Breaker keeps tripping! Have checked a bunch, what am I missing?

[infinkc]

My garage breaker keeps tripping and it’s driving me nuts. It trips about ever other day.

I have changed the breaker. Gfci breaker, not arc fault.

Unplugged everything off the circuit, disconnected the ground, hot, neutral from the panel. No excess resistance in the wires.

What else can cause this?

I don’t have much plugged in, laptop, garage opener, battery chargers. Nowhere near the 20a draw.

Think when I took an amp meter I was pulling like 5a.

 

[LXCam]

Well your garage door opener is the only thing on your list that would also have a ground attached. You might try unplugging it for a few days. But I also question why you have a 5amp draw. Have you confirmed there is zero draw with everything unplugged?

 

[justsam]

You need to determine if it is tripping from excessive current draw or from a ground fault. You stated you measured the disconnected wires for excessive resistance, not sure how you did that but what you want to do is to make sure the resistance is infinite from any of the disconnected wire pairings, one to the other. You need to do this when there is nothing plugged into the branch circuit.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

change the GFCI breaker for a regular breaker and see if it trips. if it does then you know its either excess current or a line fault. if it doesnt trip then you know its a ground fault

 

[chinboys]

You have an intermittent short somewhere after the tripping breaker.
Troubleshoot it by dividing the whole circuit by half. The front half from the back half.
Or isolate each segment of the circuit and ohm the hot lines to itself and to the neutral and ground lines with no power on it.

 

[BrandonV]

Pull every receptacle that is powered off the breaker and do an inspection.

9/10 times I find the culprit there. Last one was an "addition" external receptacle that was about 50% filled with mud.

 

[luvtheheat]

I wired my new garage last year. I bought a couple GE 20 AMP GFCI single pole breakers for two outlet runs. Constantly tripping even with zero load. Long story short, both were bad (despite being brand new) and I ended up putting two GFCI outlets at the start of each of the two runs. GE panel, THQL breakers.

 

[infinkc]

Well your garage door opener is the only thing on your list that would also have a ground attached. You might try unplugging it for a few days. But I also question why you have a 5amp draw. Have you confirmed there is zero draw with everything unplugged?

Yea zero draw when I unplugged everything

 

[infinkc]

You need to determine if it is tripping from excessive current draw or from a ground fault. You stated you measured the disconnected wires for excessive resistance, not sure how you did that but what you want to do is to make sure the resistance is infinite from any of the disconnected wire pairings, one to the other. You need to do this when there is nothing plugged into the branch circuit.

That’s what I did, unplugged everything, and measured the ohm between each. Everything was in the mega ohms.

 

[micromind]

In my opinion, working mostly with GE commercial/industrial stuff, GE has gone downhill a lot in the last 20 years, even more so in the last 5 years.

For example, about 3 years ago, I installed a GE MCC (Motor Control Center). This is a metal cabinet 90" high, 15" deep and this one was about 120" long. It has busses in the back and plug-in 'buckets' that contain starters for 3 phase motors. Easy to install, easy to service but lotsa $$$.

This one was built to NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) standards. Regardless of who the manufacturer is, NEMA motor starters come in various sizes, based on how many HP they will handle. One of these is size 2. This will start and stop a 25 HP 3 phase motor operating at 480 volts. It has a continuous current rating of 45 amps plus a service limit of 52 amps. More than 52 amps and it'll burn up.

This MCC had several size 2 starters installed at the factory. The nameplate on each starter stated max 25HP and max current 135 amps!

135 amps is the max current for a size 4 starter and is rated for 100 HP.

I don't understand how a company the size of GE can make a mistake that stupid........Wait, I do understand; get rid of the high cost experienced engineers and replace them with a bunch of college-educated idiots who know next to nothing about what they're doing. Even better if these new and lower cost engineers come equipped with large egos.......

It doesn't surprise me that a GE GFI would fail, even right out of the box.

 

[BillK]

It doesn't surprise me that a GE GFI would fail, even right out of the box.

I dont see where he mentioned the brand of breaker ??

