit breaker is outside in a little utility closet and the switch says "Lighting" instead of "Kitchen" which doesn't make sense. I'm CONFUSED. I am a Spanish teacher, not an electrician, and my knowledge of circuit boxes is if it's orange, flip it back and forth until it comes back on...
HELP~!!!
It seems that the circuit is already overloaded (lights, oven, and so on). As others have said, have an electrician power the microwave oven from another circuit.
Good advice above and I'll add that since you just purchased the home, you might have recourse to the seller and home inspector to remedy this. The inspection should have caught this.
Why would the inspector have run the microwave? Unless s/he was psychic, how would s/he have known to turn all the lights on and fire up the oven?
Another possibility is the microwave has a problem or the branch circuit itself shorting out causing the breaker to trip. It only trips under a load which is not uncommon. Either way the electrician will know what to check and the best way to remedy the problem. Tapping off of another circuit if it's an overload situation is not recommended. Run a new DEDICATED circuit from the panel to the microwave. Tapping off of another circuit will most likely cause the same issue you have now.
Also a lot of microwave manufacturers spec a 15 or 20 amp dedicated circuit.
Last edited by eddie1278; 10-03-2014 at 09:22 PM..
Another possibility is the microwave has a problem or the branch circuit itself shorting out causing the breaker to trip. It only trips under a load which is not uncommon. Either way the electrician will know what to check and the best way to remedy the problem. Tapping off of another circuit if it's an overload situation is not recommended. Run a new DEDICATED circuit from the panel to the microwave. Tapping off of another circuit will most likely cause the same issue you have now.
Also a lot of microwave manufacturers spec a 15 or 20 amp dedicated circuit.
I second the above post.
You MAY have a bad microwave that is tripping the circuit. I would try switching this micro to a different branch-circuit and see if it throws the breaker.
You could also have a faulty circuit breaker. Most thermally activated circuit breakers can and do go bad after a certain number of service hours. Manually-resettable thermal-breakers work by latching-open bimetallic contacts when a certain amount of current is run through the contacts. These bimetallic contacts eventually develop more electrical resistance as they age........dropping power on the contacts, this equates to heat and opens the contacts.
As a home inspector, we will test a microwave. However, my normal testing procedure is not to have all the lights one and the oven on all at the same time. The lights may be one, and the oven may be on, but its not a specific part of the inspection procedure to have everything thing on at the same time.
It is outside the scope of the inspection to determine what all is on a specific circuit.
Like others have said, it may be a fluke that the microwave just started acting up recently. I have had at least three occasions this year alone where the microwave tested fine during the inspection, but went bad after the people moved in. I give my clients a short term warranty on the appliances, so I see when these claims come in. Two of the microwaves were new in flip homes, and worked for a while after they moved in, but quit after a short time.
I think its funny how some people want to throw inspectors under the bus so quickly.
You MAY have a bad microwave that is tripping the circuit.
Wires for lighting usually have a smaller gauge wire and subsequently a smaller breaker, it's probably a 10 amp breaker. You multiply amps * voltage to get wattage so 120 volts and 10 amp breaker is good for 1200 watts which is right in the range most microwaves are,that's why it will work with no lights on.
Wires for lighting usually have a smaller gauge wire and subsequently a smaller breaker, it's probably a 10 amp breaker. You multiply amps * voltage to get wattage so 120 volts and 10 amp breaker is good for 1200 watts which is right in the range most microwaves are,that's why it will work with no lights on.
Extremely rare to find a 10 amp breaker in a house. I have been an electrician for roughly 15 years now and worked in tons of homes in PA and NJ and I never once saw a 10 amp breaker. But not totally ruled out I've seen many strange things in homes but never a 10 amp breaker.
Wires for lighting usually have a smaller gauge wire and subsequently a smaller breaker, it's probably a 10 amp breaker. You multiply amps * voltage to get wattage so 120 volts and 10 amp breaker is good for 1200 watts which is right in the range most microwaves are,that's why it will work with no lights on.
A 10 amp breaker, hum, that is going way back.....I rarely see those. I would base my troubleshooting on facts......test possibilities to narrow down EXACTLY what is wrong.
Another possibility is the microwave has a problem or the branch circuit itself shorting out causing the breaker to trip. It only trips under a load which is not uncommon. Either way the electrician will know what to check and the best way to remedy the problem. Tapping off of another circuit if it's an overload situation is not recommended. Run a new DEDICATED circuit from the panel to the microwave. Tapping off of another circuit will most likely cause the same issue you have now.
Also a lot of microwave manufacturers spec a 15 or 20 amp dedicated circuit.
Extremely rare to find a 10 amp breaker in a house. I have been an electrician for roughly 15 years now and worked in tons of homes in PA and NJ and I never once saw a 10 amp breaker. But not totally ruled out I've seen many strange things in homes but never a 10 amp breaker.
Even with the 15 amp you're only up to 1800 watts which is plenty until you throw a 1000 to 1200 watt microwave into the mix.
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Good points.
