Double oven low current

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tipster

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Location
Aurora colorado
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Electrician
The homeowner was saying that whenever he uses both ovens it trips his breaker. However when I was present I could not get the 40amp tandem breaker to trip. I put my amp meter on it and it was only drawing 2.3 amps. Phase to phase was 240. Is this a appliance issue or a bad breaker?
 
tipster said:
The homeowner was saying that whenever he uses both ovens it trips his breaker. However when I was present I could not get the 40amp tandem breaker to trip. I put my amp meter on it and it was only drawing 2.3 amps. Phase to phase was 240. Is this a appliance issue or a bad breaker?
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Did you turn on the broiler or something larger loaded. If there is a bad connection you can have higher resistance at the breaker that combined with the load temp might possibly trip the breaker. I've never seen that on a range or oven other than when people buy induction cooktops and install themselves on a 40 amp circuit and those need the 50 most of the time.
 
tipster said:
The homeowner was saying that whenever he uses both ovens it trips his breaker. However when I was present I could not get the 40amp tandem breaker to trip. I put my amp meter on it and it was only drawing 2.3 amps. Phase to phase was 240. Is this a appliance issue or a bad breaker?
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Could be all kinds of things. Not enough information to come to any kind of definitive conclusion.

What does the instruction manual say the max current is if both ovens are at max heat? Put both ovens at max heat and see what the current is.

Where are you measuring current at?
 
Sounds like the elements weren't actually on. Could be it was already hot enough, could be some delay between turn-on and energizing the heaters.
Does the oven have a neutral connection?
If the elements were glowing and only 2.3 amp.... were you measuring clamped around both power leads or just one? That won't give a good reading for this.
 
tipster said:
And I had the clamp around both power leads. Should I have only clamped 1 lead at a time?
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This kind of thing should have been taught to you about day three of your apprenticeship.

I am a bit nervous for your safety if you have not been properly trained in how to make these kind of measurements.
 
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