Electrical issue with GFCI outlet

wa8yxm wrote:
I would suspect an inverter wiring issue. IS Ground bonded on the inverter? Some Xantrex inverters have a screw, put it in one hole the ground floats, the other hole it's bonded.. you may need to change holes. (My Prosine is like that).

A common source of this problem, however I DO NOT suspect it in your case, is the patio outlet, Fills with water and CLICK goes the GFCI up-line of it.

Some GFCI's may not play nice with MSW inverters as well.. No problem with my Prosine though (True Sine Wave) do not know about your Freedom.

Interesting point wa8yxm.

I have the PDF posted on my personal web page;
http://dieselrvowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=507.0

The PDF is link listed under the two pictures at the very bottom.

Under ground bonding it states the ground from the AC panel should be grounded to the Xantrex via the grounding block behind the cover.
I only see three grounds that I assume are from the three circuits. I'll have to shut the inverter down, remove the three ground wires and see if I can find a ground from the AC panel under the bed. Their might be another ground lug behind the wires. If not would the AC panel be grounded to the frame like the Xantrex?

I'm thinking too hard..(rubber burning smell)..Could I ohm between the ground lug on the Xantrex and the ground blade on the 50 amp cord? It's coiled just below the inverter.

Took the FLUKE out and set it to ohms.
Leads touching each other I get .1

Lead between ground lug on Xantrex and the ground blade on shore power cord 1.4

Would still like to take a look behind those wires later today.

Double post.........

Some EXCELLENT responces folks!
12th man, connected to proper lugs.
No exterior outlet on the circuit, good post.
Was thinking about the ground bonding issue.
Its odd that for most of the last 2 years it has been somewhat trouble free and not acting up.
I do recall seeing the remote panel go dead briefly while I had the generator running to charge the batteries. One one occasion the panel was showing float then after a brief outage, about 3 seconds, it went into bulk telling me the converter lost power. Another time it did the same thing but was still in float when it came back up telling me the converter did not loose power.
The leaky caps possible.
Today i will pull the cover on the Xantrex and check ALL connections for tightness. I usally check the ac panels for loose connections annually but have not checked the inverter ricently. Ill also start monitoring the AC off the inverter to see if I have a steady voltage. I recall the the DW's small AC fan she runs at night speed changing when i have the electric coffee pot on in the AM.
By 9:00am, when i fire up the coffee maker I'm seeing 490 watts, 13.1 volts and around 40 amps pumping up the house batteries.
Its great to have such a great support group!
Thanks!

Update: just before starting electric coffee pot I had 106 vac at the outlet. Note no load on inverter. As soon as i fired up coffee pot voltage ramped up to 116 vac.
Next i will pull the panel on the Xantrex and take a look at the connections on the AC side.

All connections tight. Wil coffee pot still pulling a load I felt the wire nuts and such and felt no heat.

You can see the two yellow romex cables from the right, these come from the GFIC in question and the outlet behind the entertainment center, both connected to 20 amp AC1 output. The orange romex to the left is the microwave circuit and is connected to 15 amp AC2 output.

dup

I know you said it was wired correctly but the last time I installed a GFCI plug I found out the hard way that they have to be connected in a specific way in regards to the in and the out leads. The incoming leads have to connect to a specific pair of lugs.

I would suspect an inverter wiring issue. IS Ground bonded on the inverter? Some Xantrex inverters have a screw, put it in one hole the ground floats, the other hole it's bonded.. you may need to change holes. (My Prosine is like that).

A common source of this problem, however I DO NOT suspect it in your case, is the patio outlet, Fills with water and CLICK goes the GFCI up-line of it.

Some GFCI's may not play nice with MSW inverters as well.. No problem with my Prosine though (True Sine Wave) do not know about your Freedom.

Since there's a flashing light on the GFCI, it's presumably getting power.

Where is the inverter connected in relation to the GFCI? If it's on the load side, and it's bonding neutral and ground when active (which it sounds as though it does), it would create a ground fault from the GFCI's point of view.

If it is indeed on the line side, then perhaps that particular GFCI doesn't like inverter power output for some reason.

is the breakers on the inverter tripped?

first guess is leaky capacitors in the inverter
second guess, bad ground connection on the inverter

assuming this gfi is downstream from the inverter
you need to do the voltage testing before the gfi
at the inverter output

New GFCI must have power applied to be able to reset.