Do Breakers Wear Out? That Is A Very Good Question To Which The Answer Is Yes


by Troy Dobson - Date: 2007-03-25 - Word Count: 325 Share This!

Electricity by its nature creates heat as it does what it was harnessed to do, that is supply our needs, wants and desires for a life of comfort, entertainment, and ease. Breakers are designed to help protect us from the dangerous consequences of the improper use of electricity. The breaker was designed to protect the wire between it and the load its applied to. (plugs, switches, appliances etc.) If the load draws to many amps the breaker will trip in order to protect the wire from over heating and possibly causing a fire. The wire can be undersized for the load causing the breaker to trip. If the wire is frayed, weakened, or damaged in any way the wire may short and the breaker will trip to protect the wire. Many older homes have aluminum wiring, at the time it was thought that aluminum would be the ideal conductor and it was in expensive. Aluminum wire gets very hot and it has been discovered that it must be sized larger than a copper wire to carry the same load safely. Because the aluminum wire gets hotter than copper wire it tends to wear out plugs, switches, and breakers.

The same can be said for copper wire if the wire is not sized correctly you can and will find switches, plugs, and breakers wearing out before what you believe to be their time.

Do you have to have all these other problems we have talked about in order to wear out a breaker? No they do just get old, but these things could be the symptoms that created the old age.

By the way I have changed out hundreds of breakers for a bunch of different reasons. Electricity is absolutely not something to be taken lightly it requires a certain level of respect and confidence to work with it and if you are not confident in your ability to change out your breaker I recommend you hire a professional.


Related Tags: home repair, electricity, lights, home maintenance, switches, plugs, electrical repair, breakers, elctrical

You can find this tip and many others as well as service personal who want to help you with your home repairs and maintenance at: http://www.homemaintenanceworld.com

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