GFCI Receptacle Tester

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steve66

steve66

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Location
Illinois
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Engineer
One project has a drinking fountain tripping a GFCI receptacle. The electricians have looked at it, and the plumbers have also looked at it with no resolution. The receptacle has also been replaced.

Does anyone make a GFCI Receptacle Tester that not only verifies the receptacle will trip at 5 mA, but that will also verify the receptacle won't trip for smaller leakage currents, like 1 or 2 mA?

Or does anyone make a ground fault current meter specifically for plug in loads? Something that would tell us exactly what the leakage current on the drinking fountain is? I'm picturing something like a short cord adapter with a plug on one end and an inlet on the other end, and a CT around the hot and neutral connected to a meter.
 
And here is a leakage current tester, but it is $$$$:

www.fluke.com

Fluke 368 FC Leakage Current Clamp Meter

The Fluke 368 FC true-rms leakage current clamp meter helps you measure small problems before they become large problems, all without taking equipment off line.
www.fluke.com www.fluke.com

It could probably be used with a short 3 wire extension cord, with the outer jacket cut to separate the ground wire.
 
steve66 said:
Or does anyone make a ground fault current meter specifically for plug in loads? Something that would tell us exactly what the leakage current on the drinking fountain is? I'm picturing something like a short cord adapter with a plug on one end and an inlet on the other end, and a CT around the hot and neutral connected to a meter.
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest the Fluke 368-FC but you beat me to it.

As well as having the necessary sensitivity and resolution, it also does min/max/average and has a selectible noise filter. This might help determine whether the leakage is steady or variable, 60Hz related or induced by noise, etc.

steve66 said:
Does anyone make a GFCI Receptacle Tester that not only verifies the receptacle will trip at 5 mA, but that will also verify the receptacle won't trip for smaller leakage currents, like 1 or 2 mA?
Click to expand...

If you were willing, you could make such a tester yourself that has variable leakage currents, for example what I suggested in the post below. Leakage would be induced by a resistance placed between the load hot on the GFCI and equipment ground. If the resistance was placed instead between the line input hot and the load neutral of the GFCI receptacle, a return current back on the load neutral could be made that matches a leakage current from the hot to EGC. By doing this the currents through the CT of the GFCI would be balanced, and so it should no longer trip unless it's being caused by noise.

https://forums.mikeholt.com/threads...have-they-gotten-slower.2570724/#post-2790128
 
steve66 said:
One project has a drinking fountain tripping a GFCI receptacle. The electricians have looked at it, and the plumbers have also looked at it with no resolution. The receptacle has also been replaced.

Does anyone make a GFCI Receptacle Tester that not only verifies the receptacle will trip at 5 mA, but that will also verify the receptacle won't trip for smaller leakage currents, like 1 or 2 mA?

Or does anyone make a ground fault current meter specifically for plug in loads? Something that would tell us exactly what the leakage current on the drinking fountain is? I'm picturing something like a short cord adapter with a plug on one end and an inlet on the other end, and a CT around the hot and neutral connected to a meter.
Click to expand...
Another way to TEST the drinking fountain for a ground fault is to remove the equipment ground to see if the gfci trips or not. Of course if it still does then you have (bigger or) manufacturing problems.
 
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40 years ago when GFCIs were new, Ihad a Leviton 6185, to test leakage and trip levels. Some early GFCIs false tripped due to moisture in ckt boards. Todays GFCIs don’t false trip, the drinking fountain is likely the issue. Anyway the 6185 is a low cost way to test, as you can set different levels of trip current
 
I have had one of these for 20+ years , lets you adjust the trip range incrementally to see what the device is actually tripping at. They're cheaper than the Fluke unit shown but still a little pricey, I spent around a $100.00 when I bought mine, They're advertised for around $200.00 now. I used it mainly for checking alarm levels on Line Isolation Monitors (LIM's) on Isolated Power Systems (517.160)

Hubbell GFCI tester.



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