CH DP AFCI

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Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Chapel Hill, NC
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Retired Electrical Contractor
Has anyone tried to get a DP 20 amp afci breaker for the CH series?


GE uses 2 single poles with a breaker tie. Cutler Hammer does not have that ability so I went to city electric to buy a dp afci and they told me it would cost $500. I couldn't believe it-- told them to keep it.


Anyone else paying that kind of money for one. This is an existing setup so I am going to use afci receptacles...
 
GE can use two single pole AFCI breakers with a handle tie only because their breakers do not include a GF detector.
If you look at other manufacturers that offer such an AFCI you may find one that is compatible with your panel.
 
I realize why GE works with 2 sp however there is no other brand that fits the CH cutler Hammer. I also don't know of another brand that has removed the gfci.

$500 is an absolute rip off.....
 
So after calls to a few City Electric I found out that the Chapel Hill store made a mistake in the computer-- I can get it for $116.00 Wow, can't imagine anyone buying it at $500.00
 
Dennis Alwon said:
So after calls to a few City Electric I found out that the Chapel Hill store made a mistake in the computer-- I can get it for $116.00 Wow, can't imagine anyone buying it at $500.00
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Thanks for the follow up on this Dennis. It's good to know there is a possibility if I find myself up a blind alley with a CH type panel and a multiwire branch circuit.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Has anyone tried to get a DP 20 amp afci breaker for the CH series?


GE uses 2 single poles with a breaker tie. Cutler Hammer does not have that ability so I went to city electric to buy a dp afci and they told me it would cost $500. I couldn't believe it-- told them to keep it.


Anyone else paying that kind of money for one. This is an existing setup so I am going to use afci receptacles...
Click to expand...

Are you sure that the breaker doesn't have a common trip too? Look at the breaker closely to see if it is labelled as common rip. Handle ties only allows you to turn the breaker on and off and the handle tie by itself will not pull the other pole open if if the other pole trip.
With common trip breakers the trip bars are tied together internally which you can't see do that when one pole trips it trip the other.
Incidentally cz some 20 years or so ago I have it from good authority that Eaton used to make and name brand AFCIs for GE.
 
peter d said:
The $500 was probably list price right out of the C-H catalog.
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Perhaps but he said the problem was it got entered into their computer incorrectly. The poor guy felt so bad he called me back later in the day to apologize again.. he felt bad about the whole ordeal...
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Perhaps but he said the problem was it got entered into their computer incorrectly. The poor guy felt so bad he called me back later in the day to apologize again.. he felt bad about the whole ordeal...
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Their IT dep't is up on Mass. It's a lot of work to get something corrected.
 
templdl said:
Are you sure that the breaker doesn't have a common trip too? Look at the breaker closely to see if it is labelled as common rip. Handle ties only allows you to turn the breaker on and off and the handle tie by itself will not pull the other pole open if if the other pole trip.
With common trip breakers the trip bars are tied together internally which you can't see do that when one pole trips it trip the other.
Incidentally cz some 20 years or so ago I have it from good authority that Eaton used to make and name brand AFCIs for GE.
Click to expand...
He was stating that because GE no longer uses a GF component in the AFCI breakers, that you can handle tie two single pole AFCI's and use them for a MWBC. With others that still have GF protection components they just won't work with a common neutral unless you have a true two pole plus neutral device.
 
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