Water in panel, and other weird problems

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spark master

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New construction job:

Last month after a monsoon, had little tiny bit of water in-between 2 breakers. Panel mounted in garage... on exterior wall. GFI breaker was toasted internally. Weird thing.. no other water was found in the panel. Only in between 2 breakers in the middle of the panel. Only knew it was a problem, because the GFI breaker wouldn't reset. Even with the load wire removed, the breaker wouldn't reset. Obvious water damage.
Replaced the breaker, problem solved.

Never found the water leak. 2 professional guys looked at the clapboards, window trim, everything on the outside wall. No signs of water entry.
Exterior Meter pan is actually 2' below the panel, and the feed comes up from below into the panel. So it's not like water is coming in the meter pan, and trailing inside the SER.

Never had another problem, not that we looked inside panel after every rain storm.

Today, new crew on the job. Big Table saw plugged in. Here is where the weirdness starts, and I'm scratching my head.
3 breakers trip. (2) single pole breakers. 1 for the saw, and 1 for general lighting. Those reset just fine.
now.. get this.. 2 pole, 30a oven breaker trips. No reason, oven was off. This breaker fried internally. It would reset, and then trip again in 2 minutes.
I replaced the breaker, all is back to normal.

I hope you're following this. How did the oven breaker fry? From a table saw load? or possibly previous water damage is just showing up now ?

I'm stumped.....
This is all new work, new panel, new everything ?
Could a surge fry breaker on another circuit?
Could water damage show up 2 months later ? Buss bars are fine. Look new. No oxidation. No arcing, nothing looks wrong visually.
 
Any raceways or cables leaving top of panel that moisture could be migrating through? This even more common of an issue if they go to exterior or into a attic space that gets cold and humidity condenses within.
 
Yes, the entire house is fed from the top of the panel, all NM, to the garage ceiling, across the garage, and into the attic.

What about the 3 tripped breakers from a table saw?? How does that happen?
 
spark master said:
Yes, the entire house is fed from the top of the panel, all NM, to the garage ceiling, across the garage, and into the attic.

What about the 3 tripped breakers from a table saw?? How does that happen?
Click to expand...

Is paper filler in any cables damp? That would indicate it came through that particular cable. Look particularly harder at any conductors that hit breakers above where you found the water.

Three tripped breakers not associated with the circuit the saw was connected to? Standard breakers shouldn't happen at all, unless there is interconnection between those circuits somewhere - it does happen sometimes. GFCI or AFCI - not so much of a surprise, they are susceptible to seemingly outside interference at times.
 
kwired said:
Is paper filler in any cables damp? That would indicate it came through that particular cable. Look particularly harder at any conductors that hit breakers above where you found the water.

Three tripped breakers not associated with the circuit the saw was connected to? Standard breakers shouldn't happen at all, unless there is interconnection between those circuits somewhere - it does happen sometimes. GFCI or AFCI - not so much of a surprise, they are susceptible to seemingly outside interference at times.
Click to expand...

Today, 3 regular breakers. Only 1 was connected to the table saw.
QO breakers. If that helps.
 
spark master said:
We ordered a QO surge suppressor. Then I'm going to get the table saw guys to come back. :cool:
Click to expand...
That will absorb energy from transient voltages, won't change how much the saw demands. Could take on some inductive kickback that the saw might create, but that usually isn't a problem with standard thermal magnetic breakers - can be with GFCI/AFCI.
 
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