Electrical Help - Stove tripping breaker *CONCLUSION*

[mike31154]

So the wire that was blackened looked ok after stripping it back a few inches? Sounds like there might have definitely been some overheated copper there. Hopefully it only affected the immediate area around the wall socket. Heavy guage wire like that can be a bugger to work with. I'm actually surprised it's stranded wire, I would have thought it would be solid conductor. Which one was it, a hot or the neutral?

Scary stuff when you find somthing like that, it could easily have been an electrical fire. Good thing it turned out ok and the circuit breakers did their job.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by mike31154

So the wire that was blackened looked ok after stripping it back a few inches? Sounds like there might have definitely been some overheated copper there. Hopefully it only affected the immediate area around the wall socket. Heavy guage wire like that can be a bugger to work with. I'm actually surprised it's stranded wire, I would have thought it would be solid conductor. Which one was it, a hot or the neutral?

Scary stuff when you find somthing like that, it could easily have been an electrical fire. Good thing it turned out ok and the circuit breakers did their job.

The wire was only blackened a bit where it contacted the screw down connector(pole?) but the connector itself and the surrounding area was sooty. It was the red wire.

[JTaylor420]

well if your main breaker is tripping that is generally caused by a line to line short circuit, if one line is shorted or overloaded then it would simply cause the one breaker to trip (40A). The reason for breakers tripping is sensing the temperature of the wire via a bi metalic strip inside that will open the circuit should either condition be met. Anyhow the reason that any conductor 8 or larger is stranded is because electricity travels mainly around the surface of the conductor (skin effect) and the more individual wires the more actual surface area a conductor has (all cables have the same awg size above 8 just more strands are added for larger size cables.) Also another wonderful reason they strand wire is because it actually makes it substantially easier to bend ( just imagine bending a piece of solid copper the size of a pencil) anyhow not to get off topic but if your new stove still has problems tripping the breaker try loosening the clamps that actually hold the conductor in the box, as well as replace the actual stove receptacle and breaker. And if at all possible get a clamp on ammeter and open your panel with all coils on and see what each phase is actually drawing. Hope this helps.