# GFCI Breakers Frequently Trip Out



## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Just because they "work fine" on non-GFCI protected outlets does not mean the insulation is not leaking to ground, in fact it more likely means the pumps ARE allowing more than 6mA of leakage. Could be the cord, connections or even the motor windings themselves. This by the way is WHY you use GFCIs around water. You need to let you production guys know that this might be saving their lives. 6mA is not necessarily enough to kill them now, but think of it as a kind of "canary in a coal mine", it's letting them know there is a danger brewing and it will only get worse.

Could be tough to fix though, it may involve having the pumps taken apart and having the motor windings redone with VPI treatment. But before you go to that extreme, start by spraying WD-40 generously around the areas where the cords go into the pumps. The "WD" stands for Water Displacer, so it will move any microscopically conductive traces of moisture apart and possibly stop it from tracking to ground. It's not a fix, but if it temporarily stops the symptoms (and it WILL be temporary), it shows you that the problem is there and not necessarily in the windings. That's a cheaper fix.

But first, plug something ELSE into those circuits, like a drop light, just to make sure it's not in the circuit. Plug that drop light into another known working GFCI receptacle first to prove it is OK.


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## vileislepore (Jan 25, 2013)

JRaef said:


> Just because they "work fine" on non-GFCI protected outlets does not mean the insulation is not leaking to ground, in fact it more likely means the pumps ARE allowing more than 6mA of leakage. Could be the cord, connections or even the motor windings themselves. This by the way is WHY you use GFCIs around water. You need to let you production guys know that this might be saving their lives. 6mA is not necessarily enough to kill them now, but think of it as a kind of "canary in a coal mine", it's letting them know there is a danger brewing and it will only get worse.
> 
> Could be tough to fix though, it may involve having the pumps taken apart and having the motor windings redone with VPI treatment. But before you go to that extreme, start by spraying WD-40 generously around the areas where the cords go into the pumps. The "WD" stands for Water Displacer, so it will move any microscopically conductive traces of moisture apart and possibly stop it from tracking to ground. It's not a fix, but if it temporarily stops the symptoms (and it WILL be temporary), it shows you that the problem is there and not necessarily in the windings. That's a cheaper fix.
> 
> But first, plug something ELSE into those circuits, like a drop light, just to make sure it's not in the circuit. Plug that drop light into another known working GFCI receptacle first to prove it is OK.


I've told our production guys this time and time again but the problem is they will never understand. Also, replacing the pumps and cords is an easy solution (both are cheap and are replaced on a regular basis) but even new ones will be abused and very quickly turn to crap. Then we will have the same issues just like we've been having. Nevertheless, we need to get to the point where we no longer have to waste time in resetting these GFCIs.


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## Pete m. (Nov 19, 2011)

vileislepore said:


> Nevertheless, we need to get to the point where we no longer have to waste time in resetting these GFCIs.


If the pumps and/or cords are the problem replace as necessary.

I don't believe you can reset one of the workers after they are electrocuted.

Pete


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

Try to measure leakage current. By running the pump in a floating metal tank(not grounded) and measuring the mA from tank to ground, you can measure the leakage. The pump should run without ground prong for this test. 

Electronic lighting ballasts made in 1980s through early 2000s used a tuned inductor-capacitor network to correct power factor. The light was not fed from GFCI, but I had a problem with GFCI that was on the same circuit tripping when the light was turned off from the inductive kick-back. I was able to get mitigate this by adding a snubber (resistor and capacitor in series) across the switch. If you're not seeing leakage, consult motor control or motor vendor. Surely, they'd have an approved commercially made version of what I rigged up.

Then another option is to run them ungrounded behind an isolation transformer...


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## sparky970 (Mar 19, 2008)

When I worked maintenance at a chlorine plant we had the same problem. They were buying cheap sump pumps for various things. Tools and everything would work fine, but the pumps would trip the gfci. This would happen whether it was a breaker or an outlet. They wanted me to get rid of the breakers or outlets. I refused and told them to get different pumps. There was to much salt water and conductive fluids that created enough problems, wasn't gonna do it.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

JRaef said:


> Just because they "work fine" on non-GFCI protected outlets does not mean the insulation is not leaking to ground, in fact it more likely means the pumps ARE allowing more than 6mA of leakage....


 This. 

My all time favorite was some plumbers cutting into a sump-pump line to add a fitting, and water is pouring out on the corded sawzall, and they kept bitching about how the stupid GFCI kept tripping.

The vast majority of the time those receptacles are working properly and it's the cord-connected equipment that is at fault. Start there.


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

sparky970 said:


> They were buying cheap sump pumps for various things.


What do you mean, what's wrong with buying cheap ass pumps from harbor freight? :lol:


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

in corrosive environments we installed everything in liquid tight boxes
there were no outlets to plug the pumps into (they had to be wired in)
gfci breakers were installed in the panel for the circuits


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