New A/C tripping 30A breaker

[jack bacon]

New Bryant Central A/C installed last summer and now this year it is tripping the breaker every couple of hours. Had the installing company out and they installed a new 30A breaker didn't say what the operating load was. It still trips!

Can we install a 40A breaker if the wiring is #8? Nothing has disturbed the wiring in the house at all.

Any ideas folks?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[acmikee]

bigger breaker wont solve your problem only hide it. check the name plate FLA. how many tons is it. you need to check your voltage and your amps. tighten the lugs in the panel and disconnect. look for burnt wires in the disconnect and control panel.

 

[Jsf721]

Both my central AC units are on dedicated 40amp circuits.

 

[BillK]

Both my central AC units are on dedicated 40amp circuits.

That does not mean a thing. It depends on the size of the unit. Mine is on a 30 amp circuit and has been since the house was built in 1978. New unit about 10 years ago, same 30 amp circuit.

 

[pattenp]

You need to verify the specs on the unit and see what the manufacture says about the required circuit size. If 30A is the required size then you obviously have a different problem than a bad breaker.

 

[justsam]

Hard too imagine they would go to the trouble of replacing the breaker, and not put a clamp on meter on the wire to confirm the unit is not drawing excessive current.

Do not increase breaker size even if wiring will support it. It worked before with a 30Amp, installer needs to figure out what changed.

 

[alpinewhite]

Very unlikely but you could have a faulty breaker (no pun intended)

 

[tylernt]

I believe there are two kinds of breaker.

The most common is the magnetic or instant-trip. That's what you see for sale in big box stores and what is normally installed in residential 99% of the time.

But I believe you can special-order (or an dedicated electrical supply house may stock) an "inverse time" breaker. The Inverse Time breaker will let the A/C draw more than 30A for a few minutes when starting up to avoid nuisance tripping. But the breaker will still trip to protect the wiring from overheating if this goes on for too long.

As previously mentioned, do NOT oversize the breaker. Oversizing can lead to fire.

 

[Jsf721]

OK then, just trying to help by stating a fact.

That does not mean a thing. It depends on the size of the unit. Mine is on a 30 amp circuit and has been since the house was built in 1978. New unit about 10 years ago, same 30 amp circuit.

 

[east_tn_emc]

Quite simply if it has been installed and working fine for a year with a 30-amp breaker, then either the existing breaker has gone bad (which it has been replaced now, so that likely isnt the problem) or there is a problem inside the unit.

A competent A/C tech should be able to figure out where the problem is. Perhaps the compressor is going, or the fan is going? Like others have said, check the connections in the disconnect and going into the unit.

 

[samert111]

Possibly the compressor or fan motor (Hard start) capacitor is going bad. It's a $10 part you can buy at any electrical supply house that alot of people overlook as the problem to a motor not starting, starting slowly or tripping breakers.

 

[brewchief]

How about a pic of the unit nameplate?

 

[Montysmith]

the wiring or maybe earthing are the main problems to this tripping. better to contact the service center for this thing

 

[CNGsaves]

This is warranty work by Bryant . . . right??

How many trip attempts has the original vendor attempted to fix this??

 

[Mike007]

The max fuse/breaker size and type will be on the name plate. The type is most like HACR. Check that and compare it to the breaker. It wouldn't surprise me for a second if it turned out to be faulty breakers. It's quite common these days I'm told by my electrician.

 

[Ohmthis]

The breakers sold at big box store are inverse-time breakers. It means that the higher the amp draw the faster they trip. An insta-trip breaker has a dial on it to "dial" in the point of over current. Invers-time breakers are nice for motor loads where they can handle the inrush current. It can be several things from dirty coils, bad connections, low charge, the wrong size breaker, to bad componets. Have the service company come out and stay until it's fixed.

 

[Milton Shaw]

Also check to make sure the unit is not short cycling. This means turning off and then back on before the compressor pressures have equalized. This creates a very hard start for the compressor and would trip breakers. Mine has a 5 minute delay on it so that it will not restart if the power blinks for instance.