One on me

I was told by my instructor after every break they become weaker and will break under a lower amperage. He also said after 3 trips they should be replaced and same goes for surge protectors.

I had a furnace that I couldn't find the breaker for. So I grounded it out. 20 amp breaker. Tripped the main... Oooops!

I had rep. for a electrical company tell me that breakers are only guaranteed for one trip, they may work after that but are only guaranteed for one trip.

So if you buy a "new" or different home first thing you should do is change the breakers cause you don't know how many times they have been tripped? Can honestly say I have never seen anyone do anything like that, and I would think if breakers had such a short life span that would be common practice. I would have to agree that I would think direct shorts cannot be good for breakers but not sure how they could put a number on it. If they were that susceptible to damage you would think they would make them inoperable after a dead short. In fact I'm surprised they haven't being that they could sell a lot more breakers and take more liability of themselves (the manufacturers) that is. If we just go back to glass screw in fuses we will all be safe:)

I do that kind of stuff when I am thinking! Changing a contactor two weeks ago while talking to my help and felt my pinky go into hyper drive....forgot to turn off the disconnect.

I have replaced many breakers because they had gone soft from being tripped repeatedly. I have also replaced breakers because they were Federal Pacific. That's about the same thing as not opening when they are supposed to.