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I was replacing defective/broken outlets in my folks' house this week, in preparation to sell it. So I went to the power panel and hit the appropriate breaker for the area I was working in. No problem until I got to the laundry room receptacles. There was no clearly marked breaker.

So I did the trial and error - plugged in a radio and started hitting breakers. None turned off the radio. So I turned everything off and worked backward and still no luck. So I went down the line 1,2,3,4 etc. turning breakers on. I hit breaker 17 (20amp) and the radio came on. So I turned on the remaining breakers. When I turned 17 off the radio did not turn off. Strange. So I tried a number of different on/off variations and found that when breakers 17 and 18 are off the outlets in the garage and laundry room are turned off. When on everything worked.

So I pulled the panel cover off and found a jumper (think that is the correct term) linking 17 and 18. I have no idea what that pigtail/jumper from breaker 17 (Garage/Outside GFI) and breaker 18 (D/S dining rm plugs). That pigtail basically keeps power running to both breakers unless both are turned off. I'm tempted to pull the jumper and see what happens. Won't hurt anything as the house is completely empty. Can anyone help me understand what that wire between the two breakers is doing there and if it will cause issues if removed?

Breakers

Notice

FreeMan
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William Brown
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4 Answers4

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There is no telling why it was done without asking the person who did it. We can speculate that it was to run a a high amperage load, which on average would be more likely to be in the garage for most people, but we can't know that. It's just a guess.

It is a code violation and should be removed ASAP. Even with no-one in the house, it's a fire hazard in the event of a fault condition.

You should examine all the outlets and junction boxes on the affected circuits for any sign of damage from having 35A available before tripping rather than 15 or 20A, and replace any devices or cables/wires with signs of such damage.

nobody
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Ecnerwal
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That looks like they are on the same lug or leg. This is a way that I have seen home owners bypass the GFCI, but then both breakers need to be off to kill the circuit. You have that figured out, but it is a code violation and could create a fire hazard as 2 20/15amp breakers are possibly in parallel - I'm not sure. However, removing the jumper will definitely be safe; the possible new problem will be a GFCI trip.

nobody
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Ed Beal
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That jumper is not needed. Remove it or a house inspector will. There is no reason that it is there. Leave the other wires where they are and just remove the jumper.

If you want the GFI breaker to work then take the wire from the left breaker and put it on the right breaker, but make sure the jumper is gone.

Rohit Gupta
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Joe C
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From what I see, it looks like breaker 17 was the original. They probably wanted to add a GFCI breaker in the garage, so they added breaker 18 but never removed breaker 17. They left 17 in place as a terminal, but should have either removed it and wire nutted the wires together or swapped 17 and 18 and just used 18 as a hole filler in the panel cover with no wires attached.

ThreePhaseEel
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Aaron
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