pop up circuit breaker

[kevMar]

I installed a new circuit breaker for the hot water heater 20 amp ... the hot water heater is now working BUT when i push on the breaker to turn the hot water heater off it does not pop out... Did i wire it wrong? or is the breaker no good... thank you for your help

[Ron Hill]

Kev : You didn't do anything wrong.  
It sound to me like you got a bad switch/breaker !!

[Ken Juul]

The "circuit breakers" on the AC panel are not really circuit breakers.  They are actually switches with built in over load protection.  The ones on the DC side are actually CBs that protect the individual switched circuits

If you replaced it with just a standard circuit breaker it will not pop out until the circuit overloads.

They are incorrectly referred to as CBs, hope that didn't cause you any confusion

[kevMar]

how do you if need turn off the hot water heater???

[Stu Jackson]

Here's how:  run it for 15 to 20 minutes to heat the water and then turn it off until you need more.  Don't leave it on.

[Rick Johnson]

Check the following link for the push/push circuit breakers.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4182.0.html

[Ron Hill]

There's another variation of the push -in/pop out swiitch/breaker called a toggle breaker.  Looked like a toggle switch with the amps stamped on the ball of the toggle.
We had them in aircraft and I believe they are still around.  

[Hawk]

I mentioned elsewhere that I found the ETA breakers mentioned in Rick's link at Nedco Electronics.
They are the push on/push off type.

http://www.nedcoelectronics.com/

Hawk