Thread: To be or not to be

I always write this up as needing to be GFCI protected even though I'm pretty sure the washing machine motor will probably trip it.

<img= http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_i...1&d=1244334280 /img>

I feel like I'm danged if I do and darned if I don't. How do you guys handle this situation?

Originally Posted by Tony Hipps

I always write this up as needing to be GFCI protected even though I'm pretty sure the washing machine motor will probably trip it.

Tony,

That is not required to have GFCI protection.

That said, appliances manufactured within the last 20+ years have been manufactured to a standard which has reduced the allowable ground fault leakage to less than 0.5 ma. A GFCI does not trip until the ground fault current is between 4 ma to 6 ma, thus there is no danger of the clothes washer causing "nuisance tripping" as tripping a properly functioning GFCI means there is something wrong with either the appliance or the circuit to the appliance.

My washing machine is on a GFCI receptacle and hasn't tripped in the 8+ years I've lived in the home.

Here is an example of what many think is "nuisance tripping" but which is really pointing to something being wrong:

I have GFCI receptacles at each receptacle location in my garage (about 5 of them) and then some 4 foot long Wiremold strips with receptacles spaced about every 6" over my workbench. I keep my cordless drill chargers plugged in to some of those receptacles.

My cordless drill batteries are not charging properly anymore (don't last long, etc.) and I recently noticed (last month) that I had a GFCI which started tripping - had to reset it every time I went to use something - so last week I removed the battery which was plugged into one of the chargers ... the GFCI is no longer tripping.

That was not "nuisance tripping", that was telling me I had a problem.

There is almost no such thing as "nuisance tripping" any more. If you are having a problem with a GFCI tripping ... something is wrong with whatever is plugged into that GFCI. If you are using one GFCI to protect down stream receptacles, then the problem 'could be' 'in the circuit' which is protected by that GFCI and not in what is plugged in. You would need to to some testing to find out.

I found out that I have a bad cordless drill battery ... or the charger ... or both ... which was tripping the GFCI (the charger plugged in without a battery installed does not trip the GFCI).