Afci going bad

[Epedia]

I have a friend who says his arc fault breakers keep going bad. Every week or 2 he has an arc fault breaker that goes bad, it’s blinking that it needs to be replaced or whatever. He had 6 go bad so far over the last 2 months. Is there something that would cause this, or did he just get a bad batch of breakers. The house is relatively new, 2016.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I had a bad batch with CH and Siemens. The siemens breaker where faulty when we opened the box. We had 5 or 6 bad from the same batch. So yes it is possible there is a bad batch. Try a different place to buy the breaker.

This is assuming he is installing it properly

 

[Fred B]

Another issue I've seen come up is power surges from the POCO causing an issue. The internal circuitry like other electronics can be susceptible to surges.

 

[retirede]

If all failures are the original ones, the bad batch theory is possible. If replacements are also failing, power surges are more likely the cause. Unless by some wild coincidence the replacements are from the same batch as the originals.

 

[brantmacga]

I’ve experienced an unusual number of Eaton BR AFCI’s failing lately, and all of them are between 3-5/yrs old. I think the indicator flashes 6 times, which translates to a self-test failure.


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