Upgrading some GFCI in the garage, bathrooms and kitchen. Any recommended brand to buy? I just tried a Leviton Slim GFCI in one of the bathrooms and it seems to be working ok .. wish the COO was USA instead of China. Thanks
GFCI .. any differences
- Thread starter ImportTuner
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monkeybar
Well-known member
I like Square D, find G.E. good, in general, homes built for resale (by contractors, let's say) wind up with the least costly stuff available. In electrical goods, that's not good. Having worked in manufacturing plants, I can attest to the fact that almost never will one find bottom-line equipment there. Some of the worst built, poorly engineered stuff I've seen is "Furnas", and "Cutler-Hammer". THE worst was Federal Pacific, long out of business. We had 480-volt industrial breakers by Fed that the front portions broke off of, the guy turning things on or off risked, in those poorly-lit electrical rooms, sticking a finger right into the breaker's guts. One guy did, and got a severe shock, fortunately the current went from one hand (leaning against the rack, to the other. Full-body from feet to hand likely would have killed him.
Convincing management of the need to not skimp on money electrically has been a daunting task! monkey
Convincing management of the need to not skimp on money electrically has been a daunting task! monkey
OP
alan camby
Well-known member
I just had to upgrade my entire garage to GFCI to sell my house. Everything in the garage is working fine...Bench grinder, drills, sweeper, ect. My Powermatic that I converted over to 3 phase with a VFD does not work at all. It will power up and I can adjust the hertz with the pot. As soon as the VFD receives the run signal, it trips the GFCI.
A quick search on the net indicates this as a common problem with 120volt vfd's.
The VFD panel, panel door, motor and vfd are all grounded. Obviously I have a 3 prong plug for the power souce.
Just a warning if you have any VFD equipment.
A quick search on the net indicates this as a common problem with 120volt vfd's.
The VFD panel, panel door, motor and vfd are all grounded. Obviously I have a 3 prong plug for the power souce.
Just a warning if you have any VFD equipment.
monkeybar
Well-known member
In my book, Hubbell is the Cadillac of all of them. High cost, though. monkey
monkeybar
Well-known member
GFCI's do not do well w/ VFD's, the solution is to install a disco & hardwire the machine, no GFCI required, BTW 240V drives fare no better then 120V models.
alan camby
Well-known member
I close November 20th on my current house. I take possession of the new place on October 30th.
You might remember from another thread, but i am having a electrician isolate the ground and neutral on a subpanel. I installed the GFI in the garage. All electrical issues are resolved in the garage. The only problem is that the VFD and GFI don't get along. I will be taking the Powermatic (controled by the VFD) with me so the only problem will be gone.
At the new place I will simply wire one outlet without a GFI.
alan camby
Well-known member
I have a 240 VFD knife grinder. None of my 220 outlets are GFI protected, so no problems.
OP
My recently upgraded storage room has the lights connected to a GFCI. If the GFCI trips, the lights go out. Is this standard practice or is my contractor doing something funny? He told me that the new building codes call for this. Not a electrician by trade .... 
monkeybar
Well-known member
Other than the possibility of death by electrocution. A 220 volt outlet presents a point where two 110 volt sources are present with respect to ground. 110 can kill.
For general information, NEC requires the SERVICE FEEDERS to large commercial buildings, retail stores, manufacturing plants, and the like, to have GFI protection AT THE POINT OF BUILDING ENTRY FROM THE SERVICE PROVIDER. This may involve main breakers of several thousand amperes trip rating, with adjustable "ground fault trip" settings from a minimum setting os a few amps up to perhaps 600 amps of ground fault current! One of the stores I serviced had had the breakers set to MAX ground fault trip by some ******* contractor to prevent "nuisance tripping" which could kill the power to the entire building. This idiocy never ends. monkey
220 is line, neutral & is 50 hertz, & 110V is is used on UK building sites & each leg is 55V.
Unless you contact both legs of a 208 or 240V circuit, it's just a 120 volt jolt, it will take a odd occurrence to contact both lines. That being said, because 120V is the most common voltage in the US, most accidents are w/ 120 volts
Ground fault protection for personnel & ground fault protection for services are two different subjects, the latter being required for solidly grounded wye systems of 150 volts to ground but not exceeding 600V, services of 1000 amperes & larger. Where no one has spec'd the settings and left with factory settings, not unheard of to trip the main with a fault on a 20A, 277V circuit.
7th Kahuna
Well-known member
My recently upgraded storage room has the lights connected to a GFCI. If the GFCI trips, the lights go out. Is this standard practice or is my contractor doing something funny? He told me that the new building codes call for this. Not a electrician by trade ....
I'm not an electrician either but I have been around it all my life. I haven't seen that before and it doesn't make much sense to me unless you have a problem with standing water in the storage room ...
I am going to have to check the code.
jdieter
Well-known member
I have a Sq.D 50A GFCI for my hot tub that trips anytime we loose power to the house. Is that normal for any brand or just Sq.D's. An undetected trip during freezing weather could create a real mess.