Safe way to trip a breaker

550Doug · Apr 3, 2017

I'm trying to find which breaker controls a certain wall socket and I could ground out the socket with an old lamp cord with the black and white wires tied together, but this seems rather crude and dangerous. Is there a device made that can do this in a safer manner?

Greg K · Apr 3, 2017

You can buy a circuit locater at Home Depot
or Menards that has a piece you plug into
the outlet and another item that you run
over the face of the breakers, no need to
even remove the cover. Another option is to
plug a loud radio into it and turn off the
breakers one at a time.

Dune Country · Apr 3, 2017

Not a good idea, don't do it!!!
Plug a radio into the socket, turn it up, trip breakers until it's off

Greg K · Apr 3, 2017

Here is a picture of the one I have.

old · Apr 3, 2017

Well if you do not have the option of just turning off one breaker at a time you could also hook up something like say an air compressor that you know would be to large a load for the breaker in question. I know I have run into times when I needed to know what breaker was the one to turn off but not able to try them one at a time and used the over load method to find them

550Doug · Apr 3, 2017

I just did a quick search and found several comments about getting false positives with some circuit breaker finders. Is that what you experienced folks also find?

Greg K · Apr 3, 2017

There is a learning curve with them. I
usually believe that a tester that isn't
always right isn't much of a tester, but
with some use these seem manageable.

pete black · Apr 3, 2017

There is one other thing to consider if you go the route of using a short circuit; the circuit breaker may not trip and back up to trip
the panel's main breaker and the resulting fault can be of high value and fairly long duration, all while you are holding the short
circuit.

Elmo · Apr 3, 2017

(quoted from post at 23:33:48 04/03/17) There is one other thing to consider if you go the route of using a short circuit; the circuit breaker may not trip and back up to trip
the panel's main breaker and the resulting fault can be of high value and fairly long duration, all while you are holding the short
circuit.

I use an extension cord with a light plugged in and turn the breakers off one at a time until I find it.
Elmo

coshoo · Apr 3, 2017

Looks to me like the short-circuit is just a bad idea all around, meter to move near the breakers may or may not work, there are some other things you can buy to do it, but the method I've been using for 50 years (radio plugged in and turned up so you can hear it at the panel) is still the cheapest, safest, and most fool-proof. If its a portable radio, do check to see that it doesn't have batteries in it for this test 8<)

Stephen Newell · Apr 3, 2017

I use one of these. http://www.harborfreight.com/circuit-breaker-detective-96934.html

jeffcat · Apr 3, 2017

Well well,,since the subject has come up and I just finished my new
little toy last night, here are some photos. I build one of these
years ago and couldn't find it so I built a new one. It is a 18 volt
power supply for a whole buck at the flea market. I carefully crack it
open and tied in two types on piezo alert buzzers. Glue it back
together. When you plug this into a socket it absolutely screams! You
can place it anywhere in a house and go down to the basement. Just
start flippin breakers !! The reason I mounted two different types of
buzzers is that they make a very annoying warble sound. Took about
three hours of messing around to build it. Works great !

Steve@Advance · Apr 3, 2017

Shorting the circuit is not a good idea.

I admit I used to do it, learned a hard lesson in the process.

Shorted one at a place I worked many years ago, not even knowing which panel fed the circuit. It killed the circuit, but didn't trip the breaker! After many wasted hours searching, traced it down to a bad splice behind the sheetrock. Not fun!

Shorting or overloading to trip the breaker will find the weakest link... Weather it be the breaker, or a high resistance connection somewhere along the way. Many (most) residential receptacles are wired the easy way, the wires stuck in the spring loaded holes in the back of the receptacles, then seriesed together back to the panel, some circuits even share neutrals. Though code allows this, it does have the potential to fail, especially after many years of use.

But what can really cause a problem is if a neutral fails. The receptacle will check dead across the legs, but in reality what you have is a live hot leg, and possibly a back-fed live neutral! Touch either one, along with any ground source, and get a real shocking surprise!

FBH44 · Apr 4, 2017

Splices / wire-nuts hidden behind drywall are Code violation. For just that reason.

showcrop · Apr 4, 2017

Though circuit breakers are a very good device and can be relied upon to protect structures from fire. They do go bad, or there can be other problems in the wiring, such as Steve pointed out. So to intentionally trip one by shorting or intentional overload should never be done.

John T · Apr 4, 2017

Although long retired from electrical power distribution design engineering, its still my opinion ITS NOTTTTTTTT GOOD TO CREATE A DEAD SHORT TO TRIP A BREAKER. Short term HIGH current and the resulting can create problems in other circuit locations. There are other safer less intrusive methods as described below. As always electrical or legal questions draw a lot of responses so here's mine.

John T

buickanddeere · Apr 4, 2017

Plug in a radio and listen for silence.
A tripped breaker in particular one that has been dead shorted can go out of calibration. They will occasionally weld the contacts closed and poof, no problem then finding the circuit . Just follow the smoke.

Billy Shafer · Apr 4, 2017

Are you sure it is even on a breaker. I have run into that a few times.

BarnyardEngineering · Apr 4, 2017

(quoted from post at 13:30:55 04/03/17) I just did a quick search and found several comments about getting false positives with some circuit breaker finders. Is that what you experienced folks also find?

Even if the finder gives you a false positive, you should still be checking the outlet with a voltmeter before you pull it out of the wall!

dr sportster · Apr 4, 2017

Guess what an electrician uses ; loud radio ! Shorting intentionally is bad practice and can ruin a breaker . Intentionally shorting a 277volt circuit breaker will cause molten metal flying. There are devices to do this and trace the circuit with audio.

showcrop · Apr 4, 2017

(quoted from post at 07:33:23 04/04/17) Guess what an electrician uses ; loud radio ! Shorting intentionally is bad practice and can ruin a breaker . Intentionally shorting a 277volt circuit breaker will cause molten metal flying. There are devices to do this and trace the circuit with audio.

Well, I am not so sure that the radio would always work for electricians. I have been o job sites where there may be a haqlf dozen radios blaring.

Tim in OR · Apr 4, 2017

I have used a light plugged into the outlet, and a Kid with a loud voice to yell when it goes out. After 2 or 3 tries, you usually get it correct. Its cheap, and the kid feels like they helped with something important.
Tim in OR

Safe way to trip a breaker

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