Resetting a tripped breaker, and when to stop and call

Quick answer: Unplug what was running, find the breaker that's sitting out of line, push it firmly to OFF, then back to ON. If it trips again right away, or you smell anything hot, stop and call a licensed electrician.

It's 6:40 on a January morning. The hair dryer's on high, the little space heater has been humming since you stepped out of the shower, and the bathroom goes black. Nothing's broken. You just asked one 15-amp circuit for about 3,300 watts, and it said no.

That's the whole job of a breaker. A 15-amp circuit at 120 volts tops out at 1,800 watts, and electricians plan to keep steady loads under about 1,440. Plenty of hair dryers pull up to 1,875 watts on high. A typical space heater draws 1,500. Do that math once and the mystery's gone for good.

You don't need to wait for anyone to get home to handle this. You do need to know the difference between a breaker doing its job and a breaker trying to tell you something.

Do this before the lights go out

Find your panel now, in daylight. Basement, garage, utility closet, sometimes a hallway. In apartments it's often in a closet or near the kitchen.

Then put a flashlight next to it. A headlamp is better, because you'll want both hands. Every person who has ever groped through a dark basement holding a phone flashlight in her teeth has made this resolution afterward. Make it beforehand.

Read the labels on the panel door. Some of them are probably wrong. A previous owner wrote "BR 2" in 1987 and three renovations have happened since. Spend one Saturday afternoon fixing it: plug a lamp or a radio into an outlet, flip breakers one at a time, and write down what actually goes dead. It's easier with two people and a phone call between rooms.

And clear the space in front of it. Code calls for about three feet of working room in front of a panel, and that's exactly where the holiday bins end up.

The reset, step by step

1. Unplug or switch off what was running. If you reset with the space heater still on, you'll trip it again in a minute and learn nothing.
2. Dry hands, dry floor, shoes on. If there's water on the floor in front of the panel, skip ahead to the section on calling for help.
3. Open the small hinged door only. Never take off the metal cover held on with screws. That side belongs to an electrician.
4. Find the tripped one. Its handle usually sits in the middle, out of line with the others. Some breakers show a red or orange flag in a little window. If you can't see it, run your finger down the row. The tripped one feels loose.
5. Push it all the way to OFF. Firmly, until it clicks. People skip this step, push straight to ON, and decide the breaker is broken. It isn't. It has to reset at OFF before it'll latch.
6. Then push it to ON. Stand slightly to the side and keep your face turned away while you do it. That's not nerves. It's just good habit around electrical equipment.
7. Plug things back in one at a time. And maybe don't run the heater and the dryer together tomorrow.

The outlet that isn't the breaker

Sometimes an outlet's dead and every breaker looks fine. Go looking for a GFCI outlet: the one with TEST and RESET buttons. You'll find them in bathrooms, kitchens, garages, laundry rooms, basements and outside.

A GFCI trips when it senses current leaking where it shouldn't, like through water or a person. The annoying part nobody mentions is that one GFCI often protects several ordinary outlets downstream, sometimes in a different room. The dead outlet on the back porch might be fed through a GFCI in the garage. Press RESET firmly. If an outdoor one trips after a rainstorm, let things dry out before you try again.

They also wear out. Press TEST once a month. If it doesn't click off, or won't reset afterward, it needs replacing.

Newer homes also have AFCI breakers, usually with a TEST button right on the breaker, protecting bedrooms and living areas. They trip when they detect arcing: sparking in a damaged cord, a loose connection, a nail through a wire. Older ones sometimes trip on vacuums and other motors. But if an AFCI keeps tripping, take it seriously. Arcing inside a wall is how a lot of house fires start.

What the trip is telling you

There are three basic reasons a breaker trips, and you can usually tell which one you've got.

Overload. Too much running on one circuit. It tends to trip after things have been on for a while. The fix is spreading the load across circuits, and it's the most common cause by far. Kitchens in winter are the classic case: kettle, toaster oven and microwave all on the same counter, all at breakfast.

Short circuit. Wires touching that shouldn't. It trips instantly, often with a pop, usually the moment you plug something in or flip a switch.

Ground fault. Current escaping toward the ground, often through water. This is what GFCIs catch.

To find the culprit, unplug everything on that circuit and reset. If it holds, plug things back in one at a time. If it trips the second one particular appliance goes in, you've found your problem, and that appliance is done until it's repaired. A frayed cord on a hair dryer isn't worth saving.

If it trips with nothing plugged in at all, the problem is in the wiring, a fixture, or the breaker itself. That's where your part of the job ends.

When it's serious

Call a licensed electrician if:

• It trips immediately with nothing plugged in.
• It starts tripping on loads you've run for years without trouble.
• You smell hot plastic or burning, at the panel or at an outlet.
• The breaker or the panel cover is warm to the touch, scorched, buzzing or crackling.
• An outlet or switch plate is warm or discolored, or plugs fall out of it loosely.
• Lights dim hard or get brighter than normal when the fridge or AC kicks on. That can mean a loose neutral connection, and it shouldn't wait.
• A breaker won't stay on, or feels mushy and won't latch at all.

Call the utility, not an electrician, if the whole house is dark and the main breaker is still on, if the neighbors are dark too, or if half the house is dead while the dryer, oven or AC behaves strangely. That last one usually means a problem with the service coming into the house, and it's theirs to fix.

If you see a downed line outside, stay well away from it and treat it as live. If there's water around the panel, don't touch the panel. If there's smoke or fire, get everyone out and call 911. Never use water on an electrical fire.

What not to do

Never hold a breaker in the ON position, tape it there, or wedge anything against it. It's tripping to keep a wire from overheating inside your wall.

Never swap a 15-amp breaker for a 20 because the 15 keeps tripping. The wire was sized for the breaker. A bigger breaker doesn't give you more capacity. It just lets the wire get hot instead.

A power strip doesn't add capacity either. It adds more places to plug into the same circuit.

If you're in an older home with fuses, replace a blown fuse with the same amperage, never higher. And if your panel's label says Federal Pacific Stab-Lok or Zinsco, you should know home inspectors routinely flag both. Have an electrician look at it on a calm Tuesday, not during an emergency.

Here's the concession: sometimes you'll call an electrician and the answer will be "move the space heater to another outlet," and you'll pay a service call to hear it. Pay it happily. That's a cheap answer to a question that, the other way around, costs a house.

And when you figure out which breaker runs what, fix the label while you're standing there. Leave the panel easier to read than you found it. The next woman in the dark with a flashlight might be you.