Hello everyone,
I had a question about connecting Doorbell transformer directly to a circuit breaker? I own a multifamily home and i had electrical issue where my electrical stove and electric water boiler were failing to start. I hired a electrican and he recommended I have to change the panel. So I agreed to change out the panel and now my door bell doesn't work. Original transformer was attached directly to the panel and I think it had it's own breaker. I can show you the transformer pictures. Electrician got a new transformer since he somehow broke the old one. Now he is having hard time getting the door bell to work.
I am planning to do this job myself as it doesn't look that bad. I know I have to be very careful since I am working at the main panel

 

Mine is also mounted to the box. Without pulling the panel to look, my guess is that it is pigtailed off of a breaker for a 120 VAC circuit.

 

First thing to do is to take a meter and make sure you have voltage on the output side of the transformer. You should get something around 18-24 volts.

If that is good you then need to move on and inspect the wires connected to the transformer. I find it a little odd that they are paralleled with a green pair and a blur pair. Follow the wires as best you can and see where they go. I'm wondering if maybe one pair go to one unit, and the other to the other unit.

Let us know what you find and we can go from there.

 

This is how the old setup was and I want to stay like this. I have one of the Tek-Tone system which works as a door buzzer/intercom/bell. This is the box that gets powered by the transformer. See the pic.

 

Wow! That changes everything!

The transformer is feeding this power pack? I do not see the blue pair or the green pair.

I see a light on the power pak, I assume it is getting power?

 

Power pack has that white Plug where the wires are coming out of it.. All those wires are attached to another set of wires that you don't see. It's a mess. Anyway right now the transformer is not there so the white box has no power. My concern is do I need to have certain size breaker for this install. Can I just used a 20AMP breaker. Transformer has 3 wires coming out of it. Black/white/green. Black will go into the breaker. White with the rest of the neutrals go on the side and Green for ground.

 

Here is youtube link where you can see the extra wires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4S31-X9RFY

 

Call your electrician back, it's his problem.

 

I have been trying to get him back for sometime and it hasn't worked. So i am planning to resolve this myself.

 

I am very .

If Power pack does not have any power, why is there a red light on?
You say there is no transformer, but there is one in the video and picture.

Since you are only taping off the breaker, yes, you could use a 20 amp breaker. The transformer does not need its own breaker, so I would just tap of some existing 15 amp breaker.

 

A 15A breaker would be fine if you have the extra space.

If not, you can add the transformer to another circuit by removing the wire from the breaker and wirenutting the existing circuit to the transformer and add a new tail to go to the breaker.

Tolyn.... I believe that was a "before" video. Before a small explosion hit.

 

Thanks everyone. I will work on this next week as I am travelling. I believe there is an extra 20amp breaker in the new panel. In the old way it was setup with a tail type connection. Youtube video is from before and I want this fixed ASAP. I am still unable to reach the electrician. Luckily I still haven't paid him for the new panel yet so I am on on the safe side.

 

hello everyone, So I had the electrician and my self try the new transformer. I plugged in the black transformer wire directly in to 20AMP breaker, white with the other neutral and ground with ground.
Transformer got power but it got really hot and smoke started coming out of it. The amplifier (white box) got a light for about a second and it went off. Not sure what the issue is. Can the circuit breaker go bad? We blew out two transformer with same exact issue, get hot and smoke comes out of it. Not sure what wiring issue to look for.

 

It has nothing to do with the circuit breaker. I would have said that the wiring was shorted but you say the light comes on for a second. That would indicate a problem with the intercom module.

You should be using a 16vac or 16.5vac transformer according to Tektone.

 

I did use the correct transformer. You can see the pic.
Light came on both of the time with different transformers. Do I need the new intercom module?

 

I wish I could tell you what the problem is. Normally you'd disconnect all the wires except for power and see if module stayed on then. Unfortunately they don't make it easy to test that way as all the connections are hardwired.

If I were testing that module I'd remove the large plug and using two alligator clips apply power to the C and K terminals to see if the module stayed powered. This way you could determine if it was an external wiring problem or a module failure.

 

when you say use the alligator clips, Do i connect the other end of the alligator clips to the transformer using the low voltage wires?

 

Yes... that would be correct.

I carry short alligator leads like in the picture. They come in handy for many jobs.

 

If that transformer is the proper size (VA) for that system you might want to go through the insulation manual: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...,d.aWw&cad=rja also maybe a handy video: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...74035653,d.aWw

Of note: 1. Do not apply power to the transformer primary until the
entire system has been installed and checked for shorts
and grounds. The common wires connecting to terminals
1, 2, 3, E and 5 must show open circuit when tested with
an ohmmeter.

With it getting hot and smoking it sounds like you could have a short.

 

So finally got around to fix this. The two power cables coming out of the amplifier were taped together and from there it was going to the transformer. Having them taped together created the short in the connection. I had to hire another electrician to figure this out. I am now sure the previous guy did this on purpose to get more money out me.

 

I hate people who pull that crap! Thanks for letting us know! Sounds like we were on the right track.

 

Thank you everyone. This is great forum.