20amp GFI Suddenly Tripping

[jeff lary]

Hi all I will make this quick. Last week I plugged in my Farm tractor block heater to this outlet using an extension cord. It worked just fine, yesterday I tried it again and now the outlet trips the (built in internal breaker? ) and shuts off power to that outlet. When I go to push the reset after I unplug the cord it makes many clicking sounds then after 2-3 seconds of this it resets and has power again. Until you plug in the cord to the tractor again then it trips.
Did this outlet fail in the last week do you think? I ran my craftsman Mig a few moments yesterday using this outlet and it worked ok. I have to go to my 8 year old grand daughters b ball game so I wont be on to see your answer for a couple of hours. Thanks Jeff

 

[Speedy Petey]

The button on the GFI is not a circuit breaker. They are test and reset buttons for the GFCI mechanism. A GFI is a totally different animal than a circuit breaker.

Sounds like the GFI is doing it's job and tripping due to a ground fault in the block heater. Did you try anything else in the GFI besides the welder?

 

[jeff lary]

Not since the issue I guess? I was trying to think,...I ran the Mig before the heater and that ran fine. I tried running the block heater from 2 different outlets and it tripped one which was a gfci as well and the other was down stream of the 20 amp gfci. When I plugged into it, it also tripped the 20 amp gfci. The heater is absolutely brand new it was installed at the dealership when I had the tractor over there this November for an unrelated issue. I will go out to the shed now and try the out with something plugged directly into it, then I will try it using the extension cord I previously used . I will also try a different cord. I just thought of something though.
Last summer I was using that cord to run a 4" grinder with while doing some welding. I had the tractor bucket off and welding on a thin spot on the bottom. The bucket got rolled over and in doing so I cut the cord on the cutting edge. I cut out the bad spot and soldiered the cut wires back together and wrapped in black tape. I know my electrician told me one time that a bad cord would cause this issue to occur. I wonder if the spliced cord although done quite well may be the issue??

 

[rockwithjason]

Plug the cord in by itself and see if the gfi trips.

 

[jeff lary]

Ok so I just tried a desk lamp both ways,... into the cord and directly into outlet both ways work fine.

 

[jeff lary]

The cord is plugged in right now and has been right along. There is a small green led that is always on when the outlet has power and it is on now. I tend to leave that one plugged in all the time so if I need one I just grab the end of the cord and go ,...always on/ live I guess.

 

[sberry]

Been down this road. How old is the block heater? Most of them are 3 wire grounded and I go around gfci for them. I put a couple new ones in and they run a year or 2 or so then trips the gfci. They do make a 30MA unit for connecting to heating equipment. As I said I have a couple outlets in my storage I wired ahead of the unit just for heaters.

 

[jeff lary]

Thanks for that, I am betting you are correct. I was having hydraulic issues in November and ended up with a new pump $$$$. But that aside I had them at the Kubota shop install a water jacket / block heater so it is about 35 days old. The outlet in my tractor shed must not be down stream of a gfi cause it works off that outlet. So I guess I will only be able to use the heater there. Ps I am heading to bed so no more reply's from me tonight Thanks Jeff