30amp Breaker Trips

Status
Not open for further replies.

amcalabrese

New User
Location
Olympia, WA
Occupation
Systems Operator
I have three 2pole 30amp GFCI breakers in my shop. The panel and breakers are all SquareD Homeline series. I just got a new 5HP 20" planer that I plugged into one of the circuits. It immediately tripped the breaker when I turned it on. It seems to trip the breaker roughly 4 out of 5 start attempts. My 3hp tablesaw will run when connected to the same receptacle with no problems, which is why this is a new problem to me. The circuits are all new (less than 6 months old, and the shop I am building is still under constructiuon inside. To troubleshoot the problem I have done the following:

1) I opened up the receptacle and verified there were no loose wires or short circuits.
2) I moved the 5hp planer to both of the other 30amp circuits, and it runs just fine on those circuits. No trips at all.
3) I swapped two of the 30amp breakers and the tripping issue follows the breaker, ruling out a circuit issue.

My question is this. Is it possible that I just have a weak breaker that is tripping too low and is just defective?
 
Nearly all the time when a motor trips the circuit breaker it’s not an electrical problem. But in your case it most likely relates to the size of then motor branch circuit short circuit and ground fault device. Did you wire your shop, if so forum rules prevent us from assisting. We don’t know what else you are not asking. A commercial electrician can solve this issue for you
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top