Gfci trips

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LSK

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I'm a little stuck here. In laws bought a house in central Florida Lake county. Built in 06. For some reason ALL gfci's (bathrooms) all on the local circuit. And patio gfci's on local circuits. ALL trip when on that particular circuit when an exhaust fan or ceiling fan is turned off after it was turned on. If that makes sense. I know it has to do with grounding but everything seems fine. Needing some help here. Thanks
 
If they are tripping when a load is turned off, it is probably "inductive kickback" that is causing them to trip.

First thing is to replace the no-name GFCI's if that is what you have, and install Levition, P &S, Hubbell, etc. devices, as they take inductive kickback better then some of the really cheap devices do.
 
Are there multiple GFCIs on one circuit or is one GFCI protecting multiple outlets?

Back in the '80s it was common to use one GFCI device to protect all the places required outside of the kitchen. A dedicated circuit to the wasn't required till '96 or '99.
 
kwired said:
If they are tripping when a load is turned off, it is probably "inductive kickback" that is causing them to trip.

First thing is to replace the no-name GFCI's if that is what you have, and install Levition, P &S, Hubbell, etc. devices, as they take inductive kickback better then some of the really cheap devices do.
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I agree with Kwired.

You may have a no name cheap GFCI that may be the issue.
 
I Would replace the gfi's and install them with all wires load side at bathroom, and load side on outdoor receptacles, and any other required places. It may be more expensive but easy to troubleshoot when their is a problem in the future.

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I've seen inductive kickback trip GFCI's that were not even on the same branch circuit before.

One time when we had a power outage and I was running the house on a generator, the generator ran out of fuel, right when it quit I heard popping all over the house - must have been some inductive kickback when it quit as the sound was every GFCI receptacle (all were P&S) in the house tripping at that moment. I seldom have unknown tripping otherwise from those devices.
 
Has anyone who has fixed this tried looping the load (fan in this case) wiring through a ferrite torroid? Would it even work to suppress the kickback?
 
LSK said:
I'm a little stuck here. In laws bought a house in central Florida Lake county. Built in 06. For some reason ALL gfci's (bathrooms) all on the local circuit. And patio gfci's on local circuits. ALL trip when on that particular circuit when an exhaust fan or ceiling fan is turned off after it was turned on. If that makes sense. I know it has to do with grounding but everything seems fine. Needing some help here. Thanks
Click to expand...

To help you trouble shoot your problem, I've some questions for you:

1) Do you have GFCI breakers or receptacles?
2) If GFCI receptacles, is there one GFCI receptacle per circuit, or multiple? What brand GFCI receptacles?
3) Are any of the affected circuits that trip, or circuits that serve the fans, multi-wire branch circuits?
4) You write "ALL trip on that particular circuit..."; is there more than one GFCI receptacle per circuit?
5) Are the fans on the circuits with the GFCIs that trip?
6) Does the ceiling fan trip the GFCI(s) when switching speeds from H-M, M-L, or just from L (Low) to Off?

GFCI trips have nothing to do with grounding and everything to do with current imbalance between ungrounded and grounded conductors.

If two different fans are causing trips when turned off, I would tend to rule out the fans as the problem.

If there are multiple GFCI devices (breakers and/or receptacles) on one circuit, I would remove the extras (the ones on the load side of the first GFCI protection device).
I would verify that all GFCI wiring is correct in regards to polarity and line/load.
 
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