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Old 05-22-2019, 02:26 PM   #1
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GFCI breaker tripping w/nothing plugged in

Hi all,

New to the forums and Airstream in general. Have a 2018 Sport 22fb for about a year now. Camping for the last 5 days and last night the 20amp GFCI tripped. Unplugged everything on the circuit including fridge, still tripped. Checked all outlets for dirt and condensation (except fridge outlet due to hard to reach location). All appear fine. Replaced GFCI breaker. Still trips! Moved from 30 amp shore power to 50amp w/dog bone. No luck. Anybody have some standard troubleshooting steps that may help? I’m not an electrician but do have a background in digital electronics maintenance and know my way around a DVM.
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Old 05-22-2019, 03:11 PM   #2
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Campground pedestal?
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Old 05-22-2019, 04:23 PM   #3
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When that happened to me I found moisture had gotten into the outdoor receptacle.

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Old 05-22-2019, 06:45 PM   #4
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When that happened to me I found moisture had gotten into the outdoor receptacle.

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I'll second that.
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Old 05-23-2019, 06:59 AM   #5
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Thanks everybody for your posts and warm welcome! Oddly enough I was tinkering with it late last night and after turning off the A/C I found I could reset the GFCI breaker and it stuck. Even after turning the A/C back on! I don’t know how that could have affected it (A/C not on this circuit) but it hasn’t tripped since. Thanks again. I’ll post back if anything changes. Moving to another spot in same campground this morning. Maybe shore power is to blame after all.
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Old 05-23-2019, 07:11 AM   #6
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Makes perfect sense. Never plug in with the air on if that is what you did.
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Old 05-23-2019, 12:00 PM   #7
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Welcome aboard Vcc. Was most likely Alpha partial bombardment. White fur and a chicken claw will set it straight. )
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Old 05-23-2019, 12:21 PM   #8
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On my '17, I got really frustrated with the GFCI breaker opening all the time, even when I had nothing plugged in on the circuit. I replaced the expensive Siemens GFCI breaker and it hasn't happened since. Not once in 20+ nights of camping since then, when it was happening every hour or two before. As it happens, my fridge is on the GFCI and that frustrated me, but even with the fridge plugged into the campsite post with an extension cord the OEM breaker would pop. Good riddance to bad rubbish, it was just a bad breaker.
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Old 05-23-2019, 12:32 PM   #9
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Hey Folks,

I thought I would try to shed some light on GFCI Breakers/Outlets and how they work. When GFCIs were first introduced and required by codes they got a bad reputation and were considered a nuisance by many. That bad reputation was totally undeserved in most cases. A GFCI breaker or outlet works by measuring the amount of current in the hot leg (red or black wire) that is going out to a circuit/load and comparing it to the amount of current coming back in the neutral leg (white wire). These should be the same, unless somewhere in the circuit/load some of the current is leaking to some other path to Ground (we call this a Ground Fault). If the difference between the outgoing current (hot leg) and the current coming back on the neutral leg exceed the trip point (typically this is approximately 5 milli-Amps) the unit will trip or open the circuit and cut the power. GFCIs have saved many lives and part of the reason that they got a bad reputation in the beginning was there was current leakage that was still too low to be felt by people but was enough to cause the unit to trip.

So they only work on what is downstream (towards the outlet or load) from them. Moisture on the campground receptacle will not cause the GFCI to trip unless the GFCI is in the pedestal and wired up-stream from the receptacle.

People often ask if the GFCIs will work if there is not a good Ground/Earth connection. The answer is YES, they do not rely on a connection to Ground/Earth they are only looking at the current in the two lines and comparing it. Like I said the currents should be the same and if they aren't then current is definitely finding its way to Ground by some other path (you don't want that to be you!)

I hope that helps.

By the way, I am an electrical engineer and have extensive experience with this and other sparky things!

Later,

Bob
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Old 05-23-2019, 01:30 PM   #10
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So Bob,

I'm having the same problem in my 2018 International 23FB with the GFCI breaker refusing to stay engaged.

You said moisture in the campground receptacle can not be the culprit, but I believe SilverWind and A W Warn were talking about the outdoor receptacles mounted on their Airstreams, not the campground's pedestal receptacle. If there is excessive moisture in the Airstream's outside receptacle, could that cause the breaker to stay tripped? And how could that problem be diagnosed and cleared?

