Why GFCI & AFCI Circuit Breaker Keep Tripping
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- This homeowner was having a concrete patio built and the concrete guy sprayed water on the outlet that's being fed by the gfci or afci breaker. She kept trying to reset the breaker because the breaker kept tripping but it would not say on.
You are very skilled and it shows. Between your equipment and and how you conduct yourself. Thanks a lot! There are a ton of training videos out there. But theoretical knowledge only gets you so far. I appreciate your real time videos, shows the rest of us what it should look like on a service call and what a real professional would do.
Love it
So why the hidden camera?
Southwest Missouri here, that is a good example of why you need a clear path to the panel at all times
Just want to shout out and say you have intrigued me to the point that i am now working as a commercial electrician and working on getting through to my journeyman license in Ohio. Thanks bro hoping one day soon i will be able to have my own business and help others as you do. In fact i got a call from a family member that has same issue as this one. His two outside receptacles keep tripping so he wants me to come look at it. Kinda why i watched over this video again to get my groundings
@@seanstrickley3992 Thank you for the comment man. Really appreciate it
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 nothing but love bro have fun out there and as always be safe
This makes me want a first person electrician video game in the style of Call of Duty. Run around houses solving electrical puzzles. ^_^
DOPE!!!!!!
There is a game out there. Don't think it's much like Call of Duty.😂
czcams.com/video/7xR7ryt1HIs/video.htmlsi=9_LPZ13zruE2wsQB
Respect. One thing that helps me a lot, is a receptacle tester. Has helped me find bad wiring, and bad devices on circuits, really fast. Cheers 2 the troubleshooting video. I love troubleshooting.
Regarding fault finding for the newer apprentices. It always pays to listen to the customer regarding what happened, the age of certain equipment and their use can provide clues what likely is wrong. In the vast majority of cases it’s the simple things. Rule them out before going deeper. That just comes from experience as you say. I would have also replaced the receptacle. The vast majority of electricians will only do a voltage check. I would have also done a receptacle prong tension test to ensure that whatever is plugged in actual holds. Usually the ground prong tends to loosen up over time and it’s the one that fails most often and for clearing faults it’s important for overcurrent protection with the breaker. If it’s been splashed with water and likely created a short I would not put much stall in the receptacle lasting too much longer.
I like watching you troubleshoot. It's fun solving problems. 1k around the corner
I see there is a class action suit against Siemens regarding their dual function breakers and nuisance tripping. I ran into this problem in my sons new condo with aSiemens panel. The contractor wired a separate circuit for his kitchen island with an upstream receptacle/ junction box in the adjacent wall . He used that receptacle successfully for his coffee maker for several months. The island lead was unattached and hot . I installed a 20 A heavy duty receptacle in the island and tested the wiring- all good. Then the ( almost new) coffee maker started tripping the dual function breaker. I tested my power tools and other appliances but no issue. Tested the power cord etc, no issue. I then replaced the upstream wall receptacle with a 20 A GFCI receptacle. Voila , no tripping. Not sure why or what was going on , but I surmise the GFCI stabilized the signal back to the breaker. If the coffee maker were really bad, it would trip at the receptacle. Yes, and ground and neutrals were wired correctly and tight at the panel and the circuit. Yes ,and the coffee maker did not trip on another AFCI/GFCI circuit. Yes, and no short in the hot lead to the island. Siemens must realize there is a problem because they produced some videos about “ways of addressing” tripping issues, I tried them all and nothing worked. Appreciate any constructive thoughts on this.
Great work and thanks you for your videos! I’m a newbie and love learning from you! 🙏⭐️
please let the home owner know to keep a clear patch to the panel it wont matter to them but at least they will be advised
Excellent work and excellent trouble shooting skills, please keep posting
GOOD video Shot and Very Helpful
Great video, thank you!
Thank you for the videos. Good job!
Very nice video ,thanks
Great video again but I must respectufully disagree with one assumption you made.When you disconnected the wires from the gfci breaker and you connected them to a neutral bar and a regular breaker,the assumption that it was a bad gfci breaker is only half true in my opinion.I say that because if there was a fault between a neutral and ground on that wire, the regular breaker would not 'detect' it,but a gfci breaker would.So, technically,once you put in the new gfci breaker,you could have had it tripping again :).please Correct me if I'm wrong.
100 agree with you ..but it's easy detect the problem with outlets ..switching is more difficult
If a screw or nail is in the wire an AFCI breaker will trip but a regular breaker will not trip.
