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While looking in one of the two panels inside my house, I found a clear sticky goo had worked its way down the main feed cable from inside the sheathing and into the 200amp breaker. The goo continued through the 200 amp breaker and dripped onto the top breakers below. I found it very difficult to open and close the breaker. It did function correctly each time though. My concern is that due to the increased force required because of the goo the breaker may not open if it ever needed to. I already had one electrician say its probably nothing to worry about but looking for more opinions. Should I be looking to have it replaced?

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    My opinion only(not electrician) is you want breakers to be perfect. Not fun if they fail to trip. Finding where it comes from and what the goop is, might be important. Main/most breakers are not used manually enough(less than once in ten/twenty years) to stop goop from gluing stuff up.
    – crip659
    Commented Sep 24 at 17:11
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    It looks to be puddling on top of the branch breaker under the main breaker in the second picture, too. That's a lot of goo. As Crip659 says, you have to find out where the goo is coming from and stop it. Main breakers take rather more force than branch breakers to turn on/off, but with that goo inside, you're looking at a new main breaker, possibly some branch breakers, also, after you stem the goo.
    – Triplefault
    Commented Sep 24 at 17:16
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    you cannot prevent a breaker from tripping by holding the lever
    – jsotola
    Commented Sep 24 at 17:17
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    Might not prevent the the breaker from tripping, but might break it enough to not turn on again. No goo, but my main breaker did break turning it back on for the electrician. Just lucky he was there to pull meter and replace the breaker.
    – crip659
    Commented Sep 24 at 21:16
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    I want to know where that goo is coming from such that it is able to get inside the breaker box... The only possibility I see would be along the feeder cables or onto the top of the box ..
    – keshlam
    Commented Sep 25 at 11:18

4 Answers 4

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The actual tripping of a breaker is inside. Breakers are actually required to "trip free" so that if there is goo gumming up the works or, even worse, somebody physically locks a breaker so that nobody should turn it off (legitimate in certain safety situations but not a good idea in general) it will still trip.

That being said, if there is any reasonable possibility that:

  • The goo got inside the breaker, or
  • The goo is corroding the breaker from the outside (i.e., could get inside)

then replacement makes sense.

A related concern is that the goo may contaminate the bus bars - i.e., the metal behind all the breakers. Depending on what this goo is and how much there is, a full inspection and cleaning may be needed. Which needs to be done really carefully and with the power totally off by pulling the meter, unless there is a full disconnect before this panel.

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    My power company offers a free once a year disconnect service. Your cost might vary depending on the company.
    – crip659
    Commented Sep 24 at 18:39
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    Whips, missed the mention of pulling the meter. My error.
    – keshlam
    Commented Sep 24 at 18:51
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    The goo does look like it is getting inside the breaker.
    – crip659
    Commented Sep 24 at 19:56
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    Depending on what the goo is, if it happens to be something conductive, it could be extremely hazardous to even touch the breaker without full power disconnect, and could possibly be a fire risk if not stopped.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Sep 25 at 8:18
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I've worked on direct buried cable before, and they have a heavy sticky clear grease between the wires to help exclude water.

This grease is often silicon-based (silicone) and is very hard to clean up because it doesn't clean in water.

I bet your cable is rated for direct bury so it is greased, AND the box gets warm enough to allow this grease to become more fluid. Gravity is pulling it down out of the wire sheath and onto the bolt-lug area.

If the grease is getting inside the breaker then the breaker's housing is not sealed and waterproof. There must be some holes allowing the grease inside the mechanism.

If the wire were entering upward from below, this would not be an issue.

If you're not comfortable with the setup as-is, then you'll forever worry about it. I'm not sure of the legals, but is it possible to terminate this greasy cable in another box or back a little, then pigtail it onto a length of indoor-rated cable and connect that to your new breaker?

That way any grease that drips will not run into the breaker, and frankly you don't need waterproof cable at that part of the run.

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The problem with overcurrent breakers (unlike GFCIs/RCDs) is that it isn't really feasible to test them in service. The testing process would simply be too hazardous.

It is true that modern breakers, at least in the US and Europe are designed to "trip-free", that is obstruction of the handle should not saffect the actual trip mechanism.

However in your picture, it looks like the goo has entered the breaker through one of the terminals, and found it's way to the handle. It seems very likely that it has found it's way into other parts of the breaker too, and gummed up the trip mechanism or the arch chutes. I really don't think that breaker can be relied on to perform as intended and safely disconnect a short circuit. As such if you are relying on that breaker as a breaker it should be replaced.

That said, you mention you have two panels. Is this the main panel or a sub? if it's a sub then the "main breaker" is typically not actually serving as a breaker but merely used as a disconnect switch with the protection being provided ad the upstream panel.

Also you also need to take steps to stop the problem happening again. I suspect the goo is being caused by breakdown of the insulation either due to a manufacturing defect or due to overheating somewhere. Ideally all of the affected wiring would be replaced but if that is impractical you should at least try to arrange things to keep the goo out of breakers.

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  • Circuit breaker test tools aren't all that big, you just need to find an industrial electrician. Some jurisdictions with high-rises and apartment blocks require regular testing of critical breakers. An amp is an amp, so they just run the current at a few volts.
    – user71659
    Commented Sep 25 at 7:29
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    @user71659 -- that is possible to do up to a few hundred amps or so, but at thousands of amps (big breaker instantaneous current), things start getting pretty hazardous...
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Sep 25 at 11:43
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There are some issues to be sorted out before deciding whether the goo problem is serious or not.

  • What is the goo and how did it get there?
    • Is the goo conductive, or is it dielectric? Was it a one-time accident, or is it "flowing through" constantly? Is the goo getting thicker and stickier?
    • Clean it and/or prevent it from flowing down (on) the cables.
    • If conductive, change the breaker immediately. An "off"/tripped breaker could be rendered useless by the goo bridging the gap between the breaker's contacts, meaning current could still flow.
  • Check the breaker's functionality
    • Breaker functionality should be done by an experienced electrician. The thing is measuring the tripping characteristic.

To be honest, I'd suggest "If in doubt, change it out" approach because it's better to be safe than sorry. So, clean it out, prevent more goo to appear and change the breaker.

The breaker might work safely (trips when needed), but it may turn into a fuse (once it trips off, it cannot be switched back on, so it will need to be replaced). In the extreme case, it can glue always-on.

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    I mean, it's one breaker, Michael. What could it cost? 10 dollars?
    – stannius
    Commented Sep 27 at 13:51
  • @stannius A 200A main breaker is more like $100 than $10. But also a bit more work than changing a branch breaker because you have to show up power - likely pull the meter.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Sep 27 at 14:45
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    @stannius That's a 200A breaker. Think $100-200 for something like that. And you have to have the utility shut it off (probably by pulling the meter).
    – Machavity
    Commented Sep 27 at 14:45
  • Depending on locale, here we usually have provider's grid -> master fuses (3x 230 V) -> meter -> breaker box. So unscrewing fuses make you safe without touching the meter.
    – Crowley
    Commented Sep 27 at 15:31

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