Have you ever had/seen a home circuit breaker fry without actually tripping?

Nasty storms and lightning through OKC this morning. 

Not sure if we got a direct hit (but it was the brightest and loudest I've ever heard and I've lived her for all of my 36 years.

The lights in the utility room, kitchen, dining room, and garage are all on that circuit........as well the garage door opener. And it killed my $200 cable modem and Amplifi router base.......so I'm not sure if came through the cable, the electric or what.

That circuit was the only thing not working, including some things that weren't plugged into a surge protector.

That really sounds like it came through the cable line--otherwise you surely would have had more things blow (or at least a tripped surge protector).

My in-laws had their phones burned out back in the day. Everything electrical was fine, but the phones were "roached".

My thoughts as well, but the cable line doesn't really explain the electrical circuit that's dead with a breaker in the "ON" position.  Sorry, maybe I didn't make that clear, the electrical circuit that fried is separate from what powers the modem/router. Those two bedrooms still have power and everything is working.

Thankfully I have an electrician coming out this afternoon. I could just replace the breaker, but knowing that it failed and didn't trip, I figure it's prudent to have a pro come ensure there isn't other damage.

In reply to z31maniac :

Yea I've seen that happen. I've only ever seen it in desert environments though.

What happened in our case was some dirt got into the breaker and caused the breaker hang up as it tried to trip. It ended up melting the 100A breaker closed allowing the surge to take a bunch of equipment with it.

I've also lost equipment through a cable line when I lived in Florida. As annoying as this is, I typically don't run a surge protector on the coaxial line because I've seen them introduce problems with that data stream.

No.  Sounds like fun, though.

The0retical said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Yea I've seen that happen. I've only ever seen it in desert environments though.

What happened in our case was some dirt got into the breaker and caused the breaker hang up as it tried to trip. It ended up melting the 100A breaker closed allowing the surge to take a bunch of equipment with it.

I've also lost equipment through a cable line when I lived in Florida. As annoying as this is, I typically don't run a surge protector on the coaxial line because I've seen them introduce problems with that data stream.

Yes, I've lost a modem/router before through the cable line. I also don't run a surge protector on the cable line and haven't for years because of the data stream interruptions you mentioned.

This happens all the time. If the bolt of lightning, or power surge exceeded the AIC rating of the breaker, it wouldn't even know that the spike happened. Most residential breakers are rated at 10k AIC or 10,000 amps interrupting current value. If the bolt of lightning exceeded that (very likely), the breaker never even saw it. So yes a 15 amp breaker will not operate if the surge was over 10,000 amps. Make sense? Yeah probably not, but that's what happens.

This is why AIC ratings are so important. You have to make sure the AIC rating is higher than the potential of the service entrance transformer, and such. Probably not a huge problem in the residential world, unless you buy a breaker rated for 5K AIC. However in industrial settings AIC is a big deal, and can change with the power company doing something as simple as swapping out transformers. Look at your breakers, in your home panel and they probably say 10K on them. In commercial and industrial panels they'll likely say 20K or higher.

That often happens when the cable isn't properly bonded.  There should be a bonding wire where the cable enters the building that runs to the ground rod at the power entrance.

And guess who feels sheepish now?

Thankfully I figured it out before the electrician got here, I forgot there is a GFCI outlet in the garage, reset, and the circuit works again.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get the damn garage door opener to reset so it will work. But the modem and router base, were still fried.

Bought a cheapy modem/router combo to get me by the next few days until the correct modem and router base get here. 

There's a 60A service breaker in our attic for the heater. The circuit breaker melted all the plastic around it before it tripped. Electrician said it "went bad." Threw a new breaker in and it's been fine for years. Scary.