Subscribed !! Looking forward to more of your videos! Great troubleshooting
Enjoyed your video
Great job keeping going bro God bless
50 + years. And still learning.
Everything about this patio outlet is why GFCIs were required: damp location including direct water exposure, missing cover plate, likely corrosion in the conductive path. At czcams.com/video/leWgyaQmE3s/video.html 119.4 VAC is measured, but at czcams.com/video/leWgyaQmE3s/video.html 116.6 VAC is measured. For the relatively short wire run and presumptive low load, I'm curious about the 3 volt drop.
Great video! Good troubleshooting tips thx
welcome shane
First thing you should have did when you took the wires off was turn the GFI breaker on to make sure it wasn't that breaker
You got lucky. Your assumption that it was the afci breaker because it didnt trip a regualar breaker is wrong. If there was a fault between the neutral and ground somewhere in the circuit it would not trip a regular breaker but it will trip an afci breaker.
Learned from experience.
Troubleshooting is fun especially if you find out the problem ... You didn't forget the cover on that outside outlet did you ? Lol ... Good vid ...
I put a brand new cover on!!
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 Lol ...
Thought you got hit at 6:30…..glad you didn’t!
I like your tool box gotta get me one
Nice 36” clearance in front of that panel lol
lmao
Hey bro I like your videos but only thing is that you move to quick try to slow down a bit so we can pick up things better thanx keep up the good work
Amilcar my bad bro, have to be quick on your feet to keep running service calls day after day. I'll think about that going forward!!
I'd say it's 50/50. Some of us would like to see a quick video in real time and real time thinking rather than a slow broken down video. Maybe can do both? I think the video was perfect
Do you charge by the hour for troubleshooting or what? Sometimes you can spend hours taking everything apart before you figure out its a staple thru the wire, in the attic, under the insulation (just an example) 😫
Usually doesn't take me about an hour, but I charge for 2 hours minimum.
Good job brother!
Thank you brother your photo looks good. Subscribed to your channel.
LOVE THIS CHANNEL ⚡
Thanks for sharing.
Welcome
I just subscribed bro awesome job do more stuff!
“Oh black Jesus” 😂😂
I bet you had a strong suspicion that it was the breaker from the jump ,arc fault breakers are the worst they always going bad or tripping and based on code you got to put them in for a lot of stuff now days :( . GFCI not as much but still…
yup
Arc faults dont usually go bad. Most of the time its water getting into the box or bad cord.Cutler Hammer are the ones that go bad the most in my exp.
@@DonkeyLipsDA3rd my friend then you are lucky , with my luck dealing with them they can trip easy and have issues but they are still new compared to other types of breakers .
@@DonkeyLipsDA3rd Funny you mention that, I think my cutler hammer breaker just went out. Still need to troubleshoot
Bet it was that saw they used kept resetting the breaker
at 8:50, why do we need to connect the neutral to the breaker and then to the bus bar, can't we just run it straight into the bus bar
great question, do some research
Good work !Did the customer tell what they were doing if anything when the breaker tripped ? Sometimes a faulty appliance ,saw etc. can make a GFCI trip.
Greg she was having concrete poured an the guy sprayed the outlet with water causing it to trip, but it would not reset so i put a new one in.
So much for torquing that breaker wire correctly and neutral remove that receptacle and check the see if that torque correctly and made-up correctly but I guess dinner is waiting
I have my doubts it was the breaker should have tested the terminal on the breaker make Shure all connections are good . Then after that move on to a new breaker
Old breaker would not reset to test terminal.
Understandable those breakers are garbage
I have this exact breaker that trips only when we have lot of rain. What would you check for ? Thanks for the well done on-site troubleshooting.
Outlet getting wet somewhere
How much did you charge her.
That one hour or half hour. Did you charge for the GFCI
Bro het that dewalt gyroscopic screwdriver to open panels and outlets without killing the wrist lol I’m full milwaukee guy but that’s the only yellow stuff in my van ;)
I have one only use it sometimes. More hassle for me sometimes because it want turn my screws if they are binding.
any solution for AFCI nuisance tripping? My son's gaming computer keeps tripping and there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done. Have replaced the computer PSU and the actual AFCI breaker. Circuit is not overloaded and I'm at wits end. This happens on several different circuits in our home.
If your receptacle is wired with stab-type wiring you can get intermittent operation for anything connected to a computer.
I solved a similar problem by replacing the receptacle with one that required wire- wrapped around the terminal one.
