GFCI Issues

laketime

laketime

Senior Member
We have a customer who bought a new freezer sitting outside their business. They plugged the freezer into a GFCI receptacle that had fed the old freezer. New freezer gets plugged in GFCI trips, ok issue with GFCI receptacle change to new. New GFCI holds for about 20 minutes then trips. Tech takes a short 15' extension cord plugs new freezer in a GFCI receptacle fed from the same circuit but sitting about 5' away on opposite side fence and sees what happens. Freezer is plugged into that GFCI for 11 days no issues. We come back change out a short run of wire to eliminate issues with THHN in EMT. Energize the troubled GFCI it holds for about 20 minutes trips again. Text plugs same extension cord into troubled GFCI to see if the extra length of wire helped solve the issue. GFCI trips about 28 minutes later. WTF? Suggestions or thoughts? Two GFCI's about 5' apart one holds just fine the one they want to use, changed out once, keeps tripping.
 
I know it's expensive to try stuff out....
but try swapping the two GFCI receptacles and see if the problem tracks?

I'd much rather see AHAM's proposed code to allow the freezer to do its own GFCI internally, and skip the receptacle GFCI....
 
Get a expensive tester that can measure leakage current or get a less expensive, but expensive GFPE breaker and put the freezer on a 30ma GFPE breaker for a few days and see if it trips that.
My take is manufacturers quietly no longer support UL GFCI 5ma Residual Current Device (RCD) standards, as were possibly one of 3 countries using it.
If the new freezer trips a 30ma GFPE you have a defective fridge.
 
tortuga said:
Get a expensive tester that can measure leakage current or get a less expensive, but expensive GFPE breaker and put the freezer on a 30ma GFPE breaker for a few days and see if it trips that.
My take is manufacturers quietly no longer support UL GFCI 5ma Residual Current Device (RCD) standards, as were possibly one of 3 countries using it.
If the new freezer trips a 30ma GFPE you have a defective fridge.
Click to expand...
Thanks this makes sense and the direction we were sort of leaning.
 
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