2 pole breaker

[Traxman]

Hello everyone. New to the forums here and I hope this is the place to ask questions so..

I have a detached garage, I lost power to the garage a couple days ago. I go check the breakers and nothing is flipped. Now the power comes from a 50 amp 2 pole breaker in the breaker panel in my house. I checked the breaker and I am getting 122 volts on both legs.

I go to the garage and the power from the house panel goes to a 50 amp 2 pole breaker in the garage breaker box. I checked those poles and one seemed dead. Well I have a ton of breakers and such from other houses and projects and found 3 matching GE breakers. Needless to say I have tried them all and still have no power to that one pole.

I am no electrician, pipefitter by trade, but I am lost on this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kd3pc]

wire has been compromised between the garage and the house...or a "splice" somewhere opened up...how old is the run, is it in conduit?

Details about losing power the first time a few days ago?

 

[rockwithjason]

what he said

 

[Zeke]

+3. You need to disconnect the wires and run a continuity test. One way is to tie the wires together in the garage and test at the house with a meter. If it's open, you won't see a reading. If open, look along the line for J boxes and check there.

Make sure the power is off and wires can't touch anything hot. Check all wires for any back feed with a voltage tester before tying them together.

 

[Traxman]

Thanks so much for the replys. I got busy and just now got a chance to reply. I somewhat suspected it may be in the wire and I was afraid of that. I won't get a chance to check the wire until tomorrow but I honestly can't tell you how the wiring gets from the house to the garage. I can't see it being anywhere but under the concrete. If that is the problem then a new set of wires may be very difficult to run out there.

The power has never been a problem until it went out here recently. I have owned tbe home for 8 years and unless all power goes out the garage has always been fine.

I will get a continiuty test on it tomorrow and report back.

Thanks again everyone..

 

[wyliesdiesels]

What type of wire is it? Is it in conduit? I agree with the others, the wire has a break in it!

 

[tgb]

If its aluminum wire lots of time they will burn the ends off or loosen up real bad at the breakers. You said you checked voltage and changed breakers but where did you change the breaker on the house side or garage side.

 

[Traxman]

Changed the breakers on both sides sctually. The wire is copper and the ends look good. I believe the previous owner just run conduit under the concrete from the house to the garage. Everything else is in the walls. I believe it goes straight down out of each box underground.

I would think that it has a break in it. It rained all day today so I didn't mess with it and as long as don't work late tomorrow I will run a continuity test on it then.

 

[Traxman]

Ok I asked an electrician at work today and from what I told him he seems to think I lost a common on one of my breakers. He said that is a likely problem otherwise it may have a damaged wire.

He suggested I test both 2 pole breakers (the one in the house that feeds the garage and the one in the garage. He told me that:

Pole A - ground = 120 v
Pole B - ground = 120 v
Pole A - Pole B = 240 v

So I tested the breaker in the house and got those results. I went to the breaker in the garage and the first test Pole A - Pole B fried the tip of my probe.

I shut the breaker off in the house until I could get an answer to this. I am guessing I lost my ground in the garage. Am I close on this or do I have another problem?

 

[theoldwizard1]

Please follow up. I'd curious what caused your probe tips to be fried !

(Your electrician buddy is right on !)

 

[rlitman]

... the first test Pole A - Pole B fried the tip of my probe...

That can only happen if either your meter was not set to read voltage (did the knob get set to read resistance or current?) or if your probe tip touched two different things and shorted them.

 

[Traxman]

I am 100% positive the meter was set at 600v. Absolutely no doubt there.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Ok I asked an electrician at work today and from what I told him he seems to think I lost a common on one of my breakers. He said that is a likely problem otherwise it may have a damaged wire.

He suggested I test both 2 pole breakers (the one in the house that feeds the garage and the one in the garage. He told me that:

Pole A - ground = 120 v
Pole B - ground = 120 v
Pole A - Pole B = 240 v

So I tested the breaker in the house and got those results. I went to the breaker in the garage and the first test Pole A - Pole B fried the tip of my probe.

I shut the breaker off in the house until I could get an answer to this. I am guessing I lost my ground in the garage. Am I close on this or do I have another problem?

If your garage has a 4-wire feed, then a lost EGC/ground wouldnt cause your issue. If u have a 3-wire feed, then u dont have a ground and instead could have lost your neutral.

So do u have a 3-wire or 4-wire feed? Either way, u should be testing from hot to neutral.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

OP- what did u end up doing with this?