# Steam shower room gfi breaker trip



## wjcarty10 (Mar 9, 2013)

ok so maybe i am thinking about this way too deep, or maybe i am getting a bunch of messed up info.. hopefully you guys can help me out... DISCLAIMER:laughing:-i have not looked into this at all myself. My uncle called me today and he is replacing a steam shower unit in some doctors house. The old unit was 240 VOLT 30 AMP 3 - wire on a GFCI breaker. The new unit is he same 240 VOLT 30 AMP, BUT there is no light fixture and no neutral on the unit. Just 2 hots and ground. The manufacturer requires GFCI protection. My uncle made all the connections, capped the white (neutral) wire coming from GFCI breaker. Breaker keeps tripping. Maybe i am just having a brain fart or making this way more complicated than it needs to be. 


Has anyone run into a problem like this before?
How is the GFCI supposed to work properly without a neutral?

Any help is much appreciated....!!!

---B.CARTY


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

wjcarty10 said:


> ok so maybe i am thinking about this way too deep, or maybe i am getting a bunch of messed up info.. hopefully you guys can help me out... DISCLAIMER:laughing:-i have not looked into this at all myself. My uncle called me today and he is replacing a steam shower unit in some doctors house. The old unit was 240 VOLT 30 AMP 3 - wire on a GFCI breaker. The new unit is he same 240 VOLT 30 AMP, BUT there is no light fixture and no neutral on the unit. Just 2 hots and ground. The manufacturer requires GFCI protection. My uncle made all the connections, capped the white (neutral) wire coming from GFCI breaker. Breaker keeps tripping. Maybe i am just having a brain fart or making this way more complicated than it needs to be.
> 
> 
> Has anyone run into a problem like this before?
> ...


I would land the neutral from the breaker.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

If you have netural pigtail conductor comming out of the breaker that conductor you need to land it on netural bussbar to get the GFCI breaker to function properly. 

Even thru you don't have netural load at all it still need line netural to get the GFCI breaker function properly.


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## Drsparky14 (Oct 22, 2016)

I have installed countless hot tubs that are 240v 50amp with no 120v items. Installing a neutral to the neutral terminal on the tub kicks the breaker. So you just don't hook a neutral to the breaker. Just as you don't have to have a ground for a gfci to work. We use them in houses with 2 wire outlets that we want to convert to 3 prong without re wiring the house. The. We place a sticker on the outlet that says GFCI protected (no equipment ground) 
But you do however have to land that pigtail. Because you almost always have a ground or a grounded conductor (neutral) you have to ground the breaker. Just because it's a white wire pigtail doesn't mean it is a neutral. The equipment ground bar and the grounded bar have to be separated in sub panels but they all go back to the same point at the main panel. The way a gfci works is it checks for unbalanced load between the equipment ground, the grounded conductor and the ungrounded conductors. 

Land the gfci pigtail to your equipment ground bar or your grounded conductor bar. And don't hook up any grounded conductor (neutral) to the load side of the breaker. 

You will then have successfully gfci protected a 240v only circuit. 

You can always put the gfci breaker in the main panel. Hook up your two ungrounded conductors and your grounded conductor and then at the junction box for the steam unit, cap off the grounded conductor. 

Moral of my rant: the white pigtail has to be grounded. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Ansel (Nov 13, 2016)

basically a GFCI is a device detecting the current difference between those two wires, normally the Line and Neutral. If some one got shock of 5 ma, the current in Line will be 5 ma more compaire to Neutral. then the breaker trips. so if there's difference in current , tthe gfci will trip.
gfci will do the same thing in two Line hot tubs, if some touch accidentally any of the two Lines, there will be current passing though man to ground , then current in this paticular Line will sure be more than the other Line, with the current difference,the gfci to trips.
that's how gfci works. It doesn't care which one is hot which one is neutral. what it cares is just the current difference. That's the difference causes the gfci trip.


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## Ansel (Nov 13, 2016)

by the way, there is Two Pole gfi breaker.


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

wjcarty10 said:


> ok so maybe i am thinking about this way too deep, or maybe i am getting a bunch of messed up info.. hopefully you guys can help me out... DISCLAIMER:laughing:-i have not looked into this at all myself. My uncle called me today and he is replacing a steam shower unit in some doctors house. The old unit was 240 VOLT 30 AMP 3 - wire on a GFCI breaker. The new unit is he same 240 VOLT 30 AMP, BUT there is no light fixture and no neutral on the unit. Just 2 hots and ground. The manufacturer requires GFCI protection. My uncle made all the connections, capped the white (neutral) wire coming from GFCI breaker. Breaker keeps tripping. Maybe i am just having a brain fart or making this way more complicated than it needs to be.
> 
> 
> Has anyone run into a problem like this before?
> ...


Can't you just have Hax take a look at it when he is done in the steam room?


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## Julius793 (Nov 29, 2011)

Some steam generators I have done specifically state not to install on a gfi circuit


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