Gunky Breakers

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Coppersmith

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
This is weird. I've never seen this happen to so many breakers at once.....

I went on a service call to replace a failed Eaton CH AFCI breaker. I had ordered the breaker a couple of weeks back because none were available at my usual suppliers so I only had one. When I looked at the panel, there were eight AFCI breakers in there and none of them were working properly. At first, when I pressed the test buttons, they all buzzed and did not trip. After exercising each of the handle a few times, they all stopped buzzing, but still did not trip. The handle on a couple of them moved slightly toward off, but not all the way. I realized that the breakers had gotten gunky some how. I'm thinking the manufacturer put in bad oil but I don't know for sure what is gunking them up.

The failed breaker was tripping when a treadmill was turned on. The treadmill worked fine in other outlets. I replaced the failed breaker and tested it with the treadmill and it worked fine. But now the HO was reporting some other rooms were without power. Tested the output on all the AFCI's and found some were not working in the ON position. The gunk was apparently keeping them from closing properly. I flipped the non-working ones on and off a few more times until I got them to work.

I'm now scheduled to replace the other seven as soon as I can get more breakers.
 
Did you take a look at the wires going into the breakers? There have been issues with "gunk" coming out of wires and getting into the devices they are connected to. It is what's called "plasticizer" used in the PVC wire insulation to make it softer and pliable. For some reason the plasticizer would leach out of the PVC insulation as an oily substance, wick along the copper wire inside and come out on the devices. Square D even published a bulletin on it a while ago and it's been reported in here several times.

Plasticizers are oily like substance which can ooze out of wires, WOW!

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The houses in the development don't appear to be more than 25 years old. The panel looks almost new. The AFCI appear to be first generation. I didn't notice any plasticizer leaking from the wires. I'll check when I go back to install others.
 
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