ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area AFCI Tripping under loads

I'd say either the neutral for the circuit is accidentally connected to the neutral buss bar instead of being connected to the AFCI, OR its tied in with the neutral of another circuit or grounded out elsewhere..
It does not sound like its a problem in the hot leg of the circuit... the more I think of it the more I think its a problem with the circuits neutral somewhere... I'd put money on it.

A.D


[This message has been edited by Rewired (edited 03-12-2006).]

I HAVE HAD THE SAME EXACT PROBLEM -RESET THE BREAKER HOLDS FINE TILL YOU TRY TO TURN ON A LIGHT OR PLUG IN A DRILL ECT. AND POP THE AFCI TRIPS. I PULLED ALL THE RECPTICAL COVERS OFF AND FOUND IN ONE RECEPTICAL BOX THE GROUND WAS BARELY TOUCHING THE NUETRAL SCREW I PUSHED IT BACK FURTHER IN THE BOX AWAY FROM THE SCREW, RESET THE BREAKER FLIPPED THE SWITCH TO THE LIGHT AND WOW !!!! IT HELD FIXED THE PROBLEM. NOW EVERY TIME I HAVE AN AFCI TRIP I GO LOOKING FOR ANOTHER ONE OF THESE. TRY THIS AND SEE IF IT HELPS

GOOD LUCK
TOM

"Plug a drill or any other device into any plug on the circuit and it will trip."

A V/S drill is just the type of item to pop it, and maybe not the item to test with. Example, I have a saws-all that will not work on any AF device - at all. But if it is "ANY" load, then it will be a wiring defect. (Ground - Neutral, Neutral - Neutral, or even Hot - Hot) Kill all the power, disconnect them all and ring them out to eachother. You could even have induced current from other circuits if not properly spaced....

What have you done so far to eliminate the possibilities? Like tighten every connection? Eliminate branches of the circuit to isolate the problem?



[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 03-13-2006).]

We opened up all the devices. Didn't see any problem, but when we closed them now it works. So must of been something touching. Weird it only trips under a load.

On these problems, I bet if you swapped the white and black at the panel, you would pop a regular breaker or see sparks somewhere.

ran into the same problem w/GE afci. Everytime I turned on the bedrm lites the thing would trip when i plugged something into the outlet it was fine. Turned out the connection for the dimmer was arcing under the wirenut. Tightened it and it worked fine.Installing AFCI u need to tell them they get the taillight guarantee lol!!