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Tripping GFCI


racerc20

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Morning all.  Thought I had solved this...I have a single 16 channel director residential system.  Plugged into two seperate gfci in the same box.  Each outletnis a 20A ckt.  A while back inwas losing channels 1 through 8 when ever we had heavy rain.  The gfci would trip on one of the outlets.  When it got a little dry out if i reset it would be ok.  So i bagged up all the plugs that were on the ground.  Changed one of the gfci that i thought was bad.  We had 6 inches of snow last night flipped the lights on to see if they worked and they did at first.  Now about 3 hours later lost channels 1 thru 8 again.  Channels 1 thru 8 are not overloaded amp wise. But there are some tomato cage trees staked into the ground.  Is a path to earth causing the trip of the gfci.  Not blowing fuses in the controller.  Thanks in advance.

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I had my tomato cage trees trip my circuit during heavy rain last week. I unplugged them and ran the show.

Once the rain quit I dried up the plugs and zip tied my cords to keep them off the ground. A few days later the heavy rain did not affect them. My ground is sloped enough I thought the rain wouldn't affect them but dirt and debris had gotten washed into the plugs.

Hope it helps a little. My Cages are incans and all other lights are LED if it helps.

JR

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When I say zip tied, I sip tied the plugs about 1/2 way up the cages keeping the union off the ground. I didn't wrap with plastic or tape.

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Thanks Dibble.  We covered all the plugs with baggies and rubber banded em.  Some of the LED modules are still on the ground. Maybe they are leaking and causing the trip.  Ill try and fix tomorrow supposed to warm up a bit.  Im also going to change that gfci thats old. 

Thanks will try and tighten up the plugs further.

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Seems to be a common event with the tomato cage xmas trees. I may try plasticoat some day but all is well since I cleaned the debris and raised the plugs up. We've had many rain events in the past week, before that we were in a drought. LOL

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I own a 8 ounce can of silicone Dielectric grease.  I slather it into all of the connections that I make outside and I don't have problems anymore. This will also prevent rusting and other forms of corrosion.  I just use a plastic butter knife and spread it into the female end getting it into the openings the best I can.

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40 minutes ago, racerc20 said:

All plug connections have been bagged and rubber banded.  Do you think the LED MODULES could be leaking?

Pick one up and look for dripping electrons.

(Sorry couldn't resist)

If they're low voltage 12 volt or 5 volt LEDs they can't directly trip the GFI.

 if their line voltage LEDs they can trip the GFI like the incandescent bulbs.

In my experience wrapping the plugs just has a tendency to trap moisture and make things worse. Best thing would be something that just covers it like an umbrella and keeps it off of the ground and out of the water. A tupperware dish with a hole on each end and a slot that you can bring the wire up to the hole on each end having it lay upside down to cover the plug

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Just now, Ebuechner said:

I own a 8 ounce can of silicone Dielectric grease.  I slather it into all of the connections that I make outside and I don't have problems anymore. This will also prevent rusting and other forms of corrosion.  I just use a plastic butter knife and spread it into the female end getting it into the openings the best I can.

You forgot the disclaimer

*** Unplug power source before slathering with butter knife.

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My experience is that wrapping light strings around tomato cages and then setting those tomato cages directly on the ground guarantees GFCI trips when the cages and ground gets wet.  A single cage did not do it.  The number was typically between six and eight before it would trip.  Each cage would leak a small amount of current eventually adding up when enough of them were energized.  My solution was to place something less conductive between the cages and the ground.  Setting them on blocks of wood or lengths of PVC has eliminated the problem in my display.  

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Just now, basis21b said:

My experience is that wrapping light strings around tomato cages and then setting those tomato cages directly on the ground guarantees GFCI trips when the cages and ground gets wet.  A single cage did not do it.  The number was typically between six and eight before it would trip.  Each cage would leak a small amount of current eventually adding up when enough of them were energized.  My solution was to place something less conductive between the cages and the ground.  Setting them on blocks of wood or lengths of PVC has eliminated the problem in my display.  

I had one out of my four trip my GFCI during heavy downpours. I fixed it as above but my next set will be built on a 1" pvc pedestal base.

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Plugs laying on the grass seems to be the biggest culprit for me.  Elevate the plugs with bulb stakes or pvc so they will never have contact with the ground.  Do this work while its not wet out and before resetting the GFCI.   Like you racerc20, I like to spread my props out across different circuits so a single tripped GFCI does not cause everything to go out. 

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I have it narrowed to two circuits.  One ckt has bare non powdwrcoated tomato cages.  The other has leds from fence to ground staked in at bottom with metal stakes.  All of your help thoughts and solutions have been awesome.

Thanks. 

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We've had a butt load of heavy rains and wind and once my one cage is tripping so I just disconnected it from the loop. It probably didn't help when my uncoordinated visitor tripped over the wire, that was with all outside lights on. But all is well with the other two trees and rest of the house. No rain for 8 months and now we get a crap load of it. 

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37 minutes ago, racerc20 said:

Bare non powdercoated tomato cages wins.   All day and night so far no issues with that ckt removed.

Tomato cage trees are a common cause of GFCI.

 

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Just now, k6ccc said:

Tomato cage trees are a common cause of GFCI.

 

Yes, but we usually are pretty dry this time of year and while putting things away everyone always puts off until next year what could be done today. I made some for my friend and his hasn't tripped but his is on his sidewalk.

 

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I use tomato cage lights and have not had a GFI trip out problem since I began mounting them with PVC pipe. At the top of the cage, I form the wire into a downward center point, then push it onto a PVC pipe. The PVC then fits into a wooden stand, but it isolates the cage completely from ground.

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