Blew my breaker, plug grounded?

natureboygrower

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
getogrow said:
most of my troubleshooting work has been done on OLD homes, knob an tube on up. I work on HORRIBLE stuff. i mean the ones most electricians pass up because its too much work to troubleshoot vs replacing everything.
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That's how I learned too. I worked with an old timer that taught me just as much about organization and troubleshhoting than the trade itself. I think I had worked for him almost 2 years before we wired a new construction home. Dude was old school. Had one of those big ass pistol gripped plug in Magnum Milwaukee drills that could break your wrist if it got bound up. I fucking hated that thing
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Moabfighter said:
Outlet looks about as good as any 20yr old outlet IMO.... fuck man. Mouse chewed something good in the walls I think. Fuck.
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looks good from here , put that one back in an go to the next one. The next one will be in the bedroom i suppose. (unless you can find another outlet that dont work.....
 
DarkWeb

DarkWeb

Well-Known Member
natureboygrower said:
That's how I learned too. I worked with an old timer that taught me just as much about organization and troubleshhoting than the trade itself. I think I had worked for him almost 2 years before we wired a new construction home. Dude was old school. Had one of those big ass pistol gripped plug in Magnum Milwaukee drills that could break your wrist if it got bound up. I fucking hated that thing
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I love that drill....till it grabs lol always use the extra grip
 
Moabfighter

Moabfighter

Well-Known Member
getogrow said:
looks good from here , put that one back in an go to the next one. The next one will be in the bedroom i suppose. (unless you can find another outlet that dont work.....
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Do I have to check outlets that haven’t had anything plugged into them in years? My “room” has I think three outlets. But I’ve only ever used one of them.
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
If the power is off then wiggle it around a bit to make sure the wires are connected still..... your looking for something obvious. The breaker is not holding so it has to be a short.... a ground is touching a hot wire somewhere, so it should be real obvious when you find it.
I dont think it was mice but thats just an opinion. Its very possible but they usually cause a circuit to break rather then short out. Is there ANY outlet thats been giving you problems so long that yuo forgot about it ? maybe a "do not use" outlet like some people have.

This problem does not have to be "new damage" it can be very old and just now showing by coincidence.

Moabfighter said:
Do I have to check outlets that haven’t had anything plugged into them in years? My “room” has I think three outlets. But I’ve only ever used one of them.
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Thats a huge YES. As long as power passes through it, its being "used".
 
Doug Dawson

Doug Dawson

Well-Known Member
getogrow said:
If someone is going to spend decent money on any testers then FLUKE is the only name in the business. Thats my own opinion.
The false readings , i believe come from circuits with no ground or a bad neutral..... most of my troubleshooting work has been done on OLD homes, knob an tube on up. I work on HORRIBLE stuff. i mean the ones most electricians pass up because its too much work to troubleshoot vs replacing everything. The false readings are very common on my end though. (old residential shit)
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Knob and tube, oh lord. That is horrible stuff to work with, usually accompanied by asbestos insulation. I just like the pens because you dont actually have to touch anything since they detect voltage through capacitive coupling so it should detect any live wire but I must admit I have stayed away from knob and tube systems as much as possible. I agree about Fluke, they are the only brand I want, I just trust them after so many years of use.
 
Doug Dawson

Doug Dawson

Well-Known Member
natureboygrower said:
That's how I learned too. I worked with an old timer that taught me just as much about organization and troubleshhoting than the trade itself. I think I had worked for him almost 2 years before we wired a new construction home. Dude was old school. Had one of those big ass pistol gripped plug in Magnum Milwaukee drills that could break your wrist if it got bound up. I fucking hated that thing
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I have an old Milwaukee hammer drill that is like that l, it's really old and stupid powerful. I love it for drilling through my 6x6 hemlock dock crib rails but you are right, when it binds you sure know it.
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Poison them, only thing that really works well. Sometimes u might get one that smells but not normally.

Do you have any outlets that have a reset button on them? If you do and it's before those other outlets on the circuit it will kill the whole circuit. If it's that easy your gonna be pissed and happy at the same time but just something I was thinking of earlier.
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
I got a bad feeling it was a mouse now that you mentioned them. I hope I'm wrong.
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i hope not myself. that would make it hard as hell for you to find. Very easy to fix but hard to find.

"First strike soft bait"
My brother was a pest control guy and this stuff is crazy good. He always told me that the mice would eat it then almost always die within eyesight. He says its not because of the special bait , that it was just coincidence. I still think its something in the bait. They literally die out in the hallway or sidewalk by your home.... Since ive started using the shit , ive only had one die under a cabnit. (out of hundreds) look it up , its not very expensive and its what the pros use.
 
420burn420

420burn420

Well-Known Member
Did you try to unplug everything in the affected area( sockets that the breaker controls) and then try to turn on the breaker ? A device could of fried causing it to keep tripping.
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Cordless has came a LONG way since then but not quite enough to replace the old milwaukee hole hog. The newer models are much lighter but still stupid strong and will break bones. They are a must when drilling a couple hundred holes a day.
 
getogrow

getogrow

Well-Known Member
hey renfro , do you have any kind of explanation for the fluke/all hotsticks throwing false readings ? maybe something to do with lacking a ground or neutral ? Just wondering.
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Well I was trying to wire up my second flower room today, but ran out of wire. I had held off smoking today cause get kinda lazy, but now I'm setting on the porch debating about making a second trip to town today and smoking so it will prob be tomorrow. I was being cheap cause #10 is so expensive and I figured I had enough left, I was wrong.

OP keep working at it man, I'm glad to see you finally got up the nerve to do it. Sometimes all it takes is the confidence boost of doing something. You can atleast say you can now safely change a breaker and an outlet as you have done almost all the steps troubleshooting this.

If your still trying to get your grow back up I'm confident with what you have done so far you could easily and safely run a dedicated circuit for your closet. Fishing wire neatly would be the hardest part. If you own the home and don't mind crawling around underneath or one small hole in closet floor you could do it that way.
 
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