Why does my circular saw keep tripping the breaker?
Your circular saw keeps tripping the breaker due to a leakage or incorrect grounding or bad circuit breaker. Worn carbon brushes, and faulty circular saw blade are other reasons why your circular saw keeps tripping the breaker.
What Causes Leakage or Incorrect Grounding?
Leakage or incorrect grounding occurs when the live wire gets in contact with a ground wire. This causes the current to surge above the ratings over the circuit breaker turns. Impaired insulation of conductors inside the circular saw or in the supply outlet is one of the most common culprits of a leakage current. The leakage raises current flow and will eventually trip the circuit breaker.
Bad Circuit Breaker
The reason that the circuit breaker keeps tripping may be due to a bad circuit breaker. A common sign of a bad circuit breaker is that it is not rated for the starting load of the circular saw.
When to Know if Circular Saw Carbon Brushes Wear Out?
Another possibility of your circuit breaker trips is due to worn-out carbon brushes in a circular saw. The following are the signs that your circular saw carbon brushes need replacement:
- Your circular saw has a noticeable decrease in performance.
- If your circular saw has a burning smell, it is most likely due to a badly worn carbon brush.
- The circular saw does not turn on or it keeps on stopping.
Faulty Circular Saw Blade
A faulty circular saw blade causes undue friction that will increase the current flow. Dust or any rust in the ball bearing or rounding assembly prompts higher friction that can cause the circular saw blade to move improperly. This will likely lead to a circuit overheating and eventually increase the current flow across poles. The overloading will later then cause the circuit breaker to trip.
How to fix a circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker?
To fix a circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker try replacing the damaged cord, switching a bad circuit breaker, changing worn carbon brushes, or cleaning blade gearing.
How to Replace a Damaged Cord on Circular Saw?
A common solution to fix your circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker is to replace any damaged cord that could have leakage or grounding. You can do this by following these steps:
- Remove the screws attached to the gear case using a screwdriver or drill.
- Pull out the gear casing when all the screws are loosened.
- Loosen the screws that secure the cable and the screws holding the wires by using a flathead screwdriver
- Pull the wires out of the string relief and replace it with the new cord.
- Thrust the wires inside the wire holder and secure them by putting back the screws.
- Put the wire holder back in its place as well as the cable.
- Tighten back the screws which hold the cord.
- Fit the gear casing back on and fasten the screws to secure the casing by using either screwdriver or the screwdriver drill.
How to Switch a Bad Circuit Breaker?
Another way to fix your circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker is to change the circuit breaker by the following procedure:
- Open the panel door of the circuit breaker.
- Unfasten the screw that holds the front panel cover.
- Take the front panel cover off once the screw loosens.
- Test the circuit using a non-contact voltage if there is power coming in or none.
- Loosen up the screws that hold the wires in place.
- Pull the wires out.
- Be careful not to pull out other load lines from other circuits.
- Grab the front part of the circuit at the top and lift hard on it.
- Slide the new clips in.
- Push it down on the front part to lock it in place.
- Use nose pliers to get the wires back into the clips.
- Tighten the screws that hold the wires
- Make sure not to tighten it too tight so it won’t strip the wires.
How to Change Worn Circular Saw Carbon Brushes?
To check if your circular saw carbon brushes need a replacement and to eventually change them with a new set of carbon brushes, here are the following steps to fix a circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker:
- Unscrew the motor brush cap.
- Pull the old motor brush away from the brush holder.
- Check if it is worn down and replace the old motor brushes with the new set of brushes.
- Push the new set of brushes inside the brush holder.
- Slide the brush cap and screw it back.
Why does my circular saw keep tripping the GFCI outlet?
A circular saw that keeps tripping the GFCI outlet occurs when there is a leaking in current or the circular saw is defective. Frayed motor brushes, or pinched wire during assembly could be other rains for a circular saw to keep tripping the GFCI outlet.
Leaking Current or Internal Grounding
One of the most common reasons why your circular saw keeps tripping the GFCI outlet is due to a leaking current, or the bare ground wire touching the silver neutral screw inside the circuit. This most likely exceeds the current flow over the circuit breaker ratings.
Once the leaking current keeps getting higher, this will likely result in the tripping of the GFCI outlet.
Defective Circular Saw
If the GFCI outlet test functions properly, the culprit as to why a circular saw keeps tripping the GFCI outlet is the circular saw itself. The most possible reason for this is the circular saw might be defective and needs replacement.
