letgomywago
Senior Member
- Location
- Washington state and Oregon coast
- Occupation
- residential electrician
Let us know if it works all of a sudden. Also see if they'll tell you what the issue was I'm curious
Arc fault breaker
- Thread starter Donaciano_gonzalez@yahoo.
- Start date
- Status
Donaciano_gonzalez@yahoo.
Member
- Location
- Albuquerque nm
- Occupation
- Electrician
Will do
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James L
Senior Member
- Location
- Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
- Occupation
- Electrician
ramsy
NoFixNoPay Electric
- Location
- LA basin, CA
- Occupation
- Service Electrician 2020 NEC
Common to all arc fault breaker & outlet devices:
1) Listens for signals in all directions. Like a radio antenna it can't ignore utility noise.
2) Trip when Neutral & Grounding touch different fingers of same hand. High-impedance N-G short.
3) Not warranted for voltage spikes, and instructions require self-test monthly, to check if destroyed.
4) No AFCI ever made is expected to survive the next Carrington event.
hbiss
EC, New York NEC: 2017
- Location
- Little Falls, New York NEC: 2017
- Occupation
- EC
Why does one breaker trip and the other not??
Why does the remaining breaker NOT trip? Maybe it's the one that is defective?
If so, there would have to be continuous and severe arcing which would be noticed for other reasons. This is the service for only that residence.
This just doesn't add up.
As a side note: "Listens for signals in all directions. Like a radio antenna it can't ignore utility noise." If this is true it's another nail in the AFCI coffin.
-Hal
Donaciano_gonzalez@yahoo.
Member
- Location
- Albuquerque nm
- Occupation
- Electrician
I never said it was the load side of the arcfault.
I said when the neutral is hooked up and the breaker has no load on it.
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I said when the neutral is hooked up and the breaker has no load on it.
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Donaciano_gonzalez@yahoo.
Member
- Location
- Albuquerque nm
- Occupation
- Electrician
I will find out today went I go back to install arcfaults in Subpanel if that was the problem
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letgomywago
Senior Member
- Location
- Washington state and Oregon coast
- Occupation
- residential electrician
I think both our money is on the breaker being either defective or having a fault on the circuit of some kind since it's not a case of the breaker holding for a few seconds but just not working at all.
James L
Senior Member
- Location
- Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
- Occupation
- Electrician
As I've read through, it seems he's been adamant that numerous breakers have acted the same way, but only in that one position (or at least only on that one leg)
And he's been saying the same thing from the beginning
I think it took 40 posts and 6 replies from OP to get it through that it trips with no wires connected to it
Benderofmiami
Member
- Location
- miami,Florida
- Occupation
- electrical contractor
You may want to check and make sure that the neutral isn't being shared with a different hot, AFCI and GFI's need dedicated neutrals. or they will trip one of the circuit breakers sharing that neutral.This can be a problem in existing systems where they shared 2- hots and1-neutral.
Donaciano_gonzalez@yahoo.
Member
- Location
- Albuquerque nm
- Occupation
- Electrician
After the power company fixed the fault in the neutral I nolonger had the problem
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letgomywago
Senior Member
- Location
- Washington state and Oregon coast
- Occupation
- residential electrician
macmikeman
Senior Member
- Location
- Planet macmikeman
I am not in agreement with that. I went thru much the same issue on a new addition once and when I ended up outside at the service drop finally and shook it around a bit the afci's started tripping to off , one after another. The afci's detect upstream and downstream. At least that version did- Eaton yellow button long single pole 15 and 20 amp afci breakers. They were horrible . The ones they have now are much better.
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
It can't come soon enough for me
macmikeman
Senior Member
- Location
- Planet macmikeman
I still have a hacksaw in my van , just in case.................
I don't think so, AFAIK, if you connect the N - G on the line side (upstream) the breaker will not trip. I will experiment tomorrow.
macmikeman
Senior Member
- Location
- Planet macmikeman
What does neutral attached to ground have to do with Arc Fault , unless you are speaking about dual use ones where there is gfi technology built into the breaker. AFCI is not the same as GFI .
Secondly I did not mention neutral till you did. The arc can be detected upstream of the breaker in an arc within one of the hots feeding a dwelling. It's not just neutrals that come loose, primarily due to high wind for the overheads and aluminum oxidization for the buried feeders. Shake em around enough and if the crimp is not tight enough, an arc occurs if there is a load on the system.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
Cows caused the bad transformer connections at my house! About three poles down, there is one in the middle of a pasture. The cows use it as a scratching post. The transformer rocks back and forth rather violently. I’ve been trying to catch it on video and post it when I think of it!
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
Since the fire cause and origin data that was used to show the need for AFCIs showed that about 85% of the dwelling unit fires said to be of electrical origin were in units over 20 years old, they probably won't be functional when needed anyhow.
- Status