Breaker trips

[Raspy]

"Breaker Trips". Sounds like someone is planning to go surfing.

[James V]

New trailer. Has tripled every time A/C and Microwave is on. Never separately.

[steve dunham]

Circuit breakers should be exercised on a regular basis
I’ve seen circuit breakers where the internal parts have corroded to a point were it was affecting the trip point
I’ve changed out 100’s of perfectly good circuit breakers only because the homeowner was convinced the breaker had gone weak.
I’ve also gone to homes where there were 10 blown fuses laying under the panel because the homeowner was convinced he got a batch of defective/ week fuses

[Roland twodux]

Originally Posted by James V

I have a 2020 Casita Independence, when the A/c on 110V and turn on the Microwave the breaker trips. Either running by itself does not trip the breaker. Is this normal?

You may have other things running in the background such as refrigerator, water heater and battery charger. 30 amp rv’s are sometimes lacking when it comes to creature comforts.

[k0wtz]

steve our school was almost 60 years old the maintance guy didnt want to change out breakers and they do go bad so he convinced the s of schools they needed all new panels!


several millions later you can only imagine!

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by k0wtz

steve our school was almost 60 years old the maintance guy didnt want to change out breakers and they do go bad so he convinced the s of schools they needed all new panels!


several millions later you can only imagine!

Circuit breakers are designed to trip and fuses are designed to blow yet when a breaker trips or a fuse blows the first thing people conclude is the breaker or the fuse must be the source of the problem or it’s defective .
That logic has always escaped me - If you reset a breaker or replace a fuse and it trips or blows immediately, 99% of the time the breaker or fuse is not the problem .
If you know how to read a fuse you can tell if it blew due to an overload or a short circuit

[David Prast]

I worked as a licensed industrial/commercial maintenance electrician for over 30 years. I can not recall a single instance of a weak breaker that was responsible for nuisance tripping. Yes i have seen bad breakers. Bad breakers are the ones that don't trip. You won't find out about them until you see the smoke from melted insulation on the wires due to an overload. Nuisance tripping is caused by overloads and poor connections.

[Defenestrator]

I wonder if you have something else adding to the power draw. Maybe the refrigerator and/or converter or some other 120V device. Or the water heater, though that shouldn't run all that often. The 30A connection is enough to run any two high-power devices (water heater, microwave, AC, space heater) at once but adding in a third one will definitely overload and trip. The fact that something that runs in short bursts (microwave) trips it makes me think that's the problem and not low voltage/bad connection.

Bad breaker's not impossible (bad calibration, bad return spring on the solenoid), but it's definitely the less likely explanation.

[PatrickTXFL]

Well I guess if you get a new breaker and it still trips you'll have a spare. If I had to pick between it being overload vs bad breaker my bet is overload or bad connection somewhere. Would be good idea to get amp meter and test everything if your still in warranty. A bad AC compressor could be pulling too many amps type thing a possibility

[Joe MacDonald]

My turn to chime in, I also am an electrician, residential, commercial, industrial, I have seen may breakers fail after being subjected to loads that are consistently near their maximum, especially for the ones that are thermal trip units. having said that the best way to trouble shoot is to put an ammeter on the circuit.
Joe

[bradster]

I'm a bit late to this thread. The OP mentioned that the breaker trips... But it was'nt clear which one - the AC or Microwave. Attached is a photo of my 2020 Casita breaker panel. You can see individual breakers for each of the major AC circuits. I'm curious whether it was the AC or Microwave breaker that tripped.