Vacuum and AFCI's

Status
Not open for further replies.
laketime

laketime

Senior Member
I was reading some post regarding AFCI's and vacuums. I had a customer yesterday that keeps tripping his arch fault breaker with his vacuum. When the vacuum is plugged into different receptacles everything works fine. I told him not to worry about it that AFCI's have issues with vacuums. I did offer to change out the breaker if he would like but told him it was not necessary. Did I make the right call?
 
raider1

raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
G._S._Ohm said:
Almost word-for-word your problem is shown in this video after 6 minutes and 10 seconds.

http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/products/residential-electrical/afci/Pages/

Since the AFCI needs at least 5 A to even look for an arc, the vacuum cleaner provides this minimum current draw so that the AFCI can then detect a bad arc occurring elsewhere.

Good luck. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

The link brings me to a login page so I can't see the video.

Since the AFCI needs at least 5 A to even look for an arc, the vacuum cleaner provides this minimum current draw so that the AFCI can then detect a bad arc occurring elsewhere.
Click to expand...

If that is the case then you could verify it by plugging in a 5 amp resistive load such as a portable electric heater and the AFCI breaker should also trip.

My guess is that if you do put the resistive load in place of the motor load (Vacuum) then the breaker will hold just fine. I really think that AFCI breaker still have a hard time distinguishing between the arc of a motor load and a true series arc.

Chris
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
Out of all of the AFCI's I've installed (several different brands), I've only had one call back for tripping, and it was a vacuum cleaner, I replaced the breaker with a newer combination type, and the homeowner bought a new vac, have not heard anything more from them, so I assume that fixed the problem.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
hillbilly1 said:
Out of all of the AFCI's I've installed (several different brands), I've only had one call back for tripping, and it was a vacuum cleaner, I replaced the breaker with a newer combination type, and the homeowner bought a new vac, have not heard anything more from them, so I assume that fixed the problem.
Click to expand...

I have never had that issue but I believe GE was one of the only brands that did not have trouble with their AFCI breakers. I know in the beginning many manufacturers suffered thru this trying to get the signature right.

Sq. D had enormous problems in Denver, Co. I believe they finally figured out it was the unclean sine wave that the poco was delivering.
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Dennis Alwon said:
I have never had that issue but I believe GE was one of the only brands that did not have trouble with their AFCI breakers. I know in the beginning many manufacturers suffered thru this trying to get the signature right.

Sq. D had enormous problems in Denver, Co. I believe they finally figured out it was the unclean sine wave that the poco was delivering.
Click to expand...


Didn't even think that was possible.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top