hard rain trips breaker help plz

[silver78]

New to the site. Some good info here so I thought I'd ask this.
I live in TX so not much rain, but when we get a good storm one of my 15amp breakers will trip. The circuit has a gfci outlet too. I've looked for water damage around the breaker box but none is evident.
So what should I be looking for as the cause?
thnx

 

[G_P]

What does that breaker power? Seems like water is getting somewhere it should not and shorting. If it powers an outside outlet or light it should be pretty easy to find the problem.

 

[Mustang51js]

Did you open up the gfi outlet outside. Any post lights outside,and did you take the cover off panel to see if water is coming in, where in panel is the breaker located,top,middle or bottom

 

[silver78]

There is a 110v outlet outside with cover installed but did not check it. I removed the breaker box panel and all appears dry with no evidence of water entry, the breaker that is triping is at the bottom of the column of breakers.

 

[p_mori7]

Where is the panel located ? Inside or outside ?

When the breaker is tripped, does the exterior outlet work or not ?

 

[justsam]

Typically a 15 Amp circuit is a lighting circuit. I would look for issues in light fixtures.

The fact that a 15 Amp circuit breaker is tripping yet not the GFI, I would also expect the issue to be ahead of the GFI. If there is water intrusion to the level that a 15Amp breaker is tripping, I would also expect there to be at least a 5mA neutral to line imbalance such that a GFI would trip, if it were in the circuit. That of course assumes there are outlets or fixtures downstream of the GFI.

Was this outdoor outlet installed after the initial wiring was done? Rain, and outdoor outlet sound like a probable cause.

 

[silver78]

Gonna check the outside outlet tomorrow. I bet I find the problem there. The house is 12 years old and I believe the outlet is original to the house.

 

[yeldogt]

So you have a standard 15 amp breaker tripping? Or is it a 15amp GFI breaker -- or one of the new ones. If it is a GFI breaker -- any of the outside outlets could be doing it. Even with the proper cover they eventually leak and the outlets corrode - I have replaced almost all of mine put in around 2000.

I have seen wet panels where none of the standard breakers trip -- why would they. It was a huge problem on pools years ago.

 

[HGHvoltage98]

Is the exterior of the house brick? I had a service call to a house one time about a patio door shocking the owner. It only happened after hard rains. Finally figured out a brick tie nail had been driven into a wire in the wall, bricks would be conductive when saturated.

 

[elcom]

Old thread, but I seem to have developed a similar problem; interestingly also in Texas.

I have a breaker that sometimes (but not reliably) trips when it rains.
I don't see any water in the panel (outdoor, front of house).

I did have a shower leak and a roof leak in the same area (back of the house, second floor) repaired recently.
The breaker is powering the first floor (lights, TV, etc.).

Seems unlikely that the wire would be run from the ground-level outdoor panel on the front of the house, up to the second floor and then down to the first floor.

There are some outdoor lights on that circuit under the eaves; like a small covered porch where the second floor extends a few feet beyond the first floor. No obvious leak around those lights, but perhaps I need to take the recessed lights apart to check more carefully after a rain trips the breaker.

House built in 1994. I suspect that the breaker is original.

Question: can a bad breaker in a humid environment be the cause, or does it have to be a short in a light fixture, outlet or wiring?

In other words, is it worth replacing the breaker as a relatively cheap test?

Thanks!

 

[Zeke]

Or swap breakers like for like temporarily. You don't want to guess and just buy a new breaker. Buying a new breaker is not a bad thing, but you first want to know that's what it is. Otherwise, maybe new breaker and no progress.

 

[Showkey]

Coastal Texas is well known for home wiring problems……..heat, humidity and salt air= the trifecta of corrosion.

Replaced every outdoor outlet, outlet cover, surface mount outlet box, switch, fixture, all the wiring to out building and dozen breakers in my daughter’s home in Corpus.
Water leaking in corroded boxes is very common.
Water leaking in outlet boxes mount in brick is also common.

 

[American Locomotive]

Check the weatherhead and meter box or service entrance. A friend of mine had the same issue. Turns out the seal where the wire went into his meter box was bad. Rain water would get into the meter box, run down the conduit going into the house and drip water on the breakers. Took forever to figure it out.