Arkie hell..must be me

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electricmanscott

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
I think it's time to hang up the ole linesmans. On EVERY job I have done since Jan 1 that required combo AFCI breakers I have had tripping issues.

The job I am currently finishing has about ten Sq D QO combo AFCI breakers and of them four so far intermittently trip.

They may be fine for a week and then hit the switch for the fluorescent garage lights, or closet lights and poof, breaker trips.

I do not believe that my wiring practices are so bad on every job to cause these issues.

I do believe that the flourescent lights, low voltage fixtures and who know what, are to blame.

Am I alone here?
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
I have not dealt with the combos yet, but the old arc fault breakers put of a tremendous amount of heat with virtually no load, especially when you have a panel full of them. (which with the 2008 code this is going to be common) I try to space them out to help keep them from tripping on thermal, but the meg test is really the way to go to check the circuit, but will not check the loads due to possible damage to electronics.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
I have used my first combo AFCI (GE) and have not had an issue (yet). We shall see. Sq. D, if I remember correctly, had some issue with the original afci's-- No?
 
ceb58

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
I so far have not had an issue with the SQ D combo's. The last home I did when we powered the house up I had one that would trip found ground touching neutral screw. The only other problem was a head scratcher but I finally traced it down to an old cassette tape style answering machine. As Marc said meg the circ. who knows what some one else may have done to the wireing.
 
brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
i've been using the squareD combo's for at least 6 months now and haven't experienced any problems whatsoever. i installed the QO combos in my own house and never had one trip w/o reason.
 
C

CopperTone

Senior Member
Location
MetroWest, MA
we have installed many this past year, never a problem - if there was it was our fault meaning it was just doing it's job - sometimes hard to find the problem but it was always the installers fault in the end. - sorry - not what you wanted to hear that that is our experience so far.
All of our installations are new circuits - never tapped off existing then added a combo arc.
 
JohnE

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
Scott, I use Cutler Hammer BR style combo's and haven't had many problems. The few problems I have had I attribute to my dummies stapling too tight. I've had to fish in a few cables to solve these problems. Maybe 3-4 times.
 
electricmanscott

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
Another day, another circuit, another intermittently tripping breaker.

This particular circuit has been fine for two months until now. I installed two tranformers and connected some LV cove lights. The switch leg was there I just connected it to the transformers, turned on the switch and poof. Some times it trips sometimes it doesn't.

This is going to take some time to figure out.
 
cschmid

cschmid

Senior Member
Location
Northern cold country
oh yea good ole AFCI combo..Now you need to make sure you do not bend the nm to tight or staple it to tight..make sure you do not clamp it to tight in a box..the biggest thing is to make sure you do not damage the NM in anyway..

yet the AFCI combo works, but we will not warranty anything with the AFCI..Take meggar tests of all circuits and give a copy to owner so when the cables are damaged by the other trades you are off the hook..when you have a problem you meggar the circuit and verify it with your records to see if it has been damaged by someone else..

If it needs to be returned due to faulty breaker we help..other wise you can loose your shorts and the AFCI combo is better but not faultless..so record all you can and submit it to the manufacturer so they can test it and make corrections as we are stuck with the little devils..
 
electricmanscott

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
Haven't had time to get deep into trouble shooting. My "megger" is ridin' the UPS truck as we speak. (Of course i'll have to learn how to use it)

One thing I did notice today. When you turn on the AFCI breaker with most of the load on (lights turned on) the breaker immediately trips. Turn of most of the load and breaker resets fine.

For those looking for a "megger" here is a link to where I bought mine. Seems like a pretty good price.

http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/fluke/megohmmeters/1507.htm?gclid=CJ7SzLX2_5YCFQkcHgodqE2WYg
 
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