"Dicky" wrote in message
m...
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.

Please tell me this is not a FPE, Federal Pacific Electric panel. If you
have a FPE panel call a electrician and start planning on changing it out to
something works and is still UL listed. FPE lost their UL listing and is out
of business. There is a company that makes replacement breakers, but your
still stuck with the same funky way of connection.

Loose connections anywhere under a load is a recipe for disaster. Circuit
breakers do not "wear out" under normal circumstances, at least in my
experence. Singed or melted bussing is a really bad sign. My homes panel
is ~28 years old and is almost as good as the day it was intalled, a GE
panel.
Are you replacing with an exact brand? GE for GE, SQD for SQD etc. I know
some manufactures make "universal replacements" I do not recommend them nor
do I use them.
I also will not use "thin breakers" on kitchen or appliance circuits. Just
my way of doing things.
The places where the bussing is singed/melted is not a good place to install
breakers. Move the breaker to another space in the panel and purchase a
blank cover for the space not used.

Check the panel and see if you can move the breakers around inside to get
away from the damaged places.

You might want to measure the load on the circuit that your having trouble
with. During no load and with the dishwasher running. I suggest that you
use the "no heat" setting for until you get this corrected.