This is a electrical question. I have been experiencing some electrical issue in my mobile home. I pretty sure that my main breaker is going bad since I'm loosing power to parts of the home that seem to be on one side of the breakers, It will loose power then come back on later. I have felt all the breakers and they don't seem warm or hot to the touch. Since it doesn't happen every day my guess is one side is going bad on the main 100 amp breaker. I'm not sure some of your gentlemen have dealt with this before? I did pick up a new breaker at Lowes tonight but the guy on hand wasn't too informative. Its a GE panel but they didn't have the brand so I bought a Siemens 100A which looks to be the same as the one I am replacing. I know I have to kill the power to the main outside at the pole. Is there anything else to do before I pull the breaker? Thanks Guys. Sorry didn't really have anyone else to ask.

 

Unless its a very old main breaker or panel, I'd suspect that you're loosing a "phase" from your incoming power line (one side of your 220 volt line), since you stated that you seem to loose one side of power within the panel. This happened to me once several years ago and I ended up calling my power provider to address their supply side power line. They came out and fixed my power feed line coming into the home and that addressed the issue.

 

To be honest. This is a 1970 mobile home and I don't think the breaker has been changed? I did have to repair the lines from the outside box a little while back since I cut them with a shovel about 10 years ago. It seems the previous owner didn't run the lines in protected manner to the pole. My electrical experience is very limited so I just repaired the lines and sealed them. Electricians aren't cheap and I know how to cut power but going into the outside box is too risky for me. Our power company only covers from their pole to mine but not the box. I have to pay for that. I can't really get into it till the weekend. I will shut that power off and inspect those lines going in to see if anything may be loose or corroding going on. It's clear I am loosing one side from the way it's acting. It may help to just completely go through it and look into digging everything up and running some electrical pipe without going into the box? Thanks you gave me some ideas.

 

You can check it with a meter(vom) and see if indeed you are loosing a leg or not. This would be the thing to do first before anything.

 

Yep, check for power coming into the breaker, then check and see if anything is coming out of the breaker. (assuming you find there IS power coming in. )

I have had breaker go bad. I replaced my dishwasher, because it stopped working. Imagine my surprise when the new one didn't work either. Swapped the breaker, problem gone.

Breakers do get weak, or fail as they age. Environment plays a big role here as well. My basement (where the box is) is pretty humid..... (michigan basement.) So, I have had to replace several breakers that just stopped working at all, or, would trip way to easily.

 

That's what I am trying to figure out. It not acting like a over loaded breaker where if you turn on a lot of things it will trip the breaker. It will be running fine then out of nowhere it fails. I went in and felt the breaker and it was fine no heat or smell and the breaker its self isn't tripped. The lines coming in the fuse box are above ground and covered up from the weather and they look good. I had to repair them about maybe a couple months ago due to they were corroded when they were under ground. When they failed, I would like to just runs new lines from the outside box to the inside box to solve that break in the line repair so I wont have to worry about the corrosion issue again but I have never replaced anything on the pole before. I have been trying to find a good video on doing that. Electricity isn't something to play with.

 

Sounds like you have a bad electrical feed wire coming into the house and is likely grounding itself periodically depending upon outside conditions. Definitely something to get fixed so that you can have reliable power again.

 

In most places, it isn't legal for you to touch anything beyond your meter. Everything after that belongs to your power company. Give 'em a call, let 'em know what's going on, and see what they say.

 

I'll admit to one major phobia. It's why I'll braze but I don't weld. I'm scared of electricity. I got hit with 220 as a kid and ever since, nope, not for me.

That said, is your wiring in the mobile home copper or aluminum? I'd have an electrician look at the wiring. I remember a bunch of fires decades ago because of aluminum wiring in mobile homes. I think aluminum was phased out in 1971 or '72.

 

Oh yeah..... I have done the 60 cycle boogie more times than I care to count. I worked construction for a couple summers while in was in college. Started with a hole in the ground, and ended when the folks moved in. We did everything. I have been knocked across a room a couple times by 220...... Definitely will make your hair stand on end.