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Circuit Breaker Keeps Tripping

A breaker that trips is doing its job. Reset it once. If it trips again, the cause is one of five things, and how fast it trips tells you which.

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  • Updated October 2026
  • CA License #1159199
Electrician removing a scorched outlet from a kitchen wall, with the new outlet ready on the counter

The Five Causes

  • Overload. Too much running on one circuit. The breaker trips after a while, not at once. If it holds with everything unplugged, this is it.
  • Short circuit. A hot wire touches a neutral. The current jumps and the breaker trips instantly, even with nothing plugged in.
  • Ground fault. A hot wire touches a metal box or a ground wire. GFCI devices exist to protect people from this.
  • Arc fault. Electricity jumping across damaged insulation: a nail through a cable, a cord crushed by furniture, old wire. Arcing is the heat source in most home electrical fires, which is why AFCI breakers exist.
  • A worn breaker. Breakers are mechanical. They wear out. This is the least common cause, and the last one to assume.
Electrician measuring a breaker panel with a multimeter

A Safe Test

  1. Unplug everything on the circuit.
  2. Reset the breaker once: fully off, then on.
  3. If it holds, plug things back in one at a time. The one that trips it is your answer.
  4. If it trips with nothing plugged in, stop. The problem is in the wiring.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s advice is short: find out why a breaker trips. Do not simply reset it.

Call now if the breaker trips instantly with nothing plugged in, you smell burning, you see scorch marks, or the trips come with flickering lights. (818) 714-7963

The Opposite Problem

In Zinsco and Federal Pacific panels the danger is a breaker that does not trip when it should. If your panel is one of those, tripping is not the warning sign. Read about Zinsco panels.

How Long The Fix Takes

An overload takes minutes: move the appliance to another circuit. A short or an arc fault takes longer to find, usually one to two hours of tracing, and the repair is quoted in writing once the cause is known.

Sources

Last updated October 2, 2026. Figures from third parties are market ranges, not a quote.

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