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I live in a older trailer and yesterday I had a breaker trip. It trips after 15 seconds every time I reset it. What is funny is that the breaker works things on the back side of the trailer like the venthood, a light in the kitchen, an outlet in the living room, the ceiling fan in the living room, a outlet in the middle bedroom, and two outlets in the last bedroom.

I looked at the outlets, the wires look fine. Can an outlet go bad? Or could it be the venthood or ceiling fan?

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    Does the breaker trip immediately on reset, trip immediately when a specific thing is turned on, or does it take a specific combination of things to trip the breaker after a while?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Jan 17, 2017 at 0:08
  • well in about 10 or 15 seconds and the vent hoood off the ceiling fan off and nothing is plugged in
    – james bardwell
    Jan 17, 2017 at 0:23

2 Answers 2

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If the circuit breaker trips every time you reset it, then first: stop resetting it! There's almost certainly some sort of overload or short on the circuit, and the breaker is saving your trailer from a fire. If you try hard enough you may convince the breaker to stay on; your reward would be some very cool fireworks and a perhaps-denied insurance claim.

Your next job is to figure out what's tripping the breaker. Unplug or turn off everything on the circuit and try again (once). If the breaker still trips, then you probably have some sort of fault in your wiring.

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  • i have nothing plugged in and the vinthood off ceiling fan off. could it be a outlet even if nothing is plugged in?
    – james bardwell
    Jan 17, 2017 at 0:19
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    Since you've unplugged everything, then yes -- it's something in the fixed wiring. (Not an exhaustive list, but the first that jump to mind: faulty breaker, bad connections in wiring, nails through wiring, critters chewing insulation, bad outlets/switches.) If you're not feeling strong with electrical knowledge, this kind of troubleshooting is tough.
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Jan 17, 2017 at 0:39
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    i forgot to tell you i put a new breaker in to day.still tripping that why i came here to ask around .and thank you for trying to help me out
    – james bardwell
    Jan 17, 2017 at 1:09
  • i can rule out nails i have not put any in the wall in about 7 years
    – james bardwell
    Jan 17, 2017 at 1:12
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    Turn everything off and look at that outlet first. My money is on a loose wire/short in it.
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Jan 17, 2017 at 1:57
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I had the same issue and it turned out to be an extension cord I had running to the pool outside was the problem I unplugged it and no issues

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