Thanks for any advice you can offer,
John
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Old 05-23-2019, 01:56 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DKB_SATX View Post
On my '17, I got really frustrated with the GFCI breaker opening all the time, even when I had nothing plugged in on the circuit. I replaced the expensive Siemens GFCI breaker and it hasn't happened since. Not once in 20+ nights of camping since then, when it was happening every hour or two before. As it happens, my fridge is on the GFCI and that frustrated me, but even with the fridge plugged into the campsite post with an extension cord the OEM breaker would pop. Good riddance to bad rubbish, it was just a bad breaker.
To be clear: I replaced the expensive Siemens breaker with another expensive Siemens GFCI breaker with 100% success at eliminating the false-positive problems.
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Old 05-23-2019, 02:34 PM   #12
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Bob is correct in his description of the function of GFCI breaker. If you have a wet outlet you can potentially get current leak across the water surface to an alternate ground but it would really have to be pretty wet. Kind of why they are required with in a certain distance from water sources in kitchens and bathrooms. More than likely the GFCI is faulty.
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Old 05-23-2019, 02:45 PM   #13
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Yes, you will find GFCIs that go bad mechanicals age and wear out, and in our situation vibration is hard on things. So replacing may be a solution. 15 Amp GFCI outlets are about $15-20 and 20 Amp GFCI are $25 to 40. GFCI breakers are considerably more. Most GFCI outlet can be wired so that any addition outlets after it in the circuit are protected. Those outlets should be labeled as GFCI protected with a small label that are included with most GFCI outlets.

If the outdoor receptacles are downstream from the GFCI outlet or breaker (code says that they MUST be GFCI protected) and they have moisture and or dirt then then may be the reason for the continued tripping. (Moisture and dirt will conduct electricity and provide a path for current to reach a path to Ground/Earth.) It doesn't take much moist dirt/dust to be able to conduct a few milliamps of current.

Also the GFCI must be "powered up" in order to stay engaged.

To diagnose a bad GFCI outlet or to determine if the problem in downstream requires taking the outlet out and disconnecting some of the wires to it. I don't recommend that you do this unless you are comfortable with working with electricity. When in doubt have someone else (qualified!) do it!
  • First de-energize the circuit (turn off the power or better yet disconnect the trailer from shore power and turn off the inverter).
    Now remove the outlet from its mounting.
    On the back of the GFCI receptacle there are 2 sets of terminals. One is labeled line and the other is labeled load.
    Remove the lines on the load terminals.
At this point the GFCI outlet is the only device in the protected circuit. If you re-energize the circuit and the GFCI stays engaged you know the GFCI is probably good and the problem is further downstream.
De-energize the circuit and then go back an reconnect the wires to the load terminals and re-install. if the units will not stay engaged when the circuit is re-energized you know that the problem is further down the line.
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Old 05-23-2019, 04:10 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NIdaho View Post
To diagnose a bad GFCI outlet ......
That's a great help and sounds very straightforward. I'll check my outlets and report back.
Thanks,
John
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Old 05-23-2019, 05:11 PM   #15
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I would open the circuit breaker box, and tighten all the wire connections. Oh be sure to unplug first.
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Old 05-24-2019, 06:45 AM   #16
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Quick update...moved to another spot (same campground), all appliances off except fridge which is on the GFCI, nothing else plugged into GFCI circuit, plug in shore power and breaker pops again. Flip breaker and it trips immediately over and over. But, same as before, I can flip the breaker several times real quick (maybe 3 or 4 times) and it will finally stick. I can then turn on A/C and everything is fine for the rest of the duration I’m powered up. Brand new breaker too. Crazy stuff!
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Old 05-24-2019, 01:31 PM   #17
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Before troubleshooting the individual outlets, it makes sense to me to confirm that the Siemens GFCI circuit breaker is working correctly.

I removed it from the WFCO panel, so it is definitely not energized. The ON/OFF switch springs back to the OFF position every time I try to engage it. Shouldn't it stay ON when I flip the switch? It also behaved this way when it was installed in the panel, with or without power applied.

Does that mean the breaker is bad?


By the way, I also tried flipping it repeatedly (and quickly) as aikenjt suggested, but still won't stay in the ON position.
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Old 05-25-2019, 04:15 PM   #18
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Thanks everyone for all of your input. Very helpful. It seems to have been the campground I was at (not positive, just a guess). Used 2 different sites at the original campground...both caused the symptoms I originally described. Moved to a completely different campground this morning and have had no issues at all. For the record I did check all outlets downstream of the GFCI breaker for moisture and dirt. Even took each outlet apart and reseated all wiring. Plus, as already mentioned, I replaced the GFCI breaker. Used socket tester...all tested correctly. Voltage registered at 114-115 with DVM. Nothing seemed to help. But, at this new campground all seems to be fine. Thanks again for all the valuable input and happy camping!
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Old 05-26-2019, 05:54 AM   #19
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NIdaho is correct in how GFCI outlets work. On thing to consider is these things can be very sensitive. I have experienced GFCI tripping because of turn-on transients...in my case from compact fluorescent lights turning on. There was no ground fault, just the transient from the power-on.

It could be the previous campground had a lot of “trash” on the power lines.
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Old 05-26-2019, 08:31 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aikenjt View Post
Quick update...moved to another spot (same campground), all appliances off except fridge which is on the GFCI, nothing else plugged into GFCI circuit, plug in shore power and breaker pops again. Flip breaker and it trips immediately over and over. But, same as before, I can flip the breaker several times real quick (maybe 3 or 4 times) and it will finally stick. I can then turn on A/C and everything is fine for the rest of the duration I’m powered up. Brand new breaker too. Crazy stuff!


Try running a 110 extension cord to the pedestal. Plug it into the 110 GFIC on the post and see if it trips. This will confirm it not the fridge board.
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