Circuit breaker

[PukieTheClown]

I was hoping someone could help me with this problem I am having....
During a recent storm my garage flooded and there was an extension cord on the ground plugged in (i'm assuming that this is the cause of my problem) and it tripped my breaker. After I cleaned up and unplugged, I attempted to turn it back on but it would not stay so I bought a new breaker. That did not fix it. The power will not come back on into my garage. Any ideas?

[HayZee518]

was the connector body [ the thing you plug into] submerged in the water? extension cords with molded on apparatus [connector body] could have filled with water via capillary action and stays "wet" - if just the cord was submerged and having no breaks in it - then it shouldn't trip a breaker. a wet connector body with ground water [from garage] will track from one conductor to another and trip a gfci breaker. the path to ground is an imbalance between the hot and neutral. pure distilled water will not arc across, there needs to be some type of impurity in order for it to conduct.

[PukieTheClown]

Yeah the end of the cord was partially submersed. I have since unplugged the cord but still cant get the electricity back to the garage. The water was rain water mixed with dirty garage floor dirt. I dont know for sure if the cord is the cause of my problems, it just seemed like a good thing to blame.

[HayZee518]

you'll need to trace out the line from the panelbox to where it goes FIRST in the garage. my guess is that it goes to a receptacle that is ground fault protected. the code says that all receptacles in a garage be gfci protected. let' start with this.

[PukieTheClown]

It appears as though the line from the house goes into the garage to a seperate breaker box. From there it goes to 4 outlets (2 of which usually work) and to about 3 light bulbs.

[HayZee518]

ok, then what you have is a feeder to a sub panel in the garage. a two pole breaker in the house feeds a four wire cable to the garage panel. it is here that the branch circuits are "fused" from as you said. so, one of these breakers "trips?" or does the sub panel feeder breaker.......

[PukieTheClown]

It's the main breaker in the house

[HayZee518]

ok, then through the process of elimination is the way to go. in the house you have a main breaker to the sub, correct? what size is it? is there another main breaker in the sub panel in the garage, or is this a main lug panel only? if there is a MAIN in the garage, what size is it? [ I'll wait for you in the CHAT program shown at the top of the forum. - hayzee.]

[PukieTheClown]

must have missed you. In the house the breaker to the garage is a 2switch 20. Is that what you were looking for? In the garage is 3 switches.

[HayZee518]

ok you have a two pole 20 feeding the panel in the garage. do you have another MAIN in the garage? do you have yahoo internet messenger? my handle there is srf12980001.

[The Builder]

Make sure all breakers are in the on position. And make sure all the breakers are futioning properly. Once you find out that all the breakers are ok, then start checking the wiring connections to and for the garage. Once you find out that the wiring connections are intact, then check the receptacles. If the breakers are futioning properly and delivering power, and at the wiring connections power still exsist, then you have falty receptacles, or a tripped gfci.