Frozen together breakers

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arnettda

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I have a residential electrical panel that is installed in a attached garage on a outside wall. The garage is insulated and sheet rocked but not heated. I tried to remove one breaker and found it was stuck to the breaker above it. I removed both breakers and pried them apart. I found Ice between the two breakers. I am assuming the ice was caused by the condensation produced when the breakers get warm when there is a current draw? Am I correct? How Bad is this? I know water in a panel is not good but is this a common issue? I found no indication that water was leaking in from somewhere.
 
arnettda said:
I have a residential electrical panel that is installed in a attached garage on a outside wall. The garage is insulated and sheet rocked but not heated. I tried to remove one breaker and found it was stuck to the breaker above it. I removed both breakers and pried them apart. I found Ice between the two breakers. I am assuming the ice was caused by the condensation produced when the breakers get warm when there is a current draw? Am I correct? How Bad is this? I know water in a panel is not good but is this a common issue? I found no indication that water was leaking in from somewhere.
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You kind of have it backwards with the heat from the breakers idea - heat will reduce formation of condensation, there had to be some external cooling involved to cause condensation - your condensation maybe happened in a raceway or something and dripped into the panel and somehow ended up where you found it.
 
kwired said:
You kind of have it backwards with the heat from the breakers idea - heat will reduce formation of condensation, there had to be some external cooling involved to cause condensation - your condensation maybe happened in a raceway or something and dripped into the panel and somehow ended up where you found it.
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Would the cooling be from the panel being in a unheated area and it is cold out?
 
kwired said:
You kind of have it backwards with the heat from the breakers idea - heat will reduce formation of condensation, there had to be some external cooling involved to cause condensation - your condensation maybe happened in a raceway or something and dripped into the panel and somehow ended up where you found it.
Click to expand...

Well wait a minute:

If he is pulling breakers, we can assume (hopefully) he killed power to that panel. So if it WAS warm and he killed power when it was freezing outside, as the breakers cooled they would possibly form condensation on their surfaces, then it can freeze them together. It depends on the timing and sequence of events.
 
Jraef said:
Well wait a minute:

If he is pulling breakers, we can assume (hopefully) he killed power to that panel. So if it WAS warm and he killed power when it was freezing outside, as the breakers cooled they would possibly form condensation on their surfaces, then it can freeze them together. It depends on the timing and sequence of events.
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Power was always on to the electrical panel. When single pole breaker was removed I turned off that breaker and immediately removed it.
 
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