Aquarium and electrical safety

[KJoFan]

I have this breaker installed in my panel for a circuit dedicated to my tank only. For a few weeks now it has tripped nearly daily. Sometimes it will go a few days without tripping. I've swapped some equipment around and swapped my heater out and haven't solved it. Am I just getting nuisance trips? Unfortunately I'll be out of town for a couple days for Christmas and have no way to reset the breaker if it goes down. The breaker was installed by an electrician within the last year, could the breaker just be faulty? Any insight is appreciated!

 

[BeanAnimal]

You will have to use process of elimination to determine what is causing the trip. It could be faulting equipment or nuisance tripping or a failing bad breaker. That breaker has a timed reset diagnostic. I would call your electrician to help you narrow down the cause.

 

[KJoFan]

You will have to use process of elimination to determine what is causing the trip. It could be faulting equipment or nuisance tripping or a failing bad breaker. That breaker has a timed reset diagnostic. I would call your electrician to help you narrow down the cause.

I've been trying to use process of elimination with my tank equipment by moving something to a separate circuit and/or swapping it out completely, but haven't solved it yet.

Can you explain what timed reset diagnostic means, just for my own knowledge?

 

[RobertK]

Looks like you have a combination GFCI/AFCI breaker. I'm getting a new circuit installed for my tank after Xmas; I asked my electrician about installing an AFCI breaker and he advised me against it because he said they nuisance trip frequently. I would get your electrician back out there ASAP and ask him what he thinks is causing the problem.

 

[KJoFan]

Looks like you have a combination GFCI/AFCI breaker. I'm getting a new circuit installed for my tank after Xmas; I asked my electrician about installing an AFCI breaker and he advised me against it because he said they nuisance trip frequently. I would get your electrician back out there ASAP and ask him what he thinks is causing the problem.

It just is odd because I can reset the breaker and it will be fine for anywhere from a day to a few days and then randomly trip again.

And it was fine for months up until recently. So annoying.

 

[BeanAnimal]

It may be tripping under a certain combination of conditions creating a fault or a cumulative non-fault leakage current. It could be a lot of things, but not something to take for granted. I would call the electrician.

Replacing the breaker outright will rule it in our out.
If it still trips, then finding the culprit may not be straight forward.

You can look up how the internal tests for that breaker work, but I would advise consulting the electrician instead of doing the diagnosis yourself.

 

[KJoFan]

I have a call in to the electrician to hopefully stop today and take a look. I had no intention of diagnosing myself, just trying to learn! :)

 

[RobertK]

I have a call in to the electrician to hopefully stop today and take a look. I had no intention of diagnosing myself, just trying to learn! :)

Yeah I was surprised when my electrician advised against the AFCI breaker. He said that in his experience they are more hassle than they are worth, and that they only use them on new construction because the building code requires it. I'm going with GFCI receptacles and a standard breaker.

I hope your electrician can get out to your house this week before you leave town, bad timing right before Xmas.

 

[KJoFan]

Yeah I was surprised when my electrician advised against the AFCI breaker. He said that in his experience they are more hassle than they are worth, and that they only use them on new construction because the building code requires it. I'm going with GFCI receptacles and a standard breaker.

I hope your electrician can get out to your house this week before you leave town, bad timing right before Xmas.

It's a little bit my own fault. This has been happening for a few weeks and I thought I could troubleshoot it with equipment switching and such.

Perhaps the solution is switch to a regular breaker and go with GFCI outlet? The outlet is super hard to get to as it's right behind the tank, but we shall see.

 

[RobertK]

It's a little bit my own fault. This has been happening for a few weeks and I thought I could troubleshoot it with equipment switching and such.

Perhaps the solution is switch to a regular breaker and go with GFCI outlet? The outlet is super hard to get to as it's right behind the tank, but we shall see.

My understanding is that GFCI outlets and GFCI breakers provide an equal degree of protection (especially if the outlets for your aquarium are on their own independent circuit) and that it is mostly a matter of convenience which one you would prefer to reset when it trips. Another good question for your electrician!

 

[UncommonSense]

Perhaps the solution is switch to a regular breaker and go with GFCI outlet? The outlet is super hard to get to as it's right behind the tank, but we shall see.

Remote resetting GFCI outlets do exist!

 

[BeanAnimal]

My understanding is that GFCI outlets and GFCI breakers provide an equal degree of protection (especially if the outlets for your aquarium are on their own independent circuit) and that it is mostly a matter of convenience which one you would prefer to reset when it trips. Another good question for your electrician!

The advantage to receptacles is that you can use multiple units, removing the single point of failure that a breaker presents.

 

[KJoFan]

Remote resetting GFCI outlets do exist!

They do??? I'm going to have to Google.

 

[RobertK]

They do??? I'm going to have to Google.

See post #171 of this same thread!

 

[KJoFan]

Temporary solution was to replace the GFCI breaker with a regular breaker. Hopefully this will resolve the problem at least while I'm out of town for Christmas. After the holidays they will come back with a tester and we'll go through th tank equipment and see if we can find the culprit.

 

[RobertK]

Sounds like the electrician has already been there. So now you have no GFCI protection on the outlets or the breaker? Why didn't he replace the combo AFCI/GFCI breaker with a GFCI breaker?

 

[KJoFan]

Sounds like the electrician has already been there. So now you have no GFCI protection on the outlets or the breaker? Why didn't he replace the combo AFCI/GFCI breaker with a GFCI breaker?

Partly because he didn't have one with him. The other part because I was worried about it continuing to trip while I'm gone for a couple days over Christmas.

So, no, no GFCI protection for now. Should just be temporary though until after the holidays when we can troubleshoot it further.

 

[Freenow54]

Partly because he didn't have one with him. The other part because I was worried about it continuing to trip while I'm gone for a couple days over Christmas.

So, no, no GFCI protection for now. Should just be temporary though until after the holidays when we can troubleshoot it further.

Run an extension cord to the bathroom

 

[KJoFan]

Run an extension cord to the bathroom

I have a GFCI protected circuit right across the room from the tank. I guess I could move tank power to that circuit.

 

[KJoFan]

Ok, you guys scared me enough. I've moved everything to a non GFCI outlet (was nearest I could access easily), but it's on a circuit with a GFCI outlet, so should be protected still as I understand it.