Greetings,

I have a circuit breaker problem that i hope someone can help me with. In
the last 4 or 5 months when we have run the dishwasher we have noticed a
foul odor that we thought was coming from the dishwasher. A few times the
circuit breaker would kick off so we thought maybe the timer on the
dishwasher was sticking and causing an overheating which was causing the
smell and the breaker to pop. Well the other day my wife noticed the smell
was coming from the breaker box. I checked the breakers and the one that
goes to the dishwasher was loose. I bought another breaker at the hardware
store(20 amp, single pole) and when I took the old one out, the casing was
burned away where it plugs into the circuit panel and breaker smelled of the
odor we had been smelling.
So I replaced it then had to leave a short while later. My wife came home
about 20 minutes later and she smelled the same odor again. The dishwasher
was not running.
I'm starting to think there is a major problem and I can't figure out what.
We haven't added anything to the circuit. As it is now, the kitchen
refrigerator and a few 3 other plugs are on this circuit. I have the
microwave plugged into one plug and the dishwasher is plugged into one. The
refrigerator was the only thing running and it's only 2 or 3 years old. I
doubt there is a problem with it but that remains to be seen. The only
electrical work done in the last eight months has been an electrician
redoing some wiring in my heater closet in my garage and it's a different
circuit. This is not the first problem I have had with breakers either. In
the last 3 years I have replaced 2 other breakers (another 20amp and the
100amp main.) They seem to wear out the same way: the casing where the
breaker plugs in being kind of singed or melted. Is this normal? The home is
24 years old and I've been told that breakers wear out but I thought the
wearing out had to do with the switch tripping and or not resetting. Anyway,
my wife had the breaker off when I came home so I reset it and have been
waiting all evening to set if it starts smelling again. I haven't smelled
anything.
I don't want to leave the breaker off because the refrigerator is on it but
I'm worried about going to bed tonight. The smoke alarms all work so...
Any good advice out there about what might be causing this? I don't mind
paying an electrician but I don't want to call one out if it's something
simple. I'm also wondering if there was still a little crud or something on
the contact of the bus bar that might have caused the stink when I plugged
it in because I'm not smelling it and it's been 4 hours or so.