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I was replacing defective/broken outlets in my folks' house this week, in preparation to sell it. So I went to the power panel and hit the appropriate breaker for the area I was working in. No problem until I got to the laundry room receptacles. There was no clearly marked breaker.

So I did the trial and error - plugged in a radio and started hitting breakers. None turned off the radio. So I turned everything off and worked backward and still no luck. So I went down the line 1,2,3,4 etc. turning breakers on. I hit breaker 17 (20amp) and the radio came on. So I turned on the remaining breakers. When I turned 17 off the radio did not turn off. Strange. So I tried a number of different on/off variations and found that when breakers 17 and 18 are off the outlets in the garage and laundry room are turned off. When on everything worked.

So I pulled the panel cover off and found a jumper (think that is the correct term) linking 17 and 18. I have no idea what that pigtail/jumper from breaker 17 (Garage/Outside GFI) and breaker 18 (D/S dining rm plugs). That pigtail basically keeps power running to both breakers unless both are turned off. I'm tempted to pull the jumper and see what happens. Won't hurt anything as the house is completely empty. Can anyone help me understand what that wire between the two breakers is doing there and if it will cause issues if removed?

Breakers

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FreeMan
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William Brown
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    In addition to the issue described, there appears to be something odd going on with the neutral wire from the Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter on circuit #18. – Theodore Feb 08 '23 at 16:10
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    Ugh. From the picture and my experience it seems universal that breakers are labelled just well enough to seem like they have meaning to anyone besides the person who wrote it down without actually doing so. I always wind up creating my own floorplan / schematic which I leave behind when I move. – Michael Feb 08 '23 at 17:22
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    That's a violation of NEC 240.8: "Fuses and circuit breakers shall be permitted to be connected in parallel where they are factory assembled in parallel and listed as a unit. Individual fuses, circuit breakers, or combinations thereof shall not otherwise be connected in parallel." Definitely not a factory assembly... – Lexington1776 Feb 09 '23 at 21:52

4 Answers4

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  • No telling why it was done without having the person who did it handy. we can speculate that it was to run a a high amperage load, which on average would be more likely to be in the garage for most people, but we can't know that. It's just a guess.
  • It is a code violation, should be removed ASAP. Even with no-one in the house, it's still a fire hazard in the event of a fault condition.
  • You should examine all the outlets and junction boxes on the affected circuits for any sign of damage from having 35A available before tripping rather than 15 or 20A, and replace any devices or cables/wires with signs of such damage.
Ecnerwal
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    Feels like a penny under a glass fuse… – Aloysius Defenestrate Feb 08 '23 at 02:16
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    Watch out for those copper plated zinc pennys. They just don't hold up to defeating your overcurrent protection like a good old fashioned copper penny. ;^) – Ecnerwal Feb 08 '23 at 02:17
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    I agree with your answer but think it may have been a way around a GFCI problem. – Ed Beal Feb 08 '23 at 02:38
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    @EdBeal But there's no GFCI to be seen on those circuits, is it? That 15A CAFCI in position 18 also doesn't seem to have anything else connected to it than the jumper to position 17. – TooTea Feb 08 '23 at 10:05
  • @TooTea the wide breaker, second from the bottom right with the curly neutral looks like a GFCI. Edit; never mind, your're right: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Square-D-QO-15-Amp-1-Pole-Combination-Arc-Fault-Circuit-Breaker/3364908 – Brad Feb 08 '23 at 15:50
  • Might even want to go a step further and hire a good licensed electrician to review all the wiring in the property. With such a dangerous setup inside that box, who knows what else lurks in more obscure places. – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Feb 08 '23 at 16:23
  • @Ecnerwal I have heard about people trying to defeat an apartment neighbor's overly loud stereo by sticking something metal in the outlet to blow the fuse, only to have it fail when said neighbor sticks said penny under the fuse... – Michael Feb 08 '23 at 17:24
  • I believe that is one of the strangest things I have ever seen. If I were to be called in on a service call, first I would just remove the ACFI Breaker and every conductor attached to it. Then I would walk around the house and see what isn't working. Regardless, @Ecnerwal is right it is dangerous and needs to be addressed. – Retired Master Electrician Feb 08 '23 at 21:21
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    @tootea you are right I saw the breaker and did not expand it to see it was an AFCI not a GFCI , ok same thing as DIY fix for a tripping AFCI – Ed Beal Feb 09 '23 at 14:20
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I don’t use homeline , but that looks like they are on the same lug or leg. This is a way that I have seen home owners bypass the GFCI, but then both breakers need to be off to kill the circuit. You have that figured out, but it is a code violation and could create a fire hazard as 2 20/15amp breakers are possibly in parallel - I'm not sure. However, removing the jumper will definitely be safe; the possible new problem will be a GFCI trip. I don’t use homeline but do love QO (square D) and the commercial grade square D.

Martin Bonner supports Monica
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Ed Beal
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That jumper is not needed. Remove it or a house inspector will. There is no reason that it is there. Leave the other wires where they are and just remove the jumper.

If you want the GFI breaker to work then take the wire from the left breaker and put it on the right breaker, but make sure the jumper is gone.

Rohit Gupta
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Joe C
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From what I see, it looks like breaker 17 was the original. They probably wanted to add a GFCI breaker in the garage, so they added breaker 18 but never removed breaker 17. They left 17 in place as a terminal, but should have either removed it and wire nutted the wires together or swapped 17 and 18 and just used 18 as a hole filler in the panel cover with no wires attached.

ThreePhaseEel
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Aaron
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    You're allowed up to 30,000 characters in an answer. Please feel free to spell out words like "breaker" instead of abbreviating them - it makes your answer much more readable. – FreeMan Feb 10 '23 at 18:21