Afci/gfci breaker trips bedroom when dryer door is open

[AC\DC]

Customer has plug in ac circuit plugged in and running and then open dryer door and afci/gfci trips.
Only happens when ac is on.
Put new breaker in as first attempt. Did not help. What could cause that. Maybe could the loaded NMb bed circuit when ac is next to dyer nmb and capacitor cupling is causing an issue.....

 

[hbiss]

Get a new dryer or throw away that breaker and replace it with a regular one.

-Hal

 

[tthh]

Customer has plug in ac circuit plugged in and running and then open dryer door and afci/gfci trips.
Only happens when ac is on.
Put new breaker in as first attempt. Did not help. What could cause that. Maybe could the loaded NMb bed circuit when ac is next to dyer nmb and capacitor cupling is causing an issue.....

Does it trip with the door open or just the act of opening the door?
That is, open the dryer door, reset breaker...does it reset and stay reset?

 

[readydave8]

Does breaker give code whether tripping on AF or GF?

 

[hillbilly1]

May be tripping on ground fault, verify ground on both A/C and dryer. There may be a fault on the dryer, and the egc is open or not connected, is this a mobile home? Egc may not be connected at the pedestal.

 

[AC\DC]

Will be making out there hopefully tomorrow.
New breaker has already been installed.

 

[curt swartz]

If the dryer has a 4 wire cord verify that it was wired properly. The wires might be connected to the correct terminals but the ground/neutral jumper may still be in place. You can check continuity between the ground and neutral prongs at the plug.

 

[Jraef]

Some DIYer tried to save wire by tapping off of the neutral going to the dryer to feed the outlet in the bedroom? If it’s an electric dryer, the door switch would be on the 120V control circuit which, along with the drum motor, is usually the only thing the dryer needs the neutral for. So opening the door kills the motor, which causes a slight back emf on the neutral, but because that is shared with the bedroom outlet GFCI, it looks like an imbalance. Just a SWAG… the point being to look for some sort of hanky-panky wiring in the dryer outlet.

 

[AC\DC]

I would think like Jaref stated would be only the only way the dryer circuit is tripping another circuits AFCI breaker . If they did forget to remove the bonding strap then how would that effect another circuit afci?.
weird it only trips when ac is running and door gets open to dryer.

 

[James L]

weird it only trips when ac is running and door gets open to dryer.

You didn't specify - the dryer door gets opened while the dryer is running or not running?

Have you tried an extension cord to run the ac off a different circuit and see if there's still a problem? Another bedroom circuit, and also from a bathroom gfci?

 

[hbiss]

From what I sometimes heard, an AFCI breaker needs to have a load on it for it to trip on an arc event. The AC would provide that load.

So, yeah.

You didn't specify - the dryer door gets opened while the dryer is running or not running?

And what happens when the AC is powered be another circuit?

-Hal

 

[tthh]

Reason I asked about the act of opening the door is I'm kind of wondering if the door switch, or the relay it may be connected to, on the dryer is causing some sort of an arc that the AFCI isn't happy about.

 

[hbiss]

Reason I asked about the act of opening the door is I'm kind of wondering if the door switch, or the relay it may be connected to, on the dryer is causing some sort of an arc that the AFCI isn't happy about.

That's what I was thinking. But does it happen when the dryer is off and only the light comes on or while the dryer is running and opening the door shuts the dryer down?

-Hal

 

[ptonsparky]

Is this dryer gas or electric.

 

[mtnelect]

Sounds like an electric dryer 240 Volts with a neutral connection for the controls ... and a combination of AFCI/GFCI which senses a difference in current flow. Check your neutral cross connections.

 

[Jraef]

Is this dryer gas or electric.

Well, THAT’S an important point! If it’s a gas dryer, it’s all that much easier for it to be on an inadvertent MWBC (or even possibly not inadvertent!)