Shane,
The Combination AFCI which checks for both series and parallel arcing is now UL listed and available from two manufacturers - Square D and a Korean company. Look it up on the UL website.
Are they actually on the market or just listed by UL?
I thought they were snake oil also, and so I got educated and now believe in them.
Where did you get this education from? I have done a lot of research on them and am not convinced that they will do the job that the makers say they will. I am also not convinced that they will still be functional when they are needed given the fact that 85% of the dwelling unit fires of electrical origin occur in dwelling units over 21 years old. Remember these devices are not fail safe and the electronics are subject to damage from the normal electrical system spikes. The Leviton GFCI study found that in areas with frequent lighting storms, over 50% of the GFCIs were not functional after 7 years. I would expect that the more extensive eletronics in an AFCI will have a greater failure rate than the GFCIs.
Don
