Can GFI Breakers Get Weak?

[Terry Teadtke]

Not the GFI outlets but the GFI breakers in the breaker box. I've installed a bathroom spa and it takes 2 20 amp GFI breakers and 2 GFI outlets. The breakers are a couple years old and I had to switch them off 5 or 6 times a few days ago. Once I was finished I tried to turn the spa on and the breakers kept tripping. No shorts or electrical problems. To make sure there were no shorts I replaced the GFI breakers with a couple of regular 15 amp breakers and everything works fine. Any ideas?

Thanks

Terry

[Mike Cutler]

Terry

GFCI's, breakers and outlets, are active electronic devices, ergo they have components that are always "energized", for lack of a better term. There is a peak inrush current sensing "circuit", a differential current sensing "circuit", and a time delay "circuit". There aren't "circuit boards" ,but active components that perform the function
They can degrade over time. It sounds as if the time delay circuit in your's is degraded, if there are no real issues.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Terry, it is possible to have a defective device of course, however a GFCI breaker is designed to provide standard over current protection in addition to ground fault protection.

The ground fault protection detects currents as low as 5 to 7 milli-amperes to ground, and trips the breaker.

Once you replaced the breaker with a conventional one, you have no GFCI protection and your spa is an electrocution hazard.

What sort of work were you doing on it?

My Brother in law had a problem with his, and it turned out that the neutral and ground in his cable had become connected together when he hit the cable with a hammer, driving in staples to support the wire.

I had to use a megger to find the cable damage, it wasn't visible on the outside.

You need to determine why the GFCI is tripping, perhaps related to your recent work, or a fault with the GFCI breaker or hot tub........Regards, Rod.

[Tom Godley]

Anything can fail. I have had one or two of the outlets go -- they were outside. Never a breakers fail.

Are you saying that both of the these failed?? If that is the case I would suspect something else.

Also, do you have a GFI beaker feeding a line that has GFI outlets. This is not normally how you would wire these. One or the other.

I standard beaker will allow a power leak -- That is why you want a GFI.

I like to feed circuits to spas/ pools with a breaker because the wire is protected - using an outlet you are only protected downstream of the first outlet.

[Karl Card]

i had an ac compressor going bad one time and kept throwing the breaker, not a gfi, but it got so hot and had tripped so many times that it had gotten weak. after the ac was fixed it still kept throwing so i replaced it and all is well again.. they are ment to take soem heat but to much heat can delapidate it..