Rain rain made my show go away

[lilouisianagal]

Almost every time it rains here it trips the circuit breaker and out go the lights. We have 2 controllers, plugged into our outside house outlets. The controllers are under the porch and protected. We use LED lights from CDI. We've tried taping them at the plug intersections (one string to another). It works to keep them on during a light rain, but then if we get a heavy rain we have to go unwrap them all and let them dry before it will run. Most are off the ground just by where they are located (tree lights, arches, etc). We can't really afford to have a dedicated circuit installed right now, and I don't know that that would help anyway (right now our deep freezer and dog hotwire are on the same circuit that trips off. Any ideas?

[Marty Spain]

Sounds like you may have GCFI protected circuits. This is a good thing. water will not trip a standard breaker. You can be electrocuted before the breaker would trip on standard breakers. If this only happens when it rains. That is the idea behind ground fault breakers or receptacles. They are very sensitive to water. That is why you are supposed to have them by swimming pools and bathrooms, where you use electrical appliances.

Sorry GFCI circuits!

[Liberty-Laser]

You need to track down which display item(s) is causing it.  I had this same issues during our recent rain/ice/snow storm.  I have a couple old elf's that don't like the rain.

1. Identify which controller that circuit is plugged into.

2. Unplugging all 16 pigtails.

3. Reset circuit

4. Plug items in 1 at a time

5. If circuit pops, unplug previous pigtail

6. Back to step 3

 

If more that 1 item per pigtail - same process for each of those items.

[TitusCarnathan]

It could be caused by more than one item as well. You could have small current leakage across several items. Which makes it harder to find the issue. Check for any plug sitting on the ground whether it's a string or a connection point on extension cords, I also heard issues with some triple taps where it was leaking to the grounding conductor when it got wet. If you have any unsealed strings they could also be an issue. An easy fix for next year is to split your display across multiple GFCI's, and it still can be on the same circuit.

[Orville]

Had issues like that from OPEN female ends on incandescent LED strands as well as the OPEN female ends on male pass throughs at the beginning of both LED and Incandescent light strands, as well as on some items that have those type pass through plugs on them.

 

My solution was simple and may or may not work for you, since we're not sure what is causing your issue at the moment, but to resolve my problem was simple and inexpensive, get some child proof electrical outlet covers, they plug in just like a male plug into the outlet or female end of the cord.  Use them at all your open female ends and pass throughs, as well as on any extension cords that may have open female areas.  These WILL keep your female ends clean and dry.

 

Ever since I've used these, I've never had a GFCI trip since, prior to using them, my GFCI was tripping incessantly, light rain, rain, sprinkler system coming on, etc.   Also consider using them on ANY UNUSED dangle on your controllers, this will help keep splashes of water, mud and other debris out of the unused circuits on your controllers.

 

I also recommend getting a can of flat black spray paint and painting the covers on the back side {not the male part that plugs into the outlet}, as these are somewhat of a flourescent white and stick out like a sore thumb when light hits them.  Once can of spray paint will paint over 500 of these things.

 

You can get them at Wal-Mart or probably most hardware stores.

 

They work much better than taping, tape allows water to seep in and then doesn't allow that condensation to dry very quickly, if at all, it traps the moisture in the connections or female plugs, then you have to unwrap and try to rewrap, which just creates the same issue over and over again.

 

Use the child proof electrical outlet covers and I think you won't be resetting your GFCI as much, if at all!

 

Many of us here are using them and wouldn't run our display without them!     Especially like me in Florida where we do get some heavy rains at times.

 

Good Luck!

[lilouisianagal]

I have scads of those safety plug things, so I'll try that first, once it dries up here. If that fails we'll go channel by channel to find the bug. We have the controllers plugged into a couple of electric power safety strips (outdoor rated but under the porch), but it's always the house circuit that trips. I guess it is the GFCI type. That's what you install in a bathroom, right? It isn't that kind of socket outside, but ALL of our outside sockets are on one circuit. Thanks!

[Steven]

Remember that a GFCI is always tripped by current leaking to ground, not by leaking to the other prong. So if your socket on the pigtail is completely away from the ground, it won't matter if it gets wet.

 

Unless the socket in the pigtail is a 3-prong socket with ground. I wire all my controllers with 2-pin sockets to avoid that problem.

[scubado]

Unplug the dogwire, I'm assuming that's in the ground already,  I'm not familiar with the product, does it have an insolated wire in the ground?  Bad or weak insolation? 

 

Mini trees made with tomato cages can be an issue too.

[Liberty-Laser]

ANYTHING wire-frame.  About 90% of all GFI faults I've had in the past were with wire-frames. Even if your plugs are off the ground, a wire-frame or tomato cage can transmit the current directly into the ground.  I'm now using plastic dip on the parts of the wire-frame that gets pushed into the ground.

 

The main exception was a river running through my display last year.  Heavy rains caused shorts right down the middle of my display on everything.  Of-Course it was the night Chuck from Planet Christmas was there with a film crew.  Not a good night to showcase my display.

The Elves are the other exception...  they are old and due for new light plugs.