Our project has a spa with one main circulation pump and two jet pumps. We will have more pumps once the pool is designed. Our Pentair Intellicenter control panel is only for controls as we will have too many pieces of equipment to control to also have the two pole GFCI breakers for the pumps in it. Our feeders for the boilers, the pumps on the hydronic snow melt system, the spa pumps, site power and lighting are in a Siemens P1 panel. This panel has bolt-on type BL breakers, not the little type QP plug-in breakers. So we cannot use the "recommended" Pentair PGF breaker, PA220GF.
I contacted both Pentair and Siemens about this issue. Pentair told me that I needed to use a 6mA GFCI breaker or I would have continued tripping! ALL Class A GFCI breakers have a 5mA +-1mA trip rating (per UL 943). So obviously we're using a Class A GFCI breaker. They no longer manufacture Class B GFCIs and a Class C is for equipment protection ONLY! Pentair also told me that we may have a neutral issue, after I told him we had two-pole GFCIs and the motors were wired up 208 singl-phase two wire. WE HAVE NO NEUTRAL!
Siemens called me back to respond to my email. They told me that "Yes, we do not make a specific 6mA rated GFCI breaker". I was also told that Pentair sends people to Siemens to physically go through and test breakers to see where their break open / tripping point is. They would buy the breakers that would trip on the higher end of 6mA. These Siemens breakers are then relabled with Pentairs own label! I asked him to email me this statement but have not yet gotten anything back. Pentair only does this with the Type QP single-pole and double-pole 20A GFCI breakers, so we are SOL to try and get a bolt-on Pentair branded, 50% markup price GFCI breaker.
This to me sounds more like the Pentair labeled breaker is required than it is "recommended"! Which if that is the case, can that be legal? They make motors that you HAVE to buy their breaker, not any other brand.
To me it sounds like Pentair has an issue with their VFDs creating too much noise, causing the breakers to trip. Maybe Pentair needs to finally fix THEIR issue of the motors tripping the GFCIs.
After doing approximately 16,000,000 hours of research on Pentair IntellifloXF VSF and Whisperflo VST tripping Siemens 2-pole GFCI breakers. I finally (hopefully) found an answer.
Supposedly (not supposebly), back in August of 2023, member ddbear installed a ferrite toroid core FT240-43. Post 2854953. His last post was two months later. He stated that after two months he had ZERO trips!
Has anyone else tried this?
Moderator Jraef was also part of this conversation.
I don't know if there is a way to contact someone directly to find out if ddbear sitll has a zero trip Pentair pump?
If this ferrite core is the secret to an unknow number of GFCI tripping nightmares, Pentair could, and should, simply supply their motors with ferrite cores!! Or have their enginneers fix their own known issue that has been around for over a decade!! My other fix is that no one ever buy Penair products again.
