Troubleshoot a Tripping GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2024
- Why do GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter Trip? Nuisance trips of GFCIs can make you tempted to remove the GFCI but they serve an important safety purpose and once you understand how they work, it is easy to get to the root cause of the problem.
GFCI outlets and GFCI breakers both trip with the difference in current between the L1 black wire and the Neutral white wire is greater than 5mA. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that the black wire is leaking current. In this video's example, we show how continuity between the neutral and ground wire can cause enough voltage imbalance to have a current that is greater than 5mA.
This is extremely important on boats, marinas, and other wet locations where leakage current has been common in the past. Even on a boat or equipment with inverters, leakage current is not that trips a GFCI is not normal or acceptable.
Also, outside of the United States, a GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter is called an RCD Residual Current Device.
Get the full details of this lesson at twcontrols.com/industrial-con...
Items used in this video:
GFCI Outlet amzn.to/2Zo2QHt
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As long as the current is balanced between L1 and Neutral, and nothing is flowing to ground (+5 mA), your GFI wont trip! I just had to replace my garbage disposal! :) Thank You!
I touched the Neutral to the ground, and it tripped the GFI circuit circuit breaker! :)
Suppose if a metal chassy (which has no contact with ground) comes with contact of hot wire.. Will it be considered imbalance and cause GFCI to trip? Or Unless some one touch that metal chassy and provide ground connection then it will trip?
Extremely informative video.
Neutral to ground conductor leakage.
Glad you liked it
@@TimWilborne Burning question. A string of outlets with No Ground conductor.
The first outlet in the string is REPLACED with a GFCI to protect the whole string.
Does the test button work?
The ground isn't actually used in the GFCI. That is why it is called a residual current device other places. It monitors the current of the Line vs Neutral through the string of outlets. If there is an imbalance (usually because current is going to ground), then it will trip.
Tim, great video on explanation of GFCI operation. I have a different question about a problem I have in my house. I have a GFCI in my laundry room with what I believe feeds 3 outlets in other bathrooms away from the laundry room. A couple of weeks ago all the outlets in the bathrooms stopped working, although the GFCI has not tripped and has the 120 voltage emitting from the GFCI outlet. In the circuitry in GFCI's, is it possible for the device to operate without tripping (and still provide voltage from it's outlets) yet still open the circuit downstream where no voltage is provided to the outlets connected on the load side?
When I plug in the night light and air freshener warmer to the GFCI outlet, it works fine. Couple days later, I noticed it stopped working. So I wonder it could be the GFCI outlet just tripped or something else?
According to Kirchoff, electricity takes EVERY path to ground.
Great work, Tim! Can't wait for the next one.
Exactly. When people say the electricity takes the shortest path, that don't take into account that the wires have resistance. Once you plug those numbers in, it is easy to break this myth.
I have outlets that recently started having issues anytime I’m running my tv it’s trips the circuit breaker every so often . I reset the circuit breaker and it’ll work for a few min and repeat. I noticed it only trips power to 3 of my outlets in my living room. It’s a fairly new home not sure what’s causing the issue I’d like to tackle the issue myself any suggestions?
This is my first time stumbling across this channel. This dude is really smart. He’s Good teacher .
Welcome aboard!
Can you explain why my GFCI's trip in my bathroom when I activate the mic on my HAM Radio even if at 10 watts? Are their GFCI outlets that won't ?
Tim, holy moly that was an incredibly detailed deep dive into the inner workings of a gfci!!
Just to clarify for my own learning you stated that you were increasing the resistance on the POT to increase the mA. You were actually turning the resistance down correct??
Thanks again for this video that got me thinking!
I decreased the resistance (less ohms) to increase the mA, next I'm going bust the myth that electricity takes the path of least resistance and it I'll talk more about Ohms law.
I've got a natural gas tankless water-heater. When installed, I had to put in a GFCI to run the unit (exhaust fan and ignition). It started tripping after about a month of use, and I've read that the ignition system (coils?) often trip GFCI outlets. I gave up and put in a normal outlet.
A guy brought in a motor to a store, "Harbor Fright"..
He told the clerk it was causing his breaker to trip..
He wanted to know it was tripping the breaker, as the breaker is good for 25 Amps, as the motor was 20 anps . Well to get a job at HF, all you need to do is breath..
After listening to the kid at HF saying he didnt know why and it should work.
I asked to see the motor..
The motor had 20 running amps, but had 30 starting amps, which kept tripping the 25 amp breaker..
I gave the customer and young employee, a brief education on motors and electricity..
Thanks for the info!
You are welcome!
