surge protector strip tripping the home CB?

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joshj81f1

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Mar 27, 2014
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I've been in a brand new home (newly built last year) and just this past month my rec room wall socket circuit breaker has started to trip. It will trip randomly but its doing it often. Once it tripped 3 times in one hour. I have about 6 outlets in the room and only 3 are in use but only two them use a surge protector strip ( the third is only running a bed side lamp). One protector has a PS4, TV, directv box and game controller charger set. The other protector has a high end laptop, monitor and router. Anyways, we had an electrician look at the CB box and outlets for any bad connections or what not. He said everything looked fine and that if it happened again that maybe the actual CB was faulty and they'd come back out to swap for new one. Well it started again and it got me thinking, is one of the strips faulty like one is just getting "old"? The Monster strip for the TV/PS4 is over 10 years old and the other generic strip could be 5ish. Also, could the power of the laptop going into recharge mode when I'm working with my high end programs (Photoshop, etc. which uses a lot of GPU, ram and CPU), could this cause the strip to feedback to home CB and trip it? I'm not 100% sure but I think the trips are happening at those times when working. They never seem to happen when I'm on the PS4.

Basically, should I buy new strip protectors to replace the old ones? I'm thinking a new circuit breaker will not change or fix the problem. Thoughts?
 
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Your post can be read many different ways. For example, by a 'wall socket circuit breaker', do you mean a GFCI? Or a breaker inside a mains breaker box? Is it a conventional breaker or an arc fault type? Are all those receptacles on the same breaker (I can only assume)?

Breakers rarely fail. Most failures including those often missed by electricians are...
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Someone Somewhere

Someone Somewhere

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Sep 23, 2012
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What's the rating on the breaker, what's the line voltage where you are, and are there any heaters or other very high energy consumption devices on the circuit?

It's quite hard for power strips to go bad; there's basically no electronics. Surge protectors do have some stuff, but usually either fail to short or open circuit.

Do either feel warm?
 
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americanaudiophile

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Aug 27, 2008
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None of the equipment you describe is capable of tripping what is probably a 15a circuit breaker. When a power conditioner is old the surge protection is usually not working anymore but does not cause this kind of problem I would guess that the circuit breaker is at fault. In a new home that can certainly happen.
 
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westom

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Mar 30, 2009
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Your post can be read many different ways. For example, by a 'wall socket circuit breaker', do you mean a GFCI? Or a breaker inside a mains breaker box? Is it a conventional breaker or an arc fault type? Are all those receptacles on the same breaker (I can only assume)?

Breakers rarely fail. Most failures including those often missed by electricians are traceable to the load or a wiring fault - not the breaker.

Instead of asking for help from a subjective post, post the power consumption for each item. Every item should list its watts or amps. Useful answers are only possible when numbers are provided. Even ampere rating for the tripping breaker was not provided.

Also appreciate what those power strips do. The Monster, for example, could create a house fire for reasons completely different from a tripping breaker. If a Monster is tripping a conventional breaker, then it is hotter than a bread toaster. If the breaker is a different type, then a long list of other suspects exist. Too many to list. And an example of why essential technical details with spec numbers are necessary to have a useful reply.
 
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