Spot welder killed wall outlet?

[rg12]

Hey Guys,

I have this spot welder I've been using for a while no problem.
Got a stronger one which at 50% power tripped the power on that socket.
I raised the trip switch again and tried my new strong spot welder on my washing machine/dryer socket thinking it may be stronger than the others since it can hold my washing machine and dryer working at the same time.
Hit it once at 50% and the welder shut off, so I went again to the house electrical box to raise the tripped area and nothing has tripped!
Does that mean that I killed the trip switch or something? why didn't it trip? I got no electricity for my washing machine/dryer now.

also, I know that I shouldn't change to a higher rating trip switch since it may exceed the max amps of the wires but I read that on a welders forum, does that mean that it also applies to spot welders which only carry large number of amps for a brief moment?
Isn't there some kind of a huge capacitor that can make it work?

 

[e-beach]

.....
Hit it once at 50% and the welder shut off, so I went again to the house electrical box to raise the tripped area and nothing has tripped!
Does that mean that I killed the trip switch or something? why didn't it trip? I got no electricity for my washing machine/dryer now.....

Hard to say without putting a meter to it. You will probably have to open the socket to see if you fried a wire. If you open the socket and nothing is fried, then you may have burnt a wire between the socket and the circuit breaker (the trip switch.)

If you meter the socket and no electricity is coming out of it, and the circuit breaker is still on, then something is burnt somewhere between the socket and the breaker.

I know that I shouldn't change to a higher rating trip switch since it may exceed the max amps of the wires but I read that on a welders forum, does that mean that it also applies to spot welders which only carry large number of amps for a brief moment?

Amps are amps and wiring is wiring and if you pull more amps then the wiring is rated for, or the wiring is old, you may burn something to where you have no power to that part of the building (that circuit) If you are pulse welding, you need to know how many amps you are pulling with each pulse.

How many amps are you pulling?

Also, are you confident around electricity? I mean to say, can you open a wall socket and not electrocute yourself?

Can you meter the volts at the breaker and not electrocute yourself?

 

[aroundqube]

Best practice is to never use a circuit breaker rated for higher Amps than the wire gauge can support. A plug goes into a receptacle. Another test that you can do is a voltage test of the receptacle from Line to ground, and Line to Neutral . If no voltage is present, test for continuity from Neutral to ground. If no continuity, there may be a tripped Ground Fault Interrupter receptacle in the circuit, that has tripped. Since you are in the laundry room anyway, test for voltage from each receptacle slot to the cold water pipe behind the washing machine .

 

[rg12]

Well I'm confident enough for opening the socket after turning off the master switch in the panel but other than that I don't wanna mess with the panel itself.

If the wires burned somewhere between the trip switch and the socket, why wouldn't the trip switch trip to save the wires from burning? thats it's job isn't it?
It's like a BMS, I can connect a 300A controller to a 36V pack and it will shut off because after about 20A the limit is reached.

 

[e-beach]

Well I'm confident enough for opening the socket after turning off the master switch in the panel but other than that I don't wanna mess with the panel itself.

If you feel safe opening the socket with the master switch turned off then open it up and give the socket a visual examination and look for broken and burned parts. Do you know how to put a new socket in the wall?

If the wires burned somewhere between the trip switch and the socket, why wouldn't the trip switch trip to save the wires from burning? thats it's job isn't it?
.......

One would think. But unless you are 100% sure how and when the place was wired, one can never tell what is in an old house.

 

[amberwolf]

Sometimes you can't be sure how even a new one is wired. After my housefire, all the electrical/plumbing/etc was removed and redone, and the new water heater wiring was not connected completely at the terminals in the top of the heater (which could've caused arcing and a fire, but thankfully just didn't work at all so was easy to find and fix). There's also a breaker for the smoke alarms that just pops instantly when turned on. (they also swapped the main air intake and outlet tubes at the roof AC unit, and a number of other obvious/easy-to-catch issues, but I'm the one that found them, not the builders nor the city inspectors).

 

[Addy]

Pulses of high current like what you'd get with a spot welder can actually cause wires to jump around quite a bit - it's possible that a wire got pulled out or broken from this.

 

[skeetab5780]

Sounds like a tripped ground fault plug behind the washer, if you are tripping a 20a 120v house circuit you may want to see if the spot welder can run on 240v 20a and run a dedicated circuit to your desires location off a new 2pole breaker. This would be the easiest fix. They do sell 30 amp single pole breakers but i wouldnt recommend going that route since you would need to run 10-2 romex to power it.

The breakers are there to prevent burnt or ruined wiring in the first place so im 100% positive the wiring did not melt or burn