Would you explain why an arc fault creates so much heat? Is the current increased?, and is the heat similar to that in a short circuit? Thanks
I just graduated from school last month with a degree in industrial electronic technology I have like 2 years of experience with hvac what kind of job would you recommend for my electrical journey
What do you want to do Hvac or Electrician?
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 maybe both
@@cojia Pick one for full time and work with someone on the side doing the other one.
Do HVAC make more money
@@Cantdeleate I dont think so. Its all about how much work you wanna do day to day
I have about 5 breakers all gf and af breakers. 5 trip when I plug in my solar inverter but not when I disconnect the inverter and turn back on the grid, it no longer trips. And it’s not ALL of the af and gf breakers that trip, it’s some that don’t. Not sure what this issue is. I called the company concerning the inverter and they asked for pictures of panel and wiring in the inverters and they said the inverter connection was fine but they could not give me advice on the panel because they were only qualified on the DC part. However they said some times a matter of moving around the breakers and checking for loose terminals can help. In my sub panels I have all my loads on one side (except for the output breaker of the inverter which is on the other side) and they are all 120. I have no 240 loads in my sub panel that the inverter is powering. Do you have suggestions that could stop this tripping of the load? I unplugged all of the large appliances before starting up the inverter to see if it was an overload issue but still no power to the 5 breakers, even the reset doesn’t do anything.
i have a brand new square d qo gfci/afci that trips as soon as anything plugged into the circuit is turned on. circuit is brand new with 12/2 romex, 20 amp outlets. if i use a regular breaker, all good. i guess back to the old school i go.
Ahmed, brand new could still be bad. Try a different breaker with the same new wire, or a different wire with the same breaker. That way you see where the fault is. Just reverting to the old non arc breaker may mask the issue when there really is bad wire.
Could be a nail in the wire from neutral to ground Or a series of other issues causing current to leak to ground. You could test by removing the ground wire from that circuit in the panel and isolating it. If the breaker doesn’t trip you have leakage onto that ground wire. There could Also be leakage onto another circuit. Do you know if any boxes are shared between that circuit and another one?
how fast you do it, in my place it would take half day.
Great video,I have a GFI plug in my kitchen that trip's often,any idea on what my problem could be?
How old is it? And what you have plugged in??
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 my house was built in 2008, and all I have plugged in there is a Keurig coffee machine just the single shot.
@@davedave2882 replace it
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 ,will do.thank you.
You should charge extra for working around the junk.
Should of put a load on the outlet to actually test it.
Hi. A quick question with respect. How much is a good price to charge for a service like that? Including gas and the after hours service? Thank you in advance
It’s at least $150 an hour for an electrician in my area (Phoenix AZ) plus the parts.
You determined it was a bad breaker by going from AFCI / GFCI Combination breaker to a non-combination. Do you know those two types of breakers are completely different and there may be a reason why the first one is tripping besides it being a bad breaker?
Okay you ready guys what would you all charge for that me in New York Brooklyn I would charge about 275 for that job
Nice video btw
Thank you bro
I also have a question I tried to install a USB receptacle into a metal box on an island and it was really tight so I think after I turn the breaker back on I had a fault because it immediately trip the breaker. So so I took it out and replaced it with the original receptacle, and now a GFCI on that same circuit was tripping so I replaced it with a new one same scenario yet the breaker stays on??? Any help anyone
Have you ever disconnected and installed power cables form the utility power from the weather head before
Quick question is fire alarm a good trade to get in??
The are all good, every building needs fire alarm, depends on if you wanna work for someone or do your own business,
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 so fire alarm is considered part of an electrician? Do fire alarm techs bend conduit?
potentially if you come from an electrician back ground, then yes but a lot of times the electricians on the site will install the conduit an fire alarm guys pull there wire through the conduit!
@@unitedtradesmanacademy1894 thank you for your answers
@@amilcarcastillo2446 welcome
What camera are you using
Easy troubleshoot
Great work🦾🦾🦾🦾
You should open up a patreon or a stream labs so I can give you a dono
Thank you i will look into those platforms. never used them before!
What was the cost 🤔
That braker is bad also it should have tripped when you clicked the test button you thought you was slick 9:41
This video was very painful to watch.
👍🏽🫡
I remove all the gfi breakers they are junk.
Man has vainly arms jesus
Use to work out pretty heavily 15ys ago. Gains left but veins stayed.
Almost looks like you could throw a cinder block into space, but yeah great job with the testing appreciate the vid
@@bluename9657 Damn too funny, made my day with that one.
Arc fault isn't required outdoors. Why would you put a dual function breaker in? Arc faults and weather do not play nicely together