I have a Cutler Hammer box. My living room breaker starts arcing. The arcing is coming from inside the breaker. When I turn off the breaker. It stops.

It's the second time it's happened. The problem seems to stem from the living room lights. They are controlled through a leviton electronic dimmer. There are 7 cans at 75 watts and the dimmer is 600 watts rated. There is a 3-way leviton dimmer as well on the lights. When the breaker starts arcing, turning off the living room lights makes it stop.

I've unscrewed all of the lights and used a volt meter to check for shorts and there are none. The first time it happened, I swapped the breaker and it went away. Now that it's happened again, I don't think it's just the breaker.

Anyone have ANY idea why lights on a dimmer would make breakers go bad and start arcing internally?

Thanks

You are having an overloaded circuit somewhere and I would not wait to have a good electrician check it out.

I bet it is arcing on the buss and not inside. Remove the breaker and inspect (VISUALLY) the buss where the breaker stabs on.
If it is burnt DO NOT reuse the breaker or that space in the panel. Get a new breaker and put it in a new spot in the panel and get a breaker blank for the bad space.

****This is ALL hinging on the fact that you are comfortable working in your electrical panel. Even with the main off (which you WILL do) the incoming lines are still hot.

So your breaker is arc but not tripping, is that what you are saying? A breaker that arcs but does not trip is no good. I can't tell you what made it go bad, I have havd some bad from the box.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stanfortyman

If it is burnt DO NOT reuse the breaker or that space in the panel. Get a new breaker and put it in a new spot in the panel and get a breaker blank for the bad space.

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I took it off and it looks fine behind. Both the panel tab and the breaker have no black. It makes sense that it's arcing behind the breaker but I'd expect to see something.

Is it possible there's a partial open somewhere in the line and it's overloading the circuit but not long enough to trip the breaker? Would that make the breaker arc and the lights dim?

Then the contact points are probably bad inside the breaker, or a spring is weak.

Replace the breaker.

Any chance you had a window air conditioner in the living room on this breaker?

Or some other large load appliance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tkrussell

Then the contact points are probably bad inside the breaker, or a spring is weak.

Replace the breaker.

Any chance you had a window air conditioner in the living room on this breaker?

Or some other large load appliance?

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No large loads with a motor. Just lights, TV, stereo. I'm worried it's not just the breaker. This is the second time it's happened. Any other ideas?

You can always try a little experiment and swap this breaker with another of the same amps in the panel. If the moved breaker pops in the new location you got your answer, replace it again. If the pop stays on the same circuit you know its not the breaker and then the detective works starts.