Circuit Breaker Repair

A circuit breaker's entire purpose is to trip before wiring overheats or a fault turns into a fire, so a breaker that trips repeatedly is usually protecting you from something, not malfunctioning on its own. The most common causes are an overloaded circuit (too many devices drawing power at once), a short circuit, a ground fault, or a failing appliance on that circuit. Less commonly, the breaker itself has worn out internally and no longer holds its rated load reliably, which shows up as tripping under normal, unchanged use.

Some older panel brands are worth knowing about specifically. Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Stab-Lok panels and Zinsco panels, both common from the 1950s through the 1970s, have well-documented histories of breakers that fail to trip when they should — the opposite of a nuisance trip, and a genuine safety concern. If your panel has either brand's labeling, it's worth having evaluated even without an active symptom, since replacement breakers for these panels are also increasingly hard to source safely.

For panels without a known systemic issue, a breaker replacement is usually a contained repair. We confirm the breaker itself is at fault (rather than the wiring or a connected device) before replacing it, and check that the amperage and type match both the panel manufacturer and the circuit's actual wiring.