How To Replace or Change a Circuit Breaker in your Electrical Panel & Why it's Tripping

If you've got a circuit breaker that's driving you nuts, maybe it's tripping all the time or just once in a while, this is the video for you because I'm going to show you how to replace a circuit breaker for under five dollars using tools you already have. Now many people don't realize that breakers themselves can actually fail. There have been many on the market that have been recalled or they're just subject to high humidity or things like voltage spikes and keep in mind any electrical work carries some type of risk and this may not be for you. All I can show you is how I did the replacement myself but you have to decide if this is safe for you or if you want to hire somebody else. You'll just need a flathead screwdriver along with a replacement circuit breaker and finally a roll of painter's tape. Now I already know it's a 15 amp breaker that I want to replace because it's been tripping for about a year and I know there's nothing else wrong with the circuit. Grab your phone and take a picture of the breaker itself. Now most people when they think about breakers are just worried about the amp rating. That's that 15 or the 20 that you see there but the thing you need to be concerned with are those numbers that are on the breaker because that is the part number that will help you get the right one when you go to the store. And now that you're here you see the square d boxes and everybody thinks they're a tough guy and they'll just go grab a 15 amp breaker and head for the register. Well you've got to be careful because many of these companies make multiple lines of breakers. You can see there's a red box and a blue box both made by Square D and the breakers look like they're the same. You've got to compare those part numbers to make sure you're getting the right type of breaker. And here's a replacement 15 amp breaker for my Square D panel. Now one thing you'll want to notice is here in the bottom you see what looks like a type of grease. Now some people will go and wipe that out of there thinking that it shouldn't be there but in fact that grease is actually designed to help it go into the panel. And before we install this I want to share one more really important tip and that's around how the wire attaches to the breaker. You can see that little screw terminal and many people will put the wire underneath their screw and they'll do it completely wrong. As we get a close-up here you need to insert the wire in between those two small plates. You're not putting the wire under the screw head and then we're going to screw it down tight. Now that we're at the panel you'll want to identify the breaker you want to replace, flip it to the off position and mark it using that painter's tape. Now this might seem like overkill but when you take the cover off the panel it's really easy to lose sight of which breaker you're working on. Now before you do anything else switch off your main breaker. You want to reduce any risk to yourself and have a flashlight ready so that you can do the replacement. Now you can remove the cover and just take off all the screws using your flathead screwdriver but remember this cover can be heavy and it won't stay in position once the final screws are removed so make sure you're holding on to it as you take it off. With your main breaker off you might not think there's any power in the panel at all but it doesn't work that way. When the power comes in for the street it's actually coming in from those top three wires. Now I have two black ones and one aluminum in the middle. Those wires are always live that means there's power there and you should never touch any of them. The only power that's off in your panel is from the main breaker and below and you can also verify that there's no power by using a multimeter or one of these inexpensive voltage detection pens. They'll light up and sound an alarm if there's any power present. Now that you know a bit more what you're doing in the safety let's swap the breaker out. So grab your flathead screwdriver and unscrew the screw that's on the end of the breaker. Once it's loose you can actually pull the wire that's feeding the breaker out. You'll just want to put it a little bit to the side. You might be surprised to learn the breakers aren't held in with any type of a screw or anything else. You can actually just grab the edge of it and you'll kind of force the breaker outward. If you're replacing a breaker on the right hand side of your panel like this you're going to likely push it outward and you'll see that the breaker will actually just come right out. Now if it was on the left hand side you'd just push it the opposite direction but that little key on the edge is what actually holds it in and then it's just friction that keeps it in place. Now with our opening ready just grab your new breaker and you can't just push it straight in. If you try to put it in like this the breaker will not go in. To do it the correct way you're actually going to insert the breaker at an angle and now that little hook in the end will engage and once it locks in you can actually push the opposite end of the breaker in. It'll definitely feel right when it goes in and there's no way to put this thing upside down or backwards. Now just take your wire and insert it into the breaker itself. Now some breakers have those screws tight right from the store so you may need to loosen it up first but remember at the beginning of the video you don't just shove that wire in anywhere. Be sure it goes between those two small plates. Another important thing is to hold onto that wire when you're tightening it. If you don't it can be forced out and it can actually have a loose connection so just keep it held in place while you're screwing it down and then you want to make sure the screw is nice and tight. You're not trying to break the screw head off but you want to make sure it's really snug and that the wire is totally secure. The new breaker is in now we've just got to replace our cover. Now these things can weigh a lot so you want to make sure that you keep a good solid hand on the cover before you screw it down. You might even need to wiggle the cover a little bit so that everything kind of locks in position and you'll know when you get it right and then you can put the screws in. Now with everything snug and looking good we can go ahead and turn the power back on by flipping on our main breaker. Now those main breakers can need a little bit of force to turn them on so I recommend using two thumbs like I'm doing here. Makes it a little bit easier when it snaps into position. So for under five dollars in less than 15 minutes of your time your breaker's been replaced. Now hopefully this solves your problem but if it didn't it was still a good thing to do but even if you don't do this job yourself and you hire somebody else at least you now know what's involved. Now with any electrical work I can't tell you if you can do this job I could only show you how I did it and try to give you some advice but if you're not comfortable call an electrician in and at the very least now you'll understand more about what's involved with this job. I hope this video was helpful if it was please give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you're not already for more videos coming up.