I have two new houses I'm finishing and the ITE arc fault breakers won't trip with the little green Etcon tester. One house with 6 breakers and one with 5 breakers...10 of 11 will not trip with the tester. I have checked everything I know.

What do you guys use to test your arc fault breakers?

Has anybody else had the same trouble with ITE arc fault breakers?

I'm going to the supply house in the morning to get 10 replacements...on my gas and my time though

shortcircuit

Are you sure it's the breakers and not the tester. I know Siemens breakers aren't the best, but 10 of 11 seems like a high failure rate. Do they trip with the test button?

What Etcon tester do you have? Etcon has had some issues with their AFCI testers.

Do the test buttons on the AFCI's work? If so then the AFCI's are working.

Curt

shortcircuit,

Before you do anything look at the following:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000287.html

Bill...thanx for the info about the Etcon tester.That is the tester I use.The local inspector uses the little green Etcon tester to check the breakers. What other testers are available to test these AFCI breakers?

The breakers do trip with the test button on the breaker. I also tried to cross the neutral to ground at an outlet in the branch circuit to trip the breaker,but the breaker would not trip,and this test would trip an AFCI breaker in the past for me.

shortcircuit

First thing I would do is print out that info and give it to the Inspector if that's the tester he uses. Then you could look for another tester if you want.

The N - G thing you were trying would only be testing the GFCI characteristic of the AFCI. You can do the same thing with a GFCI tester.

Bill

I think the manufactures must have increased the current of the ground fault protection recently. I was previously able to always trip AFCI's by connecting a wiggy between the hot and EGC but this doesn't work anymore at least with the new Square D breakers. The tester you have is probably only testing the GFP circuit of the AFCI.

I don't think and inspector can require you to test AFCI's tested with a tester. That's what the test button is for. Push the test button then check to make sure all the required outlets are de-energized.

I called Etcon today and they said that their isn't anything wrong with the AF120 tester, that it only did not have the proper UL stamp on the tester case they used when they first manurfactured them in 2002.They said that there is no recall or safety hazard from useing the tester.The guy at Etcon said that the tester applies a 10ma fault which causes the breaker to trip.He said this fault is from ground to hot. What do you think Bill?

Also I traced the date code on the ITE AFCI breakers and found that they were manurfactured in October 2004...I went back to the supply house and found some on the shelf made in August 2004 and installed them at the job and they tripped with the AFCI tester.

caselec...All the inspectors use testers for the GFCI and AFCI breakers...and they won't accept a job unless the tester trips the breaker.

shortcircuit

If all it does it to apply a 10 mA ground fault, then you are not testing the AFCI. All you are testing is the ground fault part of the AFCI. Also most of the things that I have read about AFCIs say that the ground fault trip setting is 30 to 50 mA.
If the test button on the AFCI works, the AFCI is OK.
Don

[This message has been edited by resqcapt19 (edited 11-18-2004).]

The info came from UL: http://www.ul.com/media/newsrel/nr092402.html

If it only tests with a 10ma ground fault it is not testing the AFCI function. There are other testers which test by actually producing an arc.

As caselec says, I think that the first AFCIs we saw were more sensitive to ground faults than the ones that are being made today. This would explain why your tester doesn't work with newer AFCI Breakers.

Here's some info from Siemens that supports this:
http://www.sea.siemens.com/reselec/product/rzafcifaq.html#11

Notice the following in particular:
Bill



[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 11-18-2004).]

I'm a little confused here...the inspectors in my area test these AFCI breakers with a tester that is suppose to be an AFCI tester and will not sign off on the job unless they trip with the hand held tester. So if all they have to do is push the test button on the breaker, how come they are not testing them this way???

Don't inspectors receive info on test procedures for AFCI breakers...from IAEI or UL???

Thanx for the feedback guys.

shortcircuit

The button on the breaker will tell the inspector that the breaker is installed and working, it won't tell the inspector that a particular outlet is protected by that outlet.

Shortcircuit, unfortunately not all inspectors try keep up with this type of information and are content in thinking they are doing things right.

The real problem lyes with those who aren't receptive to having there wrong ways pointed out.

BTW, Did Etcon say why they attached a bogus UL label to their first testers?

Roger

The inspector can press the test button on the breaker then verify the outlets have been de-energized with a standard 3-light tester. How do your inspectors test ceiling light and smoke detector outlets?

My Knopp tester (wiggy) will not trip current Square D AFCI's so ther is no way a 10ma load will. Etcon should stop making these tester and recall all of them that have been sold.

Curt

The Etcon guy said that they were useing GFCI tester cases for the AFCI testers when they first started manurfacturing the AFCI testers back in 2002.(Etcon AF120)
Sounds a little shaky to me.I have one of those testers which I bought for 30 bucs back in 2002 and it was the only one available.Think they were trying to get something out on the market to sell before anyone else and tried to avoid proper UL listing procedure? If so why wasn't there a safty recall posted at the supply houses?

shortcircuit

Last Thirsday I went to A Down East Acc. meeting in Ellesworth ME. and one of the members said he had some AFCI breakers trip every time he pushed in the test button. Only problem is that the service had not been connected up yet!

Bill;
I printed the UL warning on the etcon tester and posted it at my supply house. There was a case in which I mentioned in an earlier post of an inspector who used an etcon AFCI tester and flunked him three times till we proved his tester in adequate.