Oven Tripping Breaker

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Yikes.............

You're taking a huge chance and thinking just because it's worked "all those years" beforehand makes it okay to keep testing the waters? Absolutely not.


Any time you see wires heating back to the panel, you've got a problem at the device it's hooked to AND the breaker that serves as the interrupter when things go awry.

If the stove is older than 8 years, replace it and get a new breaker in that panel, all of which should be done by a licensed electrician.

[Billy_Bob]

I was thinking... Replace everything damaged (and the range as well if you don't know what the trouble is).

Everything damaged to me would be the section of damaged wiring, the breaker and the breaker bus or panel.

Of course if I had a problem like this I would think Ohhh No! Then start thinking of ways I could just "mend" the problem and avoid a big expense and a lot of work.....

Then I would think about it...

Then I wind up doing it right and get it fixed once and for all.

[Thatguy]

Lift the roof
put a new house under it
lower the roof

You might want to borrow a clamp-on ammeter and check what is really happening with your wiring.

The worst outcome is that you buy a new stove/oven/breaker/breakerpanel and after one day of honeymoon you have exactly the same symptoms.
That is a bad day.

[Cookie]

The honeymoon is over when you figure out she doesn't care if the oven or stove works, or you eat. (If I marry again, I am holding out for a chef.)

[Gary Swart]

Go back to the basics. There are just 3 things that can cause a breaker to trip. 1) an overload (not likely on a dedicated circuit)
2) a short in the wire or loose connection
3) a defective breaker

Look for and do the obvious. Look for blackened wires that would indicate a short and check for loose connections. Replace the breaker.

If there is nothing obvious, you need to call a qualified electrician as the problems is almost certainly in the wiring that an electrician can test. Then repair or replace the oven.

[Mikey]

The upper screw on the breaker has some browning around it, but very little. It was a bit loose.

"A bit loose" is still "loose". I'm betting that when you moved the breaker, you tightened this screw, and that fixed the breaker-tripping problem. The oven-shutting-off problem is probably a bad element or connection.