My step daughter called and said the circuit breaker went off for their bathroom. She tried to reset the breaker and it won't reset. what could the problem be? She is afraid her house will catch on fire.

More than likely the GFCI plug. But most times they kick instead of breaker. Is she resetting breaker in panel .? Or GFI plug. Not lot other than exhaust fan which could be problem . Tell her to turn light and fan off see if breaker resets. BUT if shes talking about the gfci plug just replace it happens all the time.

You got a bad breaker or there's a short in the wiring someplace.same thing happened in one of my bedrooms.my son had installed a ceiling fan a few years before.it kept throwing the breaker.i took the fan apart and found a bare wire that was shorting out.

This it'd be my guess too. Breakers go bad so I'd try a new one first, or swap it with one of the others in the panel. Trips again, then look for a short.

Are you sure she’s turning it all the way off and then back on. Or just trying to reset it from the center position could be the problem.

^^ That was my thought as well.

X2

GFCI tripped is my bet !

Thanks for the replies, I will let my step daughter know what you folks said.

So what’s the verdict ?

Sometimes they do their job and there’s a fault. If you got access to a megger or ohm meter you could check. Sometimes an ohm meter will say it’s clear, but the megger finds the problem. Older federal breakers are know for not tripping, can plug in what ever you want, that’s what I got. I just make sure I don’t overload any circuits. Probably cost me $2000+ to replace my panel so I just be careful….lol. Functional smoke alarms and full insurance is a must.

Sheesh, $2k to replace a panel! Ouch. I think I redid the entire electrical system, everything downstream from the meter including 2 panels, in our house for about the same. Excluding fans and fixtures, I guess.

mine also , they go bad often in high moisture environments I have replaced a few in my outdoor outlet about every 3-4 years. probably not helping I bought the cheap ones.

try reset first if not replace , use a meter to measure it has power to the terminals before replacing.