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I went on a breaker flipping binge the other day because the panel at my house wasn't labeled and I had a doorbell transformer to replace. After I got the doorbell finished I realized the fridge wasn't running. Investigated and found that the issue is the breakers have some wiggle to them, not flopping around but if you apply slight pressure to top or bottom they move a fair bit. Can reliably get fridge to turn off by wiggling that breaker.

The Wiggle (animated gif but seems to only go if clicked on):
enter image description here

I'm not super comfortable with fussing in the main panel, I'm just wondering if I should expect an electrician to want to replace the whole panel? Does replacing the whole panel seem reasonable for something like this? Should I just swap out this one breaker for now and see if that helps?

Hart CO
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7 Answers7

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Boy, that's a classic. Is it a GE?

It's fine, just replace the offending breaker, and have your electrician check the others while he's there. The looseness is in the breaker, not the panel itself.

NPM
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Replace it (and check the others while you're there)

This sort of wobbling is a symptom that the contact jaws on the breaker have loosened up and are no longer making good contact with the stab "tab" on the busbar. Replacing the breaker will fix the problem -- you should check the others though as a loose connection like this will not get better with time!

ThreePhaseEel
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It not unusual for plug in breakers to "jiggle" a little. The question would be; Is it making a secure electrical connection. You can test this two different ways.

First get out an appliance with a substantial load. Use a toaster or hair dryer or I used to carry along a small 1500W unit heater. Plug it into the circuit in question and turn it on. Let it run for a while.

Second use an infrared thermal detector (they can be purchased for less than $40.00). Take a heat reading at the base of the breaker and see if it has an unusual rise in temperature. Or you can use a multimeter, it has to be able to read fractional voltages. Check the voltage between the line side of the breaker and the load side. What you are looking for is a substantial voltage drop across the breaker. Check across other breakers without a load for a normal drop, then see how much is building up with a load.

If you're up to it do both tests and evaluate if the breaker is burning up or is it holding a circuit just fine.

Good luck

Retired Master Electrician
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If the panel was made 40 to 50 years ago, I would replace the whole panel. Newer panels have better grounding and main breaker. Other problem you may run into no new breakers or even used breakers. The older panels don't have any GFCI breakers and today's code you need them in the bathroom and/or kitchen (Any where water and electric circuits meet.) -- 30 plus years as electrician.

John E Reese
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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this, but most of the time you can fix the wiggle just by pulling out the breaker and narrowing the contact jaws a bit using needlenose pliers.

Usually I also check if there is any carbon buildup (caused by arcing from the loose contacts to the busbar) and remove it with an emery fingernail board or sandpaper if necessary.

Finally, in really bad cases of prolonged arcing, then the busbar itself might be carbonized or pitted in which case I'll power down the whole house at the master breaker panel outside, remove all the breakers and either sand or replace the busbar.

Of course, the zero-risk answer is "Replace the breaker and/or panel", but a lot of times that is overkill if you know what you are doing and can intelligently evaluate the risk of repairing vs. replacing.

Psi Labs
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It's a "rule of six" panel. It has a top area of 8-12 spaces, containing legally a maximum of 6 breakers. One of them powers the rest of the panel. In effect it has its own subpanel.

So replace the "subpanel" area of the panel. Install a new real subpanel somewhere convenient, and power that from a double breaker in the upper area. Move all the lower (subpanely) loads from the old panel to the new one.

If you can get a 100A (?) breaker, you could hypothetically move every single load to the new panel, with the old rule-of-six panel having only one breaker. This is GE Q-line, which is still a current product, but "Rule of Six" panels have been outlawed for decades.

If you are extra clever, choose the new "sub" panel's spec and location so at some point in the future, the power feed could be cut over to it, promoting it to main panel.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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I’m usually pretty good at fixing almost anything around the house with electrical issues being my downfall. However, I just had the exact issue with a loose breaker. I removed the panel cover, shut down the power and pulled on the right side of the breaker and reset it in the clamps on the left. It was fixed in the matter of minutes with no issues.

Jim Curry
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