Oren wrote:
On Mon, 14 Jul 2014 15:25:59 -0700, "Pico Rico"
wrote:

A friend had some other friends staying at their beach house, and
there were "problems" with the power. This is third hand, so who
knows what the real story is. I may take a short beach vacation to
see for myself.

it MAY be something like:

with both washer and dryer on, power went out. Maybe the main
tripped. Or maybe one side of the main tripped. Or maybe one side
of the dryer breaker tripped.

There is a lot of power consumption and maybe the line voltage was a
bit low?

How does one tell if a breaker is acting funny, like only blowing
one side? Or if the main is tripping a bit too easily? Do you just
buy a few new breakers and give them a whirl?


DO NOT take my electrical advice. I can make smoke

I have a known good, 50 AMP double breaker removed by the HVAC guy. I
think is was a youtube video that showed how to do a continuity test
on the breaker with a meter. The breaker is on the bench, of course.
Continuity was good, based on the testing - off/on on each side. It
'seems' to support what the video explained. But don't trust me on
this.

If a double pole breaker only trips one side , it's bad , toss it there's a
mechanical link inside that trips the other side if one side overloads. If
a breaker trips repeatedly under normal loading , IE the usual devices
running but it won't hold the load , it's bad , toss it . Same thing for the
main , if it trips out under normal loads , it's bad , toss it . DO NOT
under any circumstances use a new breaker with a higher load rating !

--
Snag