Warning: Arc Faults and Festool

[Wes Grass]

Wierd one here. Plugged in my Fein vac' and the fridge next to it shut off. Tripped the GFI outlet. Pull plug to reset, fridge comes back on. ??????

Plug it back in, fridge goes off. Check the nightlight on an outlet strip on the same circuit. Goes out, comes back on.

Plug vac' into the outlet strip instead, everything stays on.

Start vac', doesn't run, power is still on ....

Duh, position II, not I for auto start...

Had me going for a minute ...

I think these outlets are too old to have arc fault. But is that maybe what they are? Circuit includes all the outlets on the back porch. House is 27 years old.

[Jim Becker]

Wes, if you had Arc Fault breakers, you would have been heading to your panel to reset them if they fired off...

[Wes Grass]

Thanks Jim,

I'm assuming they don't make these as 'outlets'? I'm 'old and out of touch' ;-)

Not many GFI's in the sub panels here. 2 or 3 subs off the main. These are off the 'pantry', feeding the kitchen, garage, porch.

A bit bigger than my 'cabin' in CA, Santa Cruz mountains, which has a main panel out in the rain ... when you have to access it ... great fun ...

Getting drenched in a downpour here in Austin is a blessing ...

[Jim Becker]

I could be wrong, Wes, but I believe that Arc Fault is only at the circuit level via a breaker, while GFCI has been around a long time at both the outlet and breaker level. I tend to use GFCI breakers at this point.

[Michael Rutman]

You said tripped the GFI outlet, so I'm assuming you have a ground fault and the filtered power strip is hiding it. An arc fault is at the breaker box not the outlet (which I think is what Jim is saying).

[Bill Howatt]

There are arc fault receptacles and even combo arc fault and ground fault models. I believe the breakers were the only option some time ago.

[Wes Grass]

Yeah, I was wondering if there was something in the power strip that was isolating it. Didn't think to try a bare outlet on that wall.

'Tripping' the GFI ... it didn't trip and require a reset. Just shut the power off to the circuits and came back on when I pulled the Vac's plug back out.

That's what really has me baffled. Maybe old and in need of replacement? It's done it's job properly in a couple of other cases not too long ago.

[Bill Howatt]

If I understand your post, Wes, that's weird. It seems like the first GFI (likely) from the panel is tripping as far as shutting off the power but it does not latch. AFAIK, if it trips it should stay open circuit and not restore the power until the fault is removed and the GFI's Reset button is pressed. You can usually hear the relay click closed when you do this. Do the test and reset work on the GFIs?