7 ms·

> Good luck finding an easy-to-install whole house GFCI in the US market. Not sure I'd want one, to be honest. There are some devices that trip GFCIs and I do

> Good luck finding an easy-to-install whole house GFCI in the US market. Not sure I'd want one, to be honest. There are some devices that trip GFCIs and I don't think I'd like my mains to trip that easily. I just use GFCI breakers as necessary. And certain circuits I go with AFCI instead.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tablespoon 4y ago
> And certain circuits I go with AFCI instead. IIRC, in the US, code now requires AFCI pretty much everywhere except when GFCI is required. And AFCI is a bit of a PITA, to the point where electricians advise me against adding anything new to existing circuits in my house (because then the local inspector would require a new AFCI breaker, apparently in other areas the inspectors are less picky and would be satisfied with an AFCI outlet).
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Last time I had work done, which was about six months ago, we didn't have to use AFCI for anything other than bedrooms (and maybe others, nothing that applied to the four circuits I was having installed though). Maybe a very recent change? I agree on them being a PITA sometimes. They're somewhat prone to thinking that electric motors (e.g. fans) are trying to start a fire.
  - coryrc 4y ago
    It's a fairly recent ("recent" = changes every few years) change; your municipality probably hadn't adopted the newest code yet.
atoav 4y ago
> There are some devices that trip GFCIs In Germany where I lived for the past decade I have never seen a non-faulty device trip a RCB. The ones that tripped it hat the full 230V on their metal case.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  I've got three examples for ya. 1. Deep freezers are prone (for reasons unclear to me at my level of knowledge) to tripping GFCIs. For this reason they're allowed to be on a non-GFCI outlet in the garage (must be a single outlet receptacle by itself on the circuit). 2. Downstream GFCIs are prone to messing with upstream GFCIs, so you should not put them in series. My RV has it's own power distribution panel with GFCI, so it gets plugged into a dedicated TT-30 RV outlet without GFCI protection. 3. My Tesla doesn't like GFCIs at all. It does a brief ground check before charging and trips the outlet. Known issue, solution is to find an outlet that isn't protected by a GFCI. In a pinch, when I was renting my first Tesla from Turo I stole the freezer outlet in the garage for a few hours at a time to charge the car. When I bought my own Tesla, I put in level 2 of course, problem solved. I'm all for GFCIs on individual circuits, that makes total sense. Just not on the mains.
  - silisili 4y ago
    My brand new Samsung fridge has tripped the upstream GFCI since day 1. Called an electrician, and he just moved it off the upstream circuit and called it a day
    - atoav 4y ago
      I know many (european) electricians that would label that a wreckless action. It would also be illegal over here. Weirdly enough Samsung fridges work over here without tripping RCDs.
  - worthless-trash 4y ago
    Now i'm a little confused, I think i have a global one of these in my house. I don't think there is a power point that isn't protected by one of these earth leakage type devices (I think they are called different things in Australia). They have been standard for a long, long time. How do telsas charge in Australia ?
  - specialist 4y ago
    My Vitamix blender keeps tripping the GFCI breaker. (My panel was upgraded a few years back.) My kitchen's circuits are to code (as far as I know). I've asked Vitamix themselves and on various forums (eg r/homeimprovement) about how to fix this. No joy so far.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

tablespoon 4y ago

> And certain circuits I go with AFCI instead. IIRC, in the US, code now requires AFCI pretty much everywhere except when GFCI is required. And AFCI is a bit of a PITA, to the point where electricians advise me against adding anything new to existing circuits in my house (because then the local inspector would require a new AFCI breaker, apparently in other areas the inspectors are less picky and would be satisfied with an AFCI outlet).

rootusrootus 4y ago
Last time I had work done, which was about six months ago, we didn't have to use AFCI for anything other than bedrooms (and maybe others, nothing that applied to the four circuits I was having installed though). Maybe a very recent change? I agree on them being a PITA sometimes. They're somewhat prone to thinking that electric motors (e.g. fans) are trying to start a fire.
- coryrc 4y ago
  It's a fairly recent ("recent" = changes every few years) change; your municipality probably hadn't adopted the newest code yet.

atoav 4y ago

> There are some devices that trip GFCIs In Germany where I lived for the past decade I have never seen a non-faulty device trip a RCB. The ones that tripped it hat the full 230V on their metal case.

rootusrootus 4y ago
I've got three examples for ya. 1. Deep freezers are prone (for reasons unclear to me at my level of knowledge) to tripping GFCIs. For this reason they're allowed to be on a non-GFCI outlet in the garage (must be a single outlet receptacle by itself on the circuit). 2. Downstream GFCIs are prone to messing with upstream GFCIs, so you should not put them in series. My RV has it's own power distribution panel with GFCI, so it gets plugged into a dedicated TT-30 RV outlet without GFCI protection. 3. My Tesla doesn't like GFCIs at all. It does a brief ground check before charging and trips the outlet. Known issue, solution is to find an outlet that isn't protected by a GFCI. In a pinch, when I was renting my first Tesla from Turo I stole the freezer outlet in the garage for a few hours at a time to charge the car. When I bought my own Tesla, I put in level 2 of course, problem solved. I'm all for GFCIs on individual circuits, that makes total sense. Just not on the mains.
- silisili 4y ago
  My brand new Samsung fridge has tripped the upstream GFCI since day 1. Called an electrician, and he just moved it off the upstream circuit and called it a day
  - atoav 4y ago
    I know many (european) electricians that would label that a wreckless action. It would also be illegal over here. Weirdly enough Samsung fridges work over here without tripping RCDs.
- worthless-trash 4y ago
  Now i'm a little confused, I think i have a global one of these in my house. I don't think there is a power point that isn't protected by one of these earth leakage type devices (I think they are called different things in Australia). They have been standard for a long, long time. How do telsas charge in Australia ?
- specialist 4y ago
  My Vitamix blender keeps tripping the GFCI breaker. (My panel was upgraded a few years back.) My kitchen's circuits are to code (as far as I know). I've asked Vitamix themselves and on various forums (eg r/homeimprovement) about how to fix this. No joy so far.