Depending on the damage to the sub-panel you might have to replace
everything. If you do and go looking for the problem remember to leave out
the breaker to the TV circuit to make sure that it is the TV Circuit leg
that is the offending member. Bring the breakers back online one at a time
and wait a few minutes to allow each to set there to make sure it's not
going to heat up and blow. With the severity of the short it could be
something plugged into an outlet or it could be that some wire/s have come
loose and are shorting somewhere in an outlet box or even in the breaker box
itself. I haven't heard of one branch problem melting or destroying other
breakers unless there is shorts or fire there in the breaker box itself.


On 12/28/06 1:27 AM, in article ,
"mm" wrote:

On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:10:10 -0600, "frank"
wrote:

i have a sub panel that in my house tonight when i was watching tv it shut
off and i smelt some thing burning. i found that all seven breakers in the
sub panel melted but did not trip and the 30 amp double pole in the main
panel did not trip any reason behind this

Most didn't trip because they weren't carrying more current than they
were designed for.

I gather that one tripped (since you say that the tv shut off) and
that's likely because it was carrying more current than it should have
been. The heat from that breaker melted the other breakers, I guess.
I assume they just show signs of melting and aren't in a puddle at the
bottom of the box.

You have to find the problem in the tv circuit. Maybe it was the
breaker itself and replacing that breaker will solve it, or maybe
something is sucking up more current than it should.

Also you have to look carefully at the other breakers and decide if
they were damaged. I can't guess from here.