Quote:
Originally Posted by Retired Starman
If you have a reset breaker in there, it will snap, reset, snap again, reset, over and over again, not providing proper circuit protection and causing something else more important to become the fuse, sometimes with frightening consequences.
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Not really, the self resetting circuit breaker in effect becomes a current limiting device.
Helping other teams troubleshoot problems I've seen circuits that were shorted and were causing rapid cycling of the breaker and I've not seen damage to the wire, which is the purpose of a circuit protection device.
On automobiles self resetting circuit breakers are often used for items that are considered mission critical like headlights and wipers. While I've seen shorts in those circuits and people driving them for extended periods of time with the breaker cycling I've not seen damage to the wire other than what was causing the short.