Are afci’s any better?

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C

czars

Czars
Location
West Melbourne, FL
Occupation
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor
Do anyone have any recent information about whether or not afci’s are now functioning as they were supposed to?
 
James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
I use Eaton BR and can't recall but maybe 1 or 2 calls in the last couple of years. One was just this past week, house was finished in the spring. Customer said his living room breaker trips about once every two months.

I've had issues on remodels where panel is other brand. Microwave drawers don't particularly like GE dual function 20s. Wine chillers apparently don't like Eaton CH df 20s

Each of those brands I've had those same issues 2 different times.
 
R

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
My opinion is that there are far fewer nuisance trips with the current generation, but they still provide little, if any, value from a safety perspective.
 
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
retirede said:
My opinion is that there are far fewer nuisance trips with the current generation, but they still provide little, if any, value from a safety perspective.
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Yeah I agree. I have had hardly any nuisance trips in the last 5 to 10 years, but I still am not convinced they offer any protection or at least a commensurate amount of protection for what they cost.
 
G

gene6

Senior Member
Location
NY
Occupation
Electrician
In my experience they still separate installers from electricians.
We did have a huge issue, at new subdivision got done seeming random houses like at least 10 of them were having random AFCI trips.
After replacing lots of AFCI's and everyone testing this and that speculating about ham radio, turns out it was the "lag screws" they used for the back decks were really long and nicked the home runs, so what the houses had in common was the same deck contractor.
Turns out the deck contractors bolts also went thru the ABS drain pipe.
 
V

VirutalElectrician

Senior Member
Location
Mpls, MN
Occupation
Sparky - Trying to be retired
gene6 said:
After replacing lots of AFCI's and everyone testing this and that speculating about ham radio, turns out it was the "lag screws" they used for the back decks were really long and nicked the home runs, so what the houses had in common was the same deck contractor.
Click to expand...
So in this case they actually did their job? How was this finally tracked down?
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
gene6 said:
In my experience they still separate installers from electricians.
We did have a huge issue, at new subdivision got done seeming random houses like at least 10 of them were having random AFCI trips.
After replacing lots of AFCI's and everyone testing this and that speculating about ham radio, turns out it was the "lag screws" they used for the back decks were really long and nicked the home runs, so what the houses had in common was the same deck contractor.
Turns out the deck contractors bolts also went thru the ABS drain pipe.
Click to expand...
Did those AFCI also have GF function as many did?
 
A

AC\DC

Senior Member
Location
Florence,Oregon,Lane
Occupation
EC
gene6 said:
In my experience they still separate installers from electricians.
We did have a huge issue, at new subdivision got done seeming random houses like at least 10 of them were having random AFCI trips.
After replacing lots of AFCI's and everyone testing this and that speculating about ham radio, turns out it was the "lag screws" they used for the back decks were really long and nicked the home runs, so what the houses had in common was the same deck contractor.
Turns out the deck contractors bolts also went thru the ABS drain pipe.
Click to expand...
I took that to mean crappy install of electrical components vs proper install from. Professional.
Your example kinda does not state that, did I misunderstood what you meant
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Keep in mind a "dual function" is an AFCI that also has class A GFCI protection.

Nearly all AFCI's incorporated a 30mA GFPE level at one time. Now there are some that have no GFP at all.
 
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