multiple breakers tripping?

[rob12013]

Hello
thanks for reading I got a call from carpenter friend probably will get job out of this. he plugs in his table saw and says 7 breakers trip at this home owners house, then goes inside tries different receptacle and trips 10 breakers all along not losing power to his saw at least the time when the first 7 breakers tripped. maybe groped romex heating up perhaps or neutrals all mixed up. Ive always been kind of a new installer is there a old standard direction to go in to start troubleshooting this type problem.
thank you
Rob

 

[readydave8]

keep an open mind, calls this bizarre usually turn out to be some kind of perception or communication breakdown, when I get to see the problem it usually is totally different than described on phone.

 

[ELECTRICDON]

^ it's funny how you never get the whole story.

 

[kwired]

Hello
thanks for reading I got a call from carpenter friend probably will get job out of this. he plugs in his table saw and says 7 breakers trip at this home owners house, then goes inside tries different receptacle and trips 10 breakers all along not losing power to his saw at least the time when the first 7 breakers tripped. maybe groped romex heating up perhaps or neutrals all mixed up. Ive always been kind of a new installer is there a old standard direction to go in to start troubleshooting this type problem.
thank you
Rob

Start by recreating what happened. Doubtful he tripped 7 breakers or 10 breakers (and still had power to the saw?) Maybe he tripped breaker #7 the first time and breaker #10 the second time?

If he somehow did trip that many breakers I can't believe the homeowner does not have other performance issues that he has noticed in the past.

Another thought - are they AFCI breakers? Even if the saw was not on an AFCI protected circuit, I might not be suprised. Have seen them trip when POCO has a fluctuation in supply and have no idea why, must have been something on the line they did not like.

 

[jeremysterling]

keep an open mind, calls this bizarre usually turn out to be some kind of perception or communication breakdown, when I get to see the problem it usually is totally different than described on phone.

Absolutely keep an open mind. Go with what you know and realize that the other people involved may have been way off base or, incredibly and amazingly, absolutely correct!

 

[readydave8]

Absolutely keep an open mind. Go with what you know and realize that the other people involved may have been way off base or, incredibly and amazingly, absolutely correct!

yeah it always messes me up when they turn out to be correct after I already decided that what they were describing was impossible:ashamed1:

 

[the blur]

I have only seen a branch circuit breaker blow and it trips the main as well. This was on a phase to phase fault. Someone drilled through a packed conduit. What your describing sounds unlikely.