 

[BillK]

Are you absolutely sure there is nothing else on the circuit ? Maybe an outside light etc ? The circuit feeding my attached garage also feeds two outside lights.

What is on the breaker directly next to that one ? Maybe switch them for a trial if they are the same size.

 

[Jim greengo]

Is garage attached or unattached?

 

[cleason]

In my opinion, working mostly with GE commercial/industrial stuff, GE has gone downhill a lot in the last 20 years, even more so in the last 5 years.

For example, about 3 years ago, I installed a GE MCC (Motor Control Center). This is a metal cabinet 90" high, 15" deep and this one was about 120" long. It has busses in the back and plug-in 'buckets' that contain starters for 3 phase motors. Easy to install, easy to service but lotsa $$$.

This one was built to NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) standards. Regardless of who the manufacturer is, NEMA motor starters come in various sizes, based on how many HP they will handle. One of these is size 2. This will start and stop a 25 HP 3 phase motor operating at 480 volts. It has a continuous current rating of 45 amps plus a service limit of 52 amps. More than 52 amps and it'll burn up.

This MCC had several size 2 starters installed at the factory. The nameplate on each starter stated max 25HP and max current 135 amps!

135 amps is the max current for a size 4 starter and is rated for 100 HP.

I don't understand how a company the size of GE can make a mistake that stupid........Wait, I do understand; get rid of the high cost experienced engineers and replace them with a bunch of college-educated idiots who know next to nothing about what they're doing. Even better if these new and lower cost engineers come equipped with large egos.......

It doesn't surprise me that a GE GFI would fail, even right out of the box.

 

[cleason]

Garbage electric for the last thirty years(ge). I found out new gfis won’t hold refrigerators. Don’t know about door openers, used to be didn’t have to be on gfi. Only problem I have is when lighting strikes near my house. Half my gfi recep. trip. Also in the old days cutler hammer gfi breakers **** out with a close lighting strike.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Yea zero draw when I unplugged everything

unless you have milliamp clamp meter you wont be able to see the kind of draw that a GFCI will trip at (4ma-6ma)

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Garbage electric for the last thirty years(ge). I found out new gfis won’t hold refrigerators. Don’t know about door openers, used to be didn’t have to be on gfi. Only problem I have is when lighting strikes near my house. Half my gfi recep. trip. Also in the old days cutler hammer gfi breakers **** out with a close lighting strike.

because the fridge has a broken defrost bulb

 

[Sumboodie]

Had the same issue last week, ended up being a 3 way splitter plug feeding a few things outside. It was arcing and got hot enough to melt it and carbon it up a bit.

Not sure what failed to cause it. 15 amp rated and maybe 5 amps on it.

 

[micromind]

I dont see where he mentioned the brand of breaker ??

Post #7.

 

[mm08822]

Post #7 is not the OP.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Post #7.

Try again

 

[BillK]

Post #7.

That is not the original poster. It is someone else making a comment.

 

[infinkc]

change the GFCI breaker for a regular breaker and see if it trips. if it does then you know its either excess current or a line fault. if it doesnt trip then you know its a ground fault

Have a regular breaker in now as the GFCi one tripped multiple times a day. So far zero trips.

I will just be installing GFCI outlets in the spots that I may plug in something that may go outside and the one near the sink.

 

[walta]

It seems very unlikely that the breaker was tripping for over current.

Consider putting in the effort to find and fix the real fault in this circuit. The breaker is tripping because there is a fault present and the fault could kill someone. Yes you could put in a non GFI breaker and several GFI outlets and be code compliant but the fault still exists and someone could still get shocked.

First, I would swap the GFI breaker with a different one in the panel to rule it out.

Second, connect only first outlet and disconnect all 3 wires leading to the next outlet and run it until you are certain that part of the circuit is good. Only then connect the second and disconnect all 3 wires leading to the next and repeat until it starts tripping. And eliminate possibilities until you are certain it is this outlet or that leigh of wire.

It will not be fast or easy but it is the right way to fix it and you will sleep better once you are sure it is 100% safe.

Walta