Afci tripping

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basashuka: Before you try another new AFCI breaker, swap it out with another one in the panel and see if the different one trips or if the original trips in a different circuit.
 
Steviechia2 said:
I have used a different brand arc fault before and held just fine? Siemens seems to be very temperamental :blink:
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GE is also, just got a call from HO breaker trips bout every 2 months, but yesterday it tripped 8 times, told her i would come take a look ... wish me luck
 
Gac66610 said:
GE is also, just got a call from HO breaker trips bout every 2 months, but yesterday it tripped 8 times, told her i would come take a look ... wish me luck
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Did it rain yesterday? if it did look for a receptalce outside or a underground feed.
another one is if it turns cold and you get trips, look for heat tape on pipes gone bad.
 
hurk27 said:
Did it rain yesterday? if it did look for a receptalce outside or a underground feed.
another one is if it turns cold and you get trips, look for heat tape on pipes gone bad.
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There are no outside receptacles on the circuit, its a new house i wired it about 18 months (approx)
the circuit is in a therapy room for their physicality disabled son. Its a 20a circuit, if i remember correctly I put the receptacles on their own circuit.
thanks ...i will check for heat tape, there is a wash sink in the room,it is however on an inside wall, do not think there is any
the only reason i put this on an AFCI is, there is a closet in the room ... round here rooms with closets are considered bedrooms
i will find out what was being used when it tripped (if anything)
 
So just to let everyone know we unplugged the ski machine and the circuit hasn't tripped in four days, believe me it has left me scratching my head.
 
jaylectricity said:
OK, but didn't you say it was taking five days? We need the update tomorrow!
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and for the next 2 months just in case it was a fluke.

I hate it when we spend so much of our _____ (insert valuable if you desire) time, and never hear back.

We ought to pick a post every now and then to go back and revisit. Kind of like those mechanics on NPR.
 
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acrwc10 said:
Aside from faulty appliances (vacuum cleaners, motors and the like) most of the problems I have had with afci tripping have been traced back to damaged wires. Usually a screw or pinched wire caused by the framers or trim installers.
There are three ways to find the problem;
1) Megger the circuit.
2) Megger the circuit.
3) Megger the circuit.

Other then that you are just guessing. Time is money.
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Thank you, why does it always have to be a bad piece of equipment. That's not what AFCI's were designed for. They were designed to find problems with bad wirirng or bad cords. It couldn't possibly be a staple that was driven into a cable by the installer.
 
Thank you John.

What has happened to me in the past is;
1) cabinet installer using too long of screws to put in closet cabinets hit a wire, just enough to partially go through the insulation and cause an occational trip.

2)carpenters putting in fire blocking around an NM cable and pinching it, causing the same occational issue.

3) some one (not me) driving my staples in deeper, because they "thought it looked loose".

4) extra long nails in the trim nail gun when trim guys hang crown moldings and other trim.

5) a nick in the insullation when we stripped the wire in the outlet box.

6) bad recessed light wire, inside light from factory.

7) "my personal favorite" when a cold tower computor was turned on the inrush caused tripping. The reason it was my favorite, the computor owner is a VP for a major computor company, named after a type of fruit, and there is no way he would believe it could be caused by his computor.

Most of there could have been found with a megger test before trimout.
 
electricguy61 said:
You know the old joke about what you call 10, 000 dead lawyers at the bottom of the ocean (a start)?

That what I say about AFCI's, throw all in the ocean!
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Build a better mouse trap, then sell the CMP on it, and force the customers to buy it, for about $40.00 each.
 
Here is a problem I had last year the was caused by the insulators with a really bad aim.. :rant:

I can see this type of problem becoming more common as AFCI's get adopted by the AHJ..

AFCISHORT008.jpg
 
B4T said:
Here is a problem I had last year the was caused by the insulators with a really bad aim.. :rant:

I can see this type of problem becoming more common as AFCI's get adopted by the AHJ..

View attachment 6698
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Happens quite often, bosses' dad wired his own house, one of the arc faults would not set, ground and neutral showed continuity, pulled all of the outlets, split the circuit until I isolated which section it was in. Put a battery on it, hooked up the trusty tracer, located a staple the insulators shot through the cable within 1" behind the Sheetrock.
 
jaylectricity said:
OK, but didn't you say it was taking five days? We need the update tomorrow!
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So I checked it this morning and at the end of the day and it was still holding strong, still scratching my head. The only reason I tried this was because I read that home tread mill machines were tripping arc fault so I thought why not ski machine. I will keep everyone updated on any change.
 
badashuka said:
So I checked it this morning and at the end of the day and it was still holding strong, still scratching my head. The only reason I tried this was because I read that home tread mill machines were tripping arc fault so I thought why not ski machine. I will keep everyone updated on any change.
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If you saw the Facebook or YouTube live Q & A that Mike Holt did, he mentioned a problem with an AFCI and treadmill. At least I think it was treadmill, might have been a ski machine. Same type thing anyway. It was posted here last week.
 
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