# Garage breaker keeps tripping



## rhanson85 (Apr 6, 2012)

Hello,

For the past few weeks I've been dealing with my garage breaker keeps tripping. The garage is not connected to the house. I will go and flip the breaker back on, and it will be fine for an hour or so, and i will check on it again and it will be tripped. There's a small panel in the garage with 3 breakers that aren't tripping and are on as normal, the one that trips is the breaker that is in the main panel in the house. That breaker powers the outside garage light, and the garage door opener (Craftsman 1/2 HP). 

A couple of weeks ago, I went out and unplugged the garage door opener for a couple of minutes, hit a green button on the back of the opener (not even sure what it is), plugged the garage door opener back in, and went and turned the breaker back on and it worked fine for over a week, and now just a couple days ago its still tripping non stop.

I cant think of anything that is triggering this, and have been keeping an eye on everything to try and figure it out, but all I can think is that the garage door motor is bad, or the breaker needs replaced.

Thanks for your help, this is so damn frustrating.


breaker by rhanson85, on Flickr

The bottom switch on that breaker is for the oil heater, the top one is the one that keeps tripping. The oil one hasnt tripped.


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## ddawg16 (Aug 15, 2011)

It could be as simple as a bad breaker.

Easy way to figure out....swap the wires with a similar sized breaker. If the problem follows the wire....you have some troublshooting to do.....if the same breaker keeps triping....replace it.


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## curiousB (Jan 16, 2012)

If it is garage door opener related (a big if) it could be spring are out of adjustment on the door. The opener is designed to open a well balanced door (springs balance the weight of the door). Openers will strain if the springs have stretched and are no longer doing their job. Motor current will rise and that could trip a breaker. If you can't easily open the door by hand (with opener disengaged) then the springs need maintenance. Those springs are dangerous so I recommend a door guy and not DIY.


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## k_buz (Mar 22, 2012)

It could be that the underground is going bad. When it trips, has there recently been rain? That would explain why the breakers in the garage aren't tripping...(I'm not sure how you have a panel in the garage when the breaker feeding it is 20A 120V)


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## biggles (Jan 1, 2008)

shut the garage breakers off then turn the house on on..trip? if it does it is the run out to that garage breaker panel from the tripped house one.if it doesn't trip...turn each garage breaker on one at a time.... see if that trips it...if still no trip plug the loads in "one at a time"that normally are on it there..


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## jbfan (Jul 1, 2004)

Bad wire from house to garage!


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