arc fault receptacle

[frank everingham]

i have a older apartment complex, each apt is fed with 3 branch circuits, each circuit has its own neutral.all apts have a gfi counter top receptacle. some of the apts have a main breaker panel.in these panels i have a dual bkr(arc fault/gfi. when i trip the gfi recptacle with my gfi tester, the gfi recpt trips as it should. some of the apts have panels that wont accept A.F. breakers so a dead front arc fault recpt is installed below the panel. when i trip the kitchen gfi with my plug tester the gfi receptacle doesnt trip but the dead front A.F. trips. this happens in all apartments. ? why

 

[augie47]

It is my understanding that most, if not all, AFCI devices have some GF detection in their circuitry. If I were betting I'd say your device happen to respond quicker than the receptacle.
Somewhat like a GF downstream from another GF. They race

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Are you saying that one gfci trips all the afci in all the apartments? Or are you saying that in each apt the kitchen gfci trips the afci but the gfci won't trip with the tester.

 

[LarryFine]

when i trip the kitchen gfi with my plug tester the gfi receptacle doesnt trip but the dead front A.F. trips. this happens in all apartments. ? why

Keep in mind that plug-in testers use the EGC to mimic a shock, because they don't have access, electrically speaking, to the neutral ahead of the current sensor the way a GFCI device does. That may be why the AFCI is tripping faster. A simple test would be to temporarily replace the AFCI breaker with a standard one and try the plug-in tester again.

 

[GoldDigger]

Keep in mind that plug-in testers use the EGC to mimic a shock, because they don't have access, electrically speaking, to the neutral ahead of the current sensor the way a GFCI device does. That may be why the AFCI is tripping faster. A simple test would be to temporarily replace the AFCI breaker with a standard one and try the plug-in tester again.

And in contrast the built-in test button actually shunts some current via a resistor from the load side hot to the line side neutral, so it will not cause problems by tripping an upstream or downstream GF detector of any kind.