Just putting the finishing touches to a 50's kitchen I've been rehabbing, and I just wanted to double check a couple of things before I proceed with some new wiring. Because the kitchen is very small I've moved a few things around, including moving the refrigerator into an area that was once used as a broom closet. I've also installed a microwave and dishwasher where there were none before. So basically, all three appliances have no power in their allotted areas. (The kitchen also only has four counter-top outlets, but the notion of having to basically break through tiled walls with 2 inches of wire-reinforced cement backing to accommodate more outlets is certainly not appealing!) One bit of real luck though has been the fact that I had to bite the bullet on one of these outlets and break into the wall to move it up by about three inches so that it will sit above the granite backsplash we're installing. It was a damn hard job, especially squeezing between the wall and base cabinets to try and chisel through, but I eventually broke through to the gap behind, and between that and the gap that's going to be left underneath the new outlet I have more than enough space to run a new cable from the dishwasher, along the back of the cabinet, up into the old outlet cavity and thence over the ceiling to the main board in the garage. The new wiring for the fridge will be a lot easier, while for the microwave all I have to do is drill through the top of the cabinet over the stove and straight into the ceiling - the kitchen cabinets are ceiling high. So just to be sure about all this before I start running wires and buying breakers, each unit needs its own dedicated circuit, right, and I can use standard 20 amp breakers for each - you only have to use the heavy duty breakers for things like cooktops, ovens, ranges, etc, right? I've done plenty of wiring before, but this will be the first time I'll be trying to install new breakers on a main board myself - I figured it was about time to bite the bullet and try doing it myself. In the past I've set up all the wiring, lights, outlets, whatever for entire rooms, then let a sparkie take care of the connections to the board - 200 amps is pretty intimidating, even if you know you've turned off the main switch and have testers on standby! Thanks

Long story but I will attempt to keep it short. According to the former residents they were using a blow dryer and it tripped a breaker,when they went and reset the breaker it sparked and it burned a portion of the wire below the box. A splice(and junction box) was added and yet the breaker continued to trip. At this point in time is when I begin to work on the problem: The breaker itself is faulty,it will not reset even when power is off,an obvious mechanical failure. However,there is an open breaker to which I attempted to attach the feed to the circuit,it immediately tripped. I used a length of wire and 'jumped' directly from the box to the load end of the circuit,all lights and exhaust fans worked with no problem. I have located one wire "end" that when connected always trips the breaker. My question is this: Is there a way to trace/locate the wire that is shorting without buying an expensive tester? The end that I have located is connected to an outlet,it obviously feeds the entire circuit but I have no way to trace it from the outlet backward. Any help is truly appreciated.