Why do Circular Saw Motor Brushes Become Frayed?
A circular saw motor brush is an essential part of the circular saw. These brushes touch the commutator to supply power. Due to their function, they mostly wear out over time because of too much friction. This eventually would cause the circular saw motor brushes to frayed and would likely make a fault path due to carbon dust.
Why does my circular saw fuse keep blowing?
Your circular saw keeps blowing a fuse to due faulty wiring, a grounded power wire, or a damaged amplifier.
Faulty Wiring
Faulty wiring or connections increase current flow. So, when there is faulty wiring in a circuit, this most likely causes a blown fuse or a trip to the circuit breaker.
There are instances wherein the faulty wiring is not connected to the circuit breaker or circular saw but to the power outlet itself. It’s best to determine which has the defective wire first.
Grounded Power Wire
Another possible reason why your circular saw fuse keeps blowing might be due to a grounded-out power wire. This wire is important since it supplies power to the battery.
Once the power wire is grounded, it might lead to the fuse being blown.
Damaged Amplifier
An amplifier that blows a fuse might be due to internal damage. One of the usual reasons for this is the way the amplifier was installed.
Most of the time, an improper installation of an amplifier will not signify any signs that it is improper. You will just know that it was improperly installed when the fuse gets blown and there has been damage already.
Why does my Ryobi circular saw keep tripping the breaker?
The reason why your Ryobi circular saw keeps tripping the breaker is because of a leakage or incorrect grounding, excessive friction, or wrong/overloaded circuit breaker.
Leakage or Incorrect Grounding
One of the most popular reasons why your Ryobi circular saw keeps tripping is due to a leaking current or wrong grounding. The cause of this is the insulations of conductors.
Since leakage expands the flow of the current, this will give damage the circuit breaker and trips it eventually.
To fix your Ryobi circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker, here are the following steps:
- Inspect the cords in your Ryobi circular saw and check for any sign of scarring on the leads.
- Use a 3-pin or 2-pin adapter with no ground pin.
- These scarrings indicate a leaking current or incorrect grounding most probably due to internal damage inside the cord. Fixing this needs caution.
- Take off the gear casing by unfastening all the screws attached to the gear casing of your Ryobi circular saw.
- Loosen the screw that is holding the cable and the string relief using a flathead screwdriver.
- Take out the wires inside the string relief and put the new wires inside for replacement.
- Push inside the new wires and fasten them in the string relief using the screws.
- Place the wire holder and the cable in their original placements.
- Fasten back the screws attached to the wire to secure it.
- Put the gear casing back on and secure it by fastening back the screws.
Excessive friction
Another reason why your Ryobi circular saw keeps tripping the breaker might be due to excessive friction caused by the movement of your Ryobi circular saw blade.
Increased friction equates to a higher flow of current. The presence of any dust and rusting substances in the assembly or ball bearing leads to higher friction as well. Therefore, this likely make blade movement to be a bit restricted and eventually causes the breaker to trip.
Here are the steps to fix a Ryobi circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker:
- Open your Ryobi circular saw.
- Disassemble your Ryobi circular saw blade following safety measures.
- Look for any dust or mist in blade gear that can cause any rusting or jamming of the Ryobi circular saw blade.
- If in case there is any dust or mist, use a lubricant to clean the area as well as the blade.
- If cleaning the area does not make a better performance, consider replacing the ball bearings.
- Make sure not to put your Ryobi circular saw in an open surrounding, any dirt or mist might easily go inside of it and jam the parts of the saw.
Wrong or Overloaded Circuit Breaker
A wrong or overloaded circuit breaker might be the culprit as to why your Ryobi circular saw keeps tripping the breaker. This is because the circuit breaker might not be rated for the starting load of your Ryobi circular saw.
If this happens, it means your circuit breaker is underrated. This is important to check because the role of the circuit breaker is not to let the current flow above its ratings and ensures the protection and safety of your load.
The following are the procedure to fix your Ryobi circular saw that keeps tripping the breaker:
Check your Ryobi circular saw load rating against the circuit breaker current rating. Take note that the breaker should have at least more than 25%. You can also divide your load into two circuits and put your Ryobi circular saw in another circuit.
If this does not help, you should consider using a new circuit breaker that has higher ratings against your Ryobi circular saw.
