Hospital grade GFCI tripping??

[joec]

Its only one year old and it's hospital grade, I paid like $30 for it. Saturday night and just now it tripped.

I have it located in the back of the interior of the stand, above the sump. Its been fine for a year and now has tripped twice in three days.

Is it too close to the sump water

Any thoughts or advice on this?

 

[virtual reality]

Mine will trip in the basement if the humidity gets to high. Could also be corrosion?

 

[Jeight]

could be one of your pumps or lights is about to go bad and when it comes on its over drawing power...this is more a likely source OR the gfi is going bad it happens...they are made for kitchens and bathrooms where humidity is always there

 

[joec]

It just tripped again, this sucks

I have three other two outlet receptacles tied into the GFCI, that means it could be a problem with any one of of the other three recepticles, not neccessarily the GFCI itself that's causing it to trip, correct?

 

[Jeight]

It just tripped again, this sucks

I have three other two outlet receptacles tied into the GFCI, that means it could be a problem with any one
of of the other three recepticles, not neccessarily the GFCI itself that's causing it to trip, correct?

correct ..think of the gfi as a surge protector..either it is bad or something in the loop is surging

can you possibly try isolating the other circuits one by one and see if it still trips?

 

[KStatefan]

It just tripped again, this sucks

I have three other two outlet receptacles tied into the GFCI, that means it could be a problem with any one of of the other three recepticles, not neccessarily the GFCI itself that's causing it to trip, correct?

Anything downstream on the GFCI could also cause it to trip.

 

[joec]

can you possibly try isolating the other circuits one by one and see if it still trips?

That's what I will try. I have a high quality power strip that is plugged directly into the GFCI. If I switch all the power into that power strip and don't plug anything into the three outlets that are wired together in the same electrical box upstream of the GFCI will that allow me to rule out that the GFCI is the problem, if it no longer trips?

 

[KrisReef]

It needs current moving through it to test it. If it’s just wired but not dealing with a load it should not trip unless there is a short in wires downstream.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I bought a few Blank-Face GFCIs recently and the manual on the Eaton branded ones said that at some point the unit will reach end-of-life and will not be able to be reset.

That said, they do go bad internally.

Replace it, they are cheap enough and see what happens. You don't want it to trip if faulty when you are away or..... worse, not trip when you need it to.

 

[Mjrenz]

Gfci outlets can and will go bad and they are very prone to nuisance trips. I don't trust them on anything that I need to count on working, especially my tank

 

[joec]

ok, I had everything plugged into the GFCI and downstream to the powerstrip (PS only like 6 weeks old), nothing upstream of the GFCI.

Does that mean that the GFCI or the powerstrip is bad, and its not the three receptacles upstream of the of the GFCI?

 

[ScooterV]

Correct. The GFCI protects that outlet, and anything downstream from it. Nothing upstream should impact it.

 

[Mjrenz]

I've had gfci outlets trip with nothing plugged into the entire circuit, it's most likely the outlet itself. The only thing a gfci is meant to do is prevent electrocution, the way they are designed leaves them very susceptible to failure

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Try and post in this thread also, for help

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/y...ectrical-questions.86494/page-52#post-5419141

 

[Mjrenz]

Correct. The GFCI protects that outlet, and anything downstream from it. Nothing upstream should impact it.

Anything connected to the load side of the gfci outlet can cause it to trip

 

[ScooterV]

Anything connected to the load side of the gfci outlet can cause it to trip

And the load would only be on that outlet, or those connected downsteam on the load side. He can hit "Test" and see what outlets are on the load side.

 

[Mjrenz]

Anything connected to the load side of the gfci outlet can cause it to trip

Sorry, I misread your comment and you were correct

 

[ScooterV]

Sorry, I misread your comment and you were correct

No problem! LOL, "downstream" isn't actually a technical term anyway :)

 

[Mjrenz]

No problem! LOL, "downstream" isn't actually a technical term anyway :)

It was just me reading too fast. It sounds technical enough to me;)

 

[Mjrenz]

One other thing about gfci outlets, besides them being overpriced, and relatively useless for anything that's critical to stay operational, the test button is only going to let you know it will trip if it needs to and not be any guarantee there won't be nuisance trips.