220 GFCI breaker

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enireh

Senior Member
Location
Canyon Lake,TX
I have a 220 volt GFCI breaker tripping at the pool. From the panel out 60' to the pool equipment is two # 6's and a ten ground. I ohmed it last week and all was good. Customer just left message it has tripped twice this weekend
 

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
I have a 220 volt GFCI breaker tripping at the pool. From the panel out 60' to the pool equipment is two # 6's and a ten ground. I ohmed it last week and all was good. Customer just left message it has tripped twice this weekend

What size breaker is it?
What is the load on the equipment?
What is the equipment?
Did you check between neutral & ground to make sure there is no continuity between them?

More info is needed, such as what I mentioned above along with is it tripping on overload, short, or ground fault?
 

enireh

Senior Member
Location
Canyon Lake,TX
220 volt gfci

220 volt gfci

20 amp breaker, no neutral, just two hots and a ground, did ck continuity between them so could it be in the motor? The breaker had a 15.36 load on it and it was old so I changed that thinking it had weakened. The new breaker trips now after about two weeks of action

it is a gfci breaker which is tripping
 

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
20 amp breaker, no neutral, just two hots and a ground, did ck continuity between them so could it be in the motor? The breaker had a 15.36 load on it and it was old so I changed that thinking it had weakened. The new breaker trips now after about two weeks of action

it is a gfci breaker which is tripping

Could be the pump motor, especially if it's a Hayward. They have been known to cause issues with GFCI breakers.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Assuming this is a ground fault problem this is what I would do :
  • Make sure no one is in the pool
  • Remove all ground wires to the motors, heater, etc.
  • Turn on pool motor(s) and make sure they operate properly
  • Then put one ground wire back at a time and see if the breaker trips
  • If none of that works get out your amp probe and see if a motor is drawing too much current
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
I have a 220 volt GFCI breaker tripping at the pool. From the panel out 60' to the pool equipment is two # 6's and a ten ground. I ohmed it last week and all was good. Customer just left message it has tripped twice this weekend


Is this a new install? Did the motor work at one time?

Sounds like it works for awhile and then trips???
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
You have to do some troubleshooting to determine whether it's a ground fault problem or an over load problem. Try pulling out the GFI breaker and installing a std. 2-pole breaker (temporarily as a test) to see if it trips after 20 minutes or so. Could be the motor going bad.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
You have to do some troubleshooting to determine whether it's a ground fault problem or an over load problem. Try pulling out the GFI breaker and installing a std. 2-pole breaker (temporarily as a test) to see if it trips after 20 minutes or so. Could be the motor going bad.
That won't catch the condition that takes 10 days before it trips.

Meg test the motor and circuit to the motor. If that passes then chances are it is tripping on overload instead of ground fault.

Maybe bus to breaker connection is producing too much heat because of deterioration of the bus? Maybe current changes after the thing has run for a long time - which could be a bearing problem in the motor.
 
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