Question please. I plug my hair dryer current safety device (2prong) DIRECTLY INTO a GFCI receptacle. I press the test button on the hair dryer, it does trip (2 prong, no ground) BUT the GFCI does not give notice to the action. Confusion on my part.
The GFCI will not see a current imbalance when you press the test button on your hair dryer. It simply bypasses one of the current transducers.
what causes a GFI to sort of freeze that you can not push the button back into re set it.
any tricks you might recommend? Thanks
Usually means it needs replaced.
Very helpful video, thanks! One nitpick: I think the voltage on the N line relative to G typically follows the AC voltage on the L1 rather than just being a fixed DC offset, right?
It could actually be either depending on the source of the leakage. Most electronics are DC.
That's all well and good information but you neglected to tell anyone how your friend or marine fixed the problem. And how to fix it for someone else if it's happening at home?
No I didn't. You fix it by finding the imbalance in the GFCI.
Did you connect the wires from cord u plugged in the outlet on the load or line on gfi
Read your installation instructions carefully but the line is typically the power coming from the unprotected source and the load is what you want to protect.
I have a weird problem with GFCI. I use a power distributor for work that will immediately trip a GFCI, even before I turn any of the circuits on. Our solution for this has been to unplug all our components from the distributor and directly into the GFCI outlets. Ostensibly we're powering the same things so the fault has to be in the power distributor itself...? But we've had it inspected multiple times and it seems to be in working order.
Quick question, If you didnt connect your ground to the GFCI would it trip? Reason trouble shooting...
No, in fact they were originally developed for circuits without grounds. They should be labeled as not grounded in you don't have one.
Suppose if a metal chassy (which has no contact with ground) comes with contact of hot wire.. Will it be considered imbalance and cause GFCI to trip? Or Unless some one touch that metal chassy and provide ground connection then it will trip?
Not if there is no current flow. So if you touched it with your left hand and something grounded with your right, you would become the conductor and it would trip.
@@TimWilborne it mens it will not work incase of current leak?
Soooo what do you do to clear the leakage current? What do we look for
Hard to say, it could be a cut in a cable that is either allowing current to flow to the ground by the wires touching or simply a cut that allows water to get into the conductors.
I am assuming that he Test button does somehow electronically trip the GFCI and that it is not a mechanical shut off button. Otherwise there would be a log of lawsuits. But how does it work if there is no ground connected to the outlet?
Interesting GFCI's were originally designed for outlets that didn't have grounds. If you press the test button, it shorts the neutral to the ground, making an imbalance in the current between L1 and neutral which will cause the GFCI trip.
@@TimWilborne Interestingly the hand held GFCI test and polarity tester does require the Ground Conductor to be present in order to PRESS and utilize the test button.
Naturally ungrounded, GFCI protected circuits FAIL the test button test, BUT are
GFCI protected.
Sidebar subject, The protection device at the end of my hair dryer cord, TEST BUTTON does work when plugged into an outlet with no ground conductor.
Yes and ungrounded GFCIs must be labeled as ungrounded
3 breakers got tripped during an electrical storm and two i flipped back no problem. My garage breaker wont reset. I replaced the breaker still wont reset. No garage power. Gfci go bad?
What did you do to solve this?
@blu.q2272 i had to replace all the wall outlets in a line on that circuit until I found the bad one. Then everything clicked on fine and the gfci finally reset and I could flip the breaker back on. Took hours but not expensive or hard to do.
Thanks for sharing. Too often GFCIs are labeled as a nuisance when they're just doing their job.
My electrician installed various GFCI's because the house wiring has no Ground line. It's old knob and tube wiring! I'd like to get away from the K&T wiring, but it is a daunting, very complicated and expensive job to redo, what with wood and plaster walls and insufficient outlets. Lots of problems with an older house!
Yes, GFCIs are a good idea on knob and tube wiring!
Where was the troubleshooting?
In the video if you have a basic understanding of electricity.
NEV Neutral to earth voltage.
He's probably ground in neutral bonded at the panel inside the Distribution panel on the boat he needs to isolate the ground separate from the neutral bus bar and that should resolve the problem it's probably an older boat that wasn't set up for GFCI compatible for feeder circuit
No, he had a motor in the bilge that water had seeped into and it was bleeding current between the neutral and ground. In the end, the GFCI was doing what it was supposed to, we just had to hunt down the culprit.
@@TimWilborne Yup that will do it too . .025mA is all it takes to pop a GFCI
What a great experiment, great explanation. OSHA must be pulling their hair off; Safety? for what? I see no problem waving the outlet around with bare hands fully hot and full of wires.
It is true, I risk my life to bring you this great content 🙄
#captainobvious
@@TimWilborne that would've been a shocking experience..