AFCI satisfaction poll. Please take a moment to answer.

Learn the NEC with Mike Holt now!

AFCI satisfaction poll. Please take a moment to answer.


  • Total voters
    104
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iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
Just a friendly poll about AFCIs, I tried to make the choices fair.

Please feel free to post your experiences with AFCIs good or bad.

Thank you in advance for your participation.
 

ActionDave

Chief Moderator
Staff member
Location
Durango, CO, 10 h 20 min from the winged horses.
Occupation
Licensed Electrician
I voted Dissatisfied instead of Completely Dissatisfied and Want Them Out of the Code because I am in favour of technology that can make houses safer, however, in their present state I want them out of the code.

Not only don't they work they are making a mockery of the code.

I think getting rid of them and moving to some ground fault technology is the best move.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
I voted Dissatisfied because these devices were rushed to the market before they were perfected. I'm all for safety devices but before they're part of a mandate they had better work flawlessly. The problem with AFCI's is that if you didn't require them then almost no one would willingly substitute a $40 breaker for a $5 one. :roll:
 

macmikeman

Senior Member
If this poll were two years ago, I would be saying nuke them out of the NEC. But I know they have improved false trip reliability a great deal in the last two years, Finally. It would be nice if the people who made bad ones fessed up in public , right on tv, about making electricians look bad to their customers because of all the useless tripping they did. I know that is not going to happen. But it is nice to dream.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Disclaimer: We do maybe one new home a year, but we do upgrade services and work residential remodels. Rarely anything but CH.

My first experiences with combination type AFCIs was not good. CH & CH BR style. We still have those units in our own home and have learned to plug the vacuum into non AFCI circuits as have a couple of my customers. We do not remove the AFCI protection if it is in an area required to have them.

The newer style breakers seem to be working better, no nuisance trips, and those that have tripped can be traced to a neutral to ground fault.

Do they work for fire prevention? IDK.
 

MasterTheNEC

CEO and President of Electrical Code Academy, Inc.
Location
McKinney, Texas
Occupation
CEO
The POLL here is useless (sorry, only my opinion do don't take offense).....I think it clear that OF the active posters on this forum that AFCI's are not supported so doing a poll of individuals who have already stated their opinions was pointless. I could have told you the outcome of this poll of MH Forum Members long before it was posted....:roll:

Now get them at ECM or EC to do a poll.......then the results would be valid.

Mike Holt membership - 90,343.....Current Votes - 23

How about you convince Mike to send out a newsletter poll.....and publish the results....now that would be a good poll.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
The POLL here is useless ....
As are ALL poles everywhere. Every poll is designed to get the response that the person who is paying for poll wants to see. Even the so called professional scientific polls have an agenda and the polls almost always give a result the reflects the agenda of the group that wanted the poll taken.

I always give random answers to any poll that I take, especially political ones. :)

BTW, I am have not voted in this poll.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
I think you will find that electrical contractors , in general, will oppose afci but inspectors and others will tend to be okay with them.

I have accepted them and I am okay with them however I have not read any evidence that they are effective. If they are then I am all for it.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
The POLL here is useless (sorry, only my opinion do don't take offense).....

No offense taken, you are as entitled as the rest of the responders are to your opinion.

That said I strongly suspect if the numbers where running the other way you would support this poll.

I could have told you the outcome of this poll of MH Forum Members long before it was posted

I am sure you could have, you are just that awesome. :)

Now get them at ECM or EC to do a poll.......then the results would be valid.

I would love either of those publications to do an honest poll of this subject.

But you know as well as I do that those free publications are entirely funded by advertisers. Many of those same advertisers sell AFCIs. There is no chance in this world those publications would risk hurting their advertisers sales with such a poll.

Mike Holt membership - 90,343.....Current Votes - 23

The poll has only been up for less than a day, give it some time. But we will never see close to 90,000 votes. There are likely only 100s of members that are still active / are not bots etc.

How about you convince Mike to send out a newsletter poll.....and publish the results....now that would be a good poll.

That would be interesting but I have no relationship with Mr Holt, in ten plus years we may have emailed each other 2 or 3 times.

If you can make it happen that would be great.

As are ALL poles everywhere. Every poll is designed to get the response that the person who is paying for poll wants to see.

I did my best to make it fair and unbiased. Do you see any bias in the poll?

I always give random answers to any poll that I take, especially political ones. :)

You are a rebel living on the edge. :D

BTW, I am have not voted in this poll.

Neither have I.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
According to this page http://www.jade1.com/jadecc/nec_code_adoption.php the states of Utah, Wisconsin and Indiana all have issues with AFCI adoption. I would not be surprised if there are other areas of resistance.

Many areas have problems with adopting the afci simple because of the economics of it. I know our Building Code Council was asked to turn it down by many because of the cost that it puts on new homes and they don't want to discourage building.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
...
I did my best to make it fair and unbiased. Do you see any bias in the poll?
...
Not really in the poll but there is some built in by you posting the poll. The same would be true if Paul had posted it, just bias the other way.
 
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