phantom brakers

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wyatt

Senior Member
got a call about a mobile home, she has breakers kicking some days one some day more some days none. some times outlets don't work onetime they worked with breaker off. Power co had put a monitor on and said there end was good. the mobile home people sent out someone did quick check and could find any thing. I'm think a neutral problem, but I have not been out to job yet just wanted to know if any of you have seen this before that could point me in the right way
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Re: phantom brakers

A very common problem with older mobile homes is they used stab-in's to connect all the receptacle's to the wiring. Stab-in's or quick-wire connections are not rated for 20 amps and after being over loaded a few times they will become loose.
I have found the best way to find these loose connection's is to turn on all the lights you can then using a plug in three light tester go to each outlet and plug in the tester and wiggle it around when you get to the bad one it will flicker the lights. The best way would be to tell the home owner that you will have to check and reconnect the wires to the receptacle screws. But beware that many times these receptacles wont have any, and for that matter some wont even have a box that there mounted in. as these are the ones that the UL and the NEC allow to be mounted without a box so be ready for these. I would at least check a few first then choose the course of action. Also over lamped fixture's are a big problem with the wires shorting out in the box's above them. A bad water heater element, or even a pipe heat tape could cause this.
 
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