my wife had the hair dryer and portable heater turned on in the bathroom, so the GFCI in my garage reset and the one of the circuit breaker (for bathroom sockets) popped. Now I can't set the GFCI neither can I set the circuit breaker. Heater or dryer is not even plugged in any more and I am not sure if GFCI is blown up or a fuse in my circuit breaker is blown up. I tried resetting the main circuit breaker of the house but that didn't help.
Any ideas??
Thanks, Steve
To reset a tripped circuit breaker, you need to turn it off, then on. Simply trying to turn it on doesn't work.
The GFCI can't be reset until it has power.
Circuit breakers don't have fuses inside them.
Nope, it wouldn't. That's not where the problem is.
Turn the tripped breaker off. Then turn it on. Then reset the GFCI. If that doesn't take care of the problem, your best bet is to call an electrician.
The GFCI didn't cause the breaker to trip, overloading the circuit with the two heating appliances did. If the breaker won't reset, and there is nothing attached to the circuit, it could be a bad breaker. The way to test it is to remove the wire from the breaker, then try resetting it. If it still doesn't reset, its defective. If it does reset with no wire attached, you have a short circuit somewhere, which must be located and repaired
Then either you have a bad breaker, or a short circuit. Either way, I think it's time for you to call an electrician.
No, I don't. Why do you? There is no indication anywhere in your post that there is any kind of problem with the GFCI. The *breaker* is tripped, and as I've already pointed out, you *cannot* reset the GFCI without having power to it -- and until that breaker is reset, there won't be. Why do you think the problem is with the GFCI? There may be one, but (barring a short inside the GFCI itself, which is very unlikely) it isn't the *only* problem. It's necessary to find out why the breaker can't be reset. And to do that, I think you need to call an electrician.
Most likely, it didn't. The trip was caused either by the overload created with the hair dryer and electric heater, or by whatever fault condition is preventing you from resetting the breaker. It's possible that fault condition is inside the GFCI, but unlikely.
Since the circuit is dead, why not eliminate the GFCI as a possible problem by simply removing the wires to line side of it? Cap off the hot with a wirenut just to be safe and then try resetting the breaker.
I agree it's highly unlikely that it's the problem, but it seems like an easy enough task to either prove it is the problem or to eliminate it from the discussion.
I agree with RBM.
But you may have to push the breaker handle fairly hard to the "off" position to reset it.
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