Do Circuit Breakers Reset themselves?

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I know there are some that do - but -typically?

Yesterday, youngest was brutalizing the vacuum cleaner, picking up things it couldn't and eventually poof! No power from the outlets.
Realizing my breaker box is famously badly written as far as SPECIFIC rooms are - I reset a couple and didn't venture further, not wanting to reset someone's computer they were working on.

This morning - it would appear all is well - that it "fixed" itself without my intervention. I mean, I'm glad I don't have to throw all the switches, but it puzzled me -

My best guess is, it somehow reset itself.

Does that happen, a lot? I've read that some automatically try a reset once the temperature cools a bit.
 

Sneakers

Just sneakin' around....
And as I think about it, not sure I've ever seen a thermal breaker in a residential box. If there is a condition that trips a breaker, it should stay off until the condition is cleared and the breaker manually reset.
 

Tech

Well-Known Member
I did stay at a Holiday inn last night, did you confirm loss of power by a second device. Does the vacuum have a built in breaker. Most tripped breakers are easy to spot.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I did stay at a Holiday inn last night, did you confirm loss of power by a second device. Does the vacuum have a built in breaker. Most tripped breakers are easy to spot.
Vacuum was plugged into a socket I couldn't get power out of. This morning, it worked.
SOMETHING fixed itself, but I am not sure.
 

Tech

Well-Known Member
Makes sense. It did however manage to trip the breaker on the back porch at the same time. It's confusing when several things happen at the same time.
Breaker or GFI? Could be on same circuit. Outside, garage, kitchen, and bathroom are usually GFI.
 

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Ha thinking a breaker is for a specific room. The way most houses are wired are as many wires as possible are ran to a random breaker. My garage outlets are in with the kitchen and the bathroom medicine cabinet, none of those rooms are even adjacent.

Nothing you have in your breaker box should be able to reset itself. It could be he overheated the outlet and it lost contact. I would check the integrity of that outlet, they do wear out if they had a rough life. I have to keep replacing an outlet in my moms bedroom because she is awful hard on it.
 

black dog

Free America
Ha thinking a breaker is for a specific room. The way most houses are wired are as many wires as possible are ran to a random breaker. My garage outlets are in with the kitchen and the bathroom medicine cabinet, none of those rooms are even adjacent.

Nothing you have in your breaker box should be able to reset itself. It could be he overheated the outlet and it lost contact. I would check the integrity of that outlet, they do wear out if they had a rough life. I have to keep replacing an outlet in my moms bedroom because she is awful hard on it.
Put a 20A Commercial outlet in it. she will not wear that out.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton...q2fjBR7EM5sIpuu36pQaAvQsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
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