Appliance Breaker Is Not Turning Off

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

• A tripped circuit breaker may not appear to be flipped. This means that the breaker attached to your appliances can appear to be on constantly, but will actually be tripped. If you manually flip the breaker and then try the system again, you may find that it functions normally. Do not depend on how the breaker looks to judge what it is actually doing.

Overloads

• If the breaker flips when you reconnect and turn on an appliance connected to that circuit, it probably means that the appliance itself is defective. However, if the breaker does not turn off when you reconnect your appliances, the problem was probably an overload. This means that you had too many appliances attached to the same circuit and need to remove some of them.

Malfunctioning Circuits

• Malfunctioning circuits can cause a breaker to stay on even when it should flip. This is caused by an internal problem inside the breaker, not an external cause. The circuitry of the breaker has failed, possibly because of a previous overload. You will need to replace that breaker to provide continued protection to your appliances.

Damaged Circuits

• In other cases, your breaker may not turn off because of external damage. Water damage from excess moisture or flooding, for example, can damage a breaker and keep it from flipping properly in the event of a short circuit. If your breaker does not turn off properly after potential water damage, you need to replace it.