Faulty Arc Faults?

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dcooper

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Why do I have cleaners plugging vacums into one arcfault cir and it trips and another arcfault and it holds. This job was a complete gut and renovation, all the wiring is new and to NEC.
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Not bashing your work, but maybe you have a loose connection somewhere in the circuit that is tripping it, could be under a screw or a wire nut or something like that? If the arc fault held when you powered up it could be a series arcing fault from what I understand (and that is limited in the AFCI area) there has to be a load to trip the AFCI with a series arcing fault. The other thing is and I am not 100% sure but the AFCI would have to be of the combination type, again I have heard that this can be an issue, and I am by no means an authority on them. Hope this can help you get started in the right direction..
 
I can plug things into the same outlet without it tripping. It just seems to be more sensative to some equiptment that has been plugged into it.
 
i have had this issue with power tools and small motors. I will probably change out the AFCI breaker, I was just wondering if anyone else is having this type of issue. I HATE ARC FAULTS
 
dcooper said:
I can plug things into the same outlet without it tripping. It just seems to be more sensative to some equiptment that has been plugged into it.
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Possible that the things your plugging in are not enough of a load? I know it would suck to have to try and find a loose connection but maybe start at the breaker connection. If its not tripping another arc fault doubt its the breaker but you never know. Have you tried another vac on that circuit ?
 
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Thanks SG-1. That was more of my question I guess. This is a pretty common problem then. This isnt the 1st time this has happened and I have checked the cir front to back for loose connections. And I have had the cleaners use the vacums on different cir (arci protected) and it works.
 
dcooper said:
Thanks SG-1. That was more of my question I guess. This is a pretty common problem then. This isnt the 1st time this has happened and I have checked the cir front to back for loose connections. And I have had the cleaners use the vacums on different cir (arci protected) and it works.
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Like SG-1 said try swapping the breakers around if it still trips you know it's in the circuit.

A friend had problems with 4 arc faults an the strange thing they were all on A phase , never heard back what the problem was.
 
Curious if you know the relative length of cable in each circuit from the breaker to the vacuum cleaner load?

Any chance that the circuit with the shortest cable length is the one that trips?
 
dcooper said:
Why do I have cleaners plugging vacums into one arcfault cir and it trips and another arcfault and it holds. This job was a complete gut and renovation, all the wiring is new and to NEC.
????????????
Click to expand...

did you check if the cleaners cut the grounds off the cords:roll:
 
We have had this issue with high amperage draw items such as vacuum cleaners. What are the chances that all of the new receptacles on the circuit are back-stabbed? I only ask because we back stab resi jobs all the time and this issue goes away most of the time (for whatever reason) if we go back through and pigtail each receptacle box out so that the downstream connections are not dependent on the receptacles. I almost hate to admit this for fear of rekindling the old " I hate backstabbing" threads :)
 
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