Trailer is tripping a GFI in my garage....
I have a 2012 Dutchmen trailer that I keep plugged into the side of my garage. Normally not its a problem but it has begun to trip a GFI plug in my garage. I have narrowed it down to one circuit bre...
Forum Discussion
aruba5er wrote:
I had a case a year ago That left me bewildered. The water heater element was shot and I disconnected the hot wire to the element and the gfci still tripped. Only after I disconnected the white neutral wire did the gfci not trip. I replaced the element and all was good. Normally the neutral will not trip the gfci. SO disconnect both wires
A neutral connected to ground will very often trip a GFCI, as that's a ground fault. Power from some other device on the circuit that should return via the neutral return is at least partly shunted to ground, leading to the current imbalance that trips the GFCI.
At least in my experience, this is at least as common as a hot to ground fault causing it to trip. A hard hot-to-ground fault, of course, should trip the circuit breaker even if there is not a GFCI involved due to the high current flow.
I had to track one down in my house where the neutral wire in a light fixture was pinched and chafed a bit due to a poorly done installation. It took a little detective work to find where that problem was.
