Security wire wall termination, junction box, or plug

Personally, I'd look at the cause of the GFI tripping first and fix that.
 
I agree with Del on this point and Mike on the issue relating to the GFI tripping.
 
That said I see you added to monitor device as a temporary look device and not something that will stay in place. 
 
That is me.
 
Well here I will mention a story from a couple of years ago....
 
An automation peer had passed away and his widow asked me to look at some of his automation stuff in and outside of his home.
 
He was an engineer and very much a DIYer doing both HV / LV in his automation efforts.
 
She mentioned one day that the pool pump in the pool pump house was acting up.  The pool house was about 100 feet plus away from the main house and some 25 feet or so away from the pool.  The pool house had the pool pump and pool toys in it and it was typically locked up.  I disconnected the power and looked at the sub panel in the pool house.  There was two phases going to the sub panel from the house.  The conduit was about 2 feet up from the cement floor and the subpanel was attached to the side of the pool house.  The main breaker showed some burn marks and the plates of the breaker were pitted (well a bit melted).  I think in this endeavor he shortcutted himself a bit.  He had told his daughters never to go in the pool house and kept the door locked.  It appeared that many times when the pool toys were put away wet they would cause a little puddle of water to form near or adjacent to the conduit going into the subpanel and I think that this caused some bad grounding. I did not see any GFI's in the pool house.   I suggested that she redo the HV feed to the pool house and replace the breakers in the subpanel (also moving the subpanel higher).  I did not do the work and asked her to hire a professional to redo all of the electric (well too not to use the pool,  pool pump or pool house until it was all repaired).
 
Found a quickie picture via google maps of his set up.
 
pool.jpg
 
I'm not going to argue the point Mike, but those that are unable to find the problem and fix it (pointing to the electricians) but a GFI will trip if there is an inbalance between the line and neutral, so it could be bad grounding or a large enough surge (usually happens with ballasts and fluorescent fixtures). Only 5mA so it's really not much of a current. If there's a poor neutral or issue with it, that's all it'll take to trip the GFI, fault or not.
 
I'd suggest changing brands of GFI's and see where that gets you, assuming no imbalance exists. Leviton is notorious for poor designs.
 
I'm not knocking those that work with wire nuts, but many have a hard time really using their meter to really see what's going on.
 
DELInstallations said:
I'm not going to argue the point Mike, but those that are unable to find the problem and fix it (pointing to the electricians) but a GFI will trip if there is an inbalance between the line and neutral, so it could be bad grounding or a large enough surge (usually happens with ballasts and fluorescent fixtures). Only 5mA so it's really not much of a current. If there's a poor neutral or issue with it, that's all it'll take to trip the GFI, fault or not.
 
I'd suggest changing brands of GFI's and see where that gets you, assuming no imbalance exists. Leviton is notorious for poor designs.
 
I'm not knocking those that work with wire nuts, but many have a hard time really using their meter to really see what's going on.
 
Do you agree that there are some devices that are designed poorly enough that they will trip even the best gfi?Here is a link to the grill manufacturer where they state the the fire igniter is known to trip gfi when damp.
 
http://www.traegergrills.com/support/faq
 
I did use a Leviton outlet from Homedepot.
 
Mike.
 
Yes and no. It's a PC way of saying that we're using cheap components and you may have a just as cheaply designed GFCI installed.
 
From dealing with this elsewhere and knowing the basic components, the basic problem is a 5 mA imbalance will typically cause the cheap GFCI's to trip. Usually changing out the GFCI with a different design or circuit breaker will fix the issue.
 
We've run into similar on multiple sites when the prime EC is responsible for power and GFCI protection. Easier for us to provide our own portable units to be compliant over depending on garbage that gets moved from job to job.
 
Back
Top