Circuit Repair Vs. Circuit Replacement: What’s the Best Choice for Your Home?
Your circuit breaker panel plays an essential part in keeping your home and family safe. If an unexpected power surge ripples through your electrical lines, the breaker will trip and stop supplying power. This protects your appliances and prevents fires from happening.
While a blown fuse or tripped breaker means your circuit breaker is doing its job, these issues shouldn’t happen all the time. If you constantly have a tripped breaker, it may mean that you have an underlying electrical problem that needs to be addressed. To find out if you need a circuit repair or circuit replacement, read on.
What Is Circuit Repair?
A blown breaker panel fuse, water damage, or loose wires are indications that you need circuit breaker repair services. While these problems can lead to more serious problems and be quite dangerous, you can easily avoid future issues by getting a professional inspection from our team of electricians.
Blown Breaker Panel Fuses
Whenever you overload a circuit, it can trip the breaker or blow the fuse. This is a failsafe that stops electricity from flowing, preventing fires and overheated wires. If you experience this problem a lot, it indicates there is an underlying issue that needs to be repaired. You should have one of our gifted electricians examine the panel to make sure there isn’t a major malfunction.
Water Damage
Water damage can be extremely dangerous when it comes to electricity. Give us a call right away to figure out if this is a repairable problem.
Loose Wires
Loose or damaged wires can occur over time, leading to electrical hazards. Fortunately, this problem is easy to fix for a certified electrician. As long as this is the only complication you’re facing, you can likely get circuit repair instead of a full replacement.
What Is Circuit Replacement?
There are a few instances where you may need a total circuit breaker replacement instead of simple repairs. For example, old wiring, overheating, and burning smells all indicate that something fundamental is awry with the panel. If you need frequent repairs or want a higher capacity, a replacement is also a good plan.
Signs You Might Need More Than a Simple Repair
Are you uncertain about how to fix a breaker that keeps acting up? If you are experiencing odd issues with your circuit breaker panel, give us a call right away because you likely need more than a basic repair. One of our knowledgeable, vetted electricians can quickly inspect your panel to determine if it needs to be repaired or replaced. Typically, we find that replacements make more sense in the following situations.
- You have multiple switches or outlets that are experiencing problems.
- No matter what you do, it seems like your breakers keep getting tripped.
- Even when you get the breaker repaired, the same problem crops up again.
- Your home was made with aluminum wiring.
- There are scorch marks near the power outlets.
- You smell a burning odor.
- There is a buzzing noise emanating from your breaker panel.
Why the Right Call Matters
Your electrical systems aren’t just an integral part of your home. If they aren’t maintained properly, they can end up causing an electrocution or fire. At the very least, unregulated power surges can cause your appliances to die prematurely. Because of this, it’s important to get professional help if your circuit breaker is acting up.
Circuit breaker replacements can become necessary because of many different root problems. The following are just some of the most common reasons why our electricians end up replacing circuits.
- Ground Faults: If something is wrong with the grounding, current can leak out and trip the breaker. For the safety of your home or business, this problem needs to be fixed right away.
- Overloaded Circuits: An overloaded circuit can happen if you plug in too many devices to the same circuit. Often, older homes weren’t actually designed to handle the number of electrical appliances and devices a modern family has. Eventually, these ancient electrical circuits can get overloaded and overheat, necessitating their replacement.
- Age of the Panel: As an addendum to the last replacement rule, it’s generally a good idea to replace your circuit breaker panel after it reaches 25 to 40 years old. Aging breaker panels are more likely to malfunction, which is why it’s so important to get them replaced in a timely way.
- Wear and Tear: Sometimes, natural wear and tear can cause circuit breakers and panels to wear out.
- Short Circuits: Short circuits take place when hot and neutral wires cross. This allows too much current to flow, which triggers the breaker to flip.
Ultimately, all of these situations are early warning signs that something is wrong with your electrical panel. If you don’t get it inspected, it can overheat and become a fire hazard. By getting a professional circuit inspection, you can prevent your foundering circuit breakers from completely failing.
Tips From Melbourne Mister Sparky: How To Stay Safe and Proactive
To ensure your electrical system is working the way it is supposed to, keep the following electrical safety tips in mind.
- Avoid overloading your circuits with too many appliances or power strips.
- Schedule regular electrical inspections to ensure all of your systems are working correctly.
- Be proactive. If you notice an issue, you should reach out for help right away before it can become worse.
- Replace old electrical outlets and damaged wires.
- Never use anything to replace a fuse that isn’t an actual fuse.
Repair or Replace? Let Mister Sparky Help
Whether you need a circuit breaker replacement or simply want circuit repair, our team can help. At Mister Sparky, we offer the electrical repairs, inspections, and maintenance services your home needs to stay safe. For more information, give us a call today.
Don’t put up with any malarky, call Mister Sparky!