interesting electrical box issue

So, a friend calls me and says that the main breaker in the box is real warm, warm enough that he smelled it down the hall.
Take a look, sure enough it's incredibly warm. multimeter probe puts it at about 130F, too hot to hold your hand against it.
voltage checks out at about 112 at a socket 215 at the main, normal for around here.
Couldn't find any appliance drawing current in excess. Unplugged the dryer, range and such, let it sit for a few hours, still hot.
Service is 100 Amp, 220V.
any ideas?

 

Call an electrician.

 

Change the breaker, or have an electrician do it. If it's that hot at the surface, it's likely a lot hotter inside, very much hotter if you can smell it. Excess current should pop the breaker without getting it that hot. In the mean time, shut that breaker down, and see what dies, to determine exactly what is on that circuit. Fires inside circuit breaker boxes aren't common, but they do happen. Pull the breaker now.

 

I had a similar problem a couple of months ago. Kept smelling an electrical odor, finally traced it to a wall plug I had a small tv and lamp plugged into. Unplugged them both and that night I kept smelling the odor, checked the plug and it was so hot you couldn't touch it.

I was afraid to go to bed with it like that, my girlfriend suggested calling the FD, so I called the fire department, explained the situation and they came over, sort of non-emergency I guess.

They were great. Took the plug out, that was almost burnt up and capped the wires. Told me to call an electrician the next day.

I was very thankful.

Steve

 

Had a similar problem with a breaker, real hot, odor but didn't trip, turned out to be a loose wire connection on the inlet side of the breaker was shorting out and had burned the plastic. An electrician replaced the breaker and all was well.

 

Mmm, sounds a lot like somthing is almost shorting that breaker to me. If it were me, I'd pull the breaker,then I'd check the ring that breaker was supplying for suspect areas like connections, or bulbs etc, check the breaker itself. If I found nothing obvious I'd then call a pro.

When we moved in here, the wiring for the lighting in the living room was very much sub standard. So much so it could only take the current draw of a 30W lightbulb. We put in a 60W, it melted and snap went the breaker. Was a nightmare. Had to have the entire front room re-wired with decent cabling... I mean, this is a new house, what happened?

 

Lowest Bidder is what happened.
Problem with pulling breaker is that it's the main and it's still winterish here. WIll have to get a replacement first.