Crazy AFCI

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GoldDigger said:
SWAG: The water heater has an arc signature component which is traveling to the problem AFCI. But that AFCI will not act on that conducted signature unless its own current sensor is seeing more than 8 amps.
Result: The AC is fine and is just enabling the AFCI to react to the spurious signature.
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I think I understand what you are saying, and if I do it it is what I have come across with AFCI problems that can't be cured with the normal treatments... i.e. once you are sure there are no wiring errors the AFCI is reacting to an electronic load that it thinks is an arc-fault but really isn't.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
What is a mod 3 breaker
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About 2 1/2 years ago, GE began selling the common single pole AFCI breaker that was designed and manufactured to provide Arc Fault protection without a Ground Fault sensing component. This new AFCI breaker is identified by a gray body with a black switch, and with the term MOD3 printed on the breaker body where it is visible through the common panel cover.

Official GE documentation to this can be read by clicking here.

The GE document refers also to the MOD2, the earlier generation, that still had the GF component in its circuitry.
 
al hildenbrand said:
About 2 1/2 years ago, GE began selling the common single pole AFCI breaker that was designed and manufactured to provide Arc Fault protection without a Ground Fault sensing component. This new AFCI breaker is identified by a gray body with a black switch, and with the term MOD3 printed on the breaker body where it is visible through the common panel cover.

Official GE documentation to this can be read by clicking here.

The GE document refers also to the MOD2, the earlier generation, that still had the GF component in its circuitry.
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Okay I know about the ge situation just never noticed the mod 3. Unless you have a stock of old breakers then all the afci breakers today are mod 3. I thought he was suggesting that there was a choice.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I started this thread so as not to take over little bill's thread on the crazy gfci.
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Now why did you go and bring up my "crazy GFCI"?:D

I've been so busy I hadn't had a chance to do any checking on it. Besides that, it hasn't tripped any more since the last time I posted about it.

Not trying to "hi-jack" this thread, so carry on!:)
 
I called the manufacturer of the heater. He said to just put in larger breakers, followed by an explanation about the instantaneous heating of the heater breakers causing the afci to trip. I'm pretty sure if a breaker heated up fast enough to cause a breaker 6 spaces away from it to trip from that heat, it would have because it was an exploding breaker.
I called GE engineering department and waited on hold for 1 hour before I had to leave my office, followed by a second wait of 30 minutes without an answer.
Looks like talking to an engineer at GE is harder than trying to figure why an afci is tripping.
 
Not to mention that at the temperatures the resistance elements operate there is no noticeable surge on make, and no inductance to cause arc on break unless the thermostats are defective or undersized.
 
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