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1. I have never seen a 10 amp breaker, or fuse for that matter.
2. I have seen bad breakers. Arc fault breakers had a known defect and failed all the time. GFCI breakers also fail quite often. I have also seen many regular breakers fail. Some have the internal spring break, some melt down (usually from an overload situation, or loose connections). I consider a breaker that quits working a failure, not matter what caused it to quit working.
My point was breakers themselves don't go bad by themselves when installed properly. There is an outside source causing them to go bad. Unqualified people will check the breaker operation and confirm it's bad then simply put a new breaker in and that is wrong. You need to find out what caused the breaker to fail and fix that and replace the breaker.
But obviously some dud breakers leave the factory just like any other product. Most of my work is residential service and rarely the breaker is bad it's usually the circuit itself. I have worked in hundreds of homes in my career.
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.
I had this happen to me. Over-the-oven microwave kept tripping the breaker on a dedicated 20A circuit. Replaced the breaker and it kept doing it. Replaced the aging microwave with a combo microwave/convection oven and it's never tripped since.
I never said they don't go bad but in residential it is not common. It's more common in commercial and industrial. How do you "see" worn out breakers? Do you cut them open?
Breakers themselves don't fail something causes them to fail like the panel itself or improper installation of the circuit breaker in the first place. Circuit breakers are designed to handle thousands of operating cycles.
p.s. unless we are talking about zinsco or fed pacific breakers that's a different story
Someone is being purposely obtuse when they ask me have I SEEN a bad breaker. Of course I am implying that I have come across quite a few thermal breaker that test bad.
The deforming contacts in a thermal breaker are calibrated very precisely. At or above a very specific amount of current, enough of a heating effect will occur effect...causing the contacts to deform and open. When contacts and the conduct-area that they are connect to get old and worn.....the amount of resistance changes and the amount of current required to heat/open said contact goes down. In Electronics this is known as IsquaredR-losses ((I * I) * R = Power)......electrical power is converted to heat energy and contacts open.
Increased electrical resistance is a common phenomenon in most electrical and electronic devices.
My point was breakers themselves don't go bad by themselves when installed properly. There is an outside source causing them to go bad. Unqualified people will check the breaker operation and confirm it's bad then simply put a new breaker in and that is wrong. You need to find out what caused the breaker to fail and fix that and replace the breaker.
But obviously some dud breakers leave the factory just like any other product. Most of my work is residential service and rarely the breaker is bad it's usually the circuit itself. I have worked in hundreds of homes in my career.
Eddie, I have been a home inspector for over 25 years (close to 10,000 inspections), and I can tell you I have seen lots of failed breakers that were installed correctly, and just failed. My example of GFCI or arc fault breakers lead the pack. I have also seen many breakers that were installed correctly fail when the internal spring has broken.
Breakers and other OCPDs can and do "wear out" and lose their rating.... here is a nice short publication about trouble shooting http://content.amprobe.com/appnotes/...cuit_lores.pdf
Troubleshoot and do a load analysis before you decide to add a circuit or circuits
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