Why Your Breaker Keeps Tripping

A breaker opens to cut an overload, a short circuit, or a ground fault. Resetting it is fine once, after you unplug what you just turned on. It is not fine if the breaker trips again right away, feels hot, smells like burning, or the handle will not stay on. At that point the circuit is telling you the fault is still there. Leave it off. See emergency electrician if you have sparks, smoke, or a burning smell: leave and call 911 first.

• Overload

  Too many watts on one circuit. Space heater plus hair dryer, or a window AC on a lighting circuit, are classic. The breaker trips after minutes of use, not instantly. Unplug loads on that circuit and try again. If it holds with almost nothing plugged in, you found the overload. Move the extra load to another circuit, or have us add a dedicated one.

• Short circuit

  A hot conductor touching neutral or ground. The breaker trips instantly, often with a pop. A damaged cord, a failing appliance, or a nail through a cable can do it. Unplug everything on the circuit. If it still trips with nothing plugged in, the fault is in the wiring or a device in the wall. Stop. That is electrician work. If you saw a flash, or a plug, cord, or outlet has scorch marks, do not reset it at all.

• Ground fault

  Current leaking to ground, which is how people get shocked around water. A GFCI outlet or breaker trips. Moisture in an outdoor outlet, a bad fridge cord, or a failing water heater element are common. A GFCI also will not reset without power, so check its breaker first. If it still will not reset with nothing plugged in, the device or the wiring downstream is the problem.

AFCI breakers watch for arcs that can start a fire in a wall. Cheap power supplies, vacuum motors, and some LED drivers can look like an arc to an older AFCI. That is annoying. It is not a reason to replace the AFCI with a standard breaker. A licensed electrician traces the device or the wiring and uses a listed fix. GFCI trips outdoors and in bathrooms after sprinklers, dust, and Valley heat age the outlet. Weather-resistant GFCI devices with in-use covers are the usual repair, not a jumper.

Central Valley summers run compressors for hours. A weak capacitor, a failing compressor, or a breaker that has been heat-cycled for years can trip under that load. Lights that dim when the AC starts point to a large motor surge, a loose lug, or an undersized service. Do not keep resetting a breaker that trips every time the AC starts. Turn the thermostat off and call. A buzzing or hot breaker in a heat wave is a warning. See the emergency electrician triage if the panel itself is hot.

• You can: unplug loads, reset a GFCI that tripped with a tool or a radio on it, and read the breaker directory.
• Leave these to a licensed electrician: replacing a breaker, removing the panel cover, splicing a damaged cable, or swapping an AFCI for a standard breaker.
• Do not touch a panel that is hot, buzzing, scorched, or wet: not the cover, the breakers, or a main inside it. The wires on the line side of the main stay live even with the main off.
• A replacement breaker must be listed for that panel. A "fits if you push" breaker can overheat.
• If the breaker trips with nothing plugged in, or trips the instant you reset it, leave it off and request electrical repair.

Sometimes the breaker is fine and the panel is the problem: a Federal Pacific or Zinsco interior, a full 100A service, or aluminum branch connections. Those jobs sit on the panel upgrade and rewiring pages.