Tripping gfi in garage when plugging into garage

[jgellis586]

Had motor home plugged into house for over a week then started getting motor home ready for the summer. Flushed water system and noticed water heater was on but did not have water in it. Have everything off but keep Tripping gfi in garage. Was working OK. Can't figure out. Use 15 amp adapter to connect to garage was working. Not sure what is causing it to trip?

[DrewE]

jgellis586 wrote:
Update have riled out hot water heater element. Took to Tv place and it was ok. I am now thinking that the charger is tripping gfi due to amps required on startup. Disconnected battery and was able to connect with no tripping. Will be taking battery to auto store tomorrow to have them check battery. Rv is only a year old but not sure why battery won't hold charge. Will let u know what I find. It explains how it was working before.

A ground fault interrupter does not trip due to overcurrent. It trips because of power leaking to ground or otherwise not returning by the neutral line. (A circuit breaker would trip because of excessive current draw.)

If your charger is tripping the GFI, then the charger is broken and needs repair or replacement.

[jgellis586]

Update have riled out hot water heater element. Took to Tv place and it was ok. I am now thinking that the charger is tripping gfi due to amps required on startup. Disconnected battery and was able to connect with no tripping. Will be taking battery to auto store tomorrow to have them check battery. Rv is only a year old but not sure why battery won't hold charge. Will let u know what I find. It explains how it was working before.

[time2roll]

Fix the ground fault. The fault is incorrectly using the ground as a conductor.

[bagman]

Absolutely, we had two 30 AMP RV electrical connections in our garage, but our garage is 37' X 42' with two 18' overhead garage doors. I concur with the poster above me! Bags.

[luvlabs]

RVs are constantly causing house/garage GFIs to trip. Why? RVs use a different grounding scheme to account for generators, inverters, and other sources of A/C power. Your RV is protected by GFI outlets and you do not need to plug into a protected outlet. Install a power panel (50 amp or 30 amp plugs with no GFI) and nothing will trip. 30 amp is the easiest as it only requires a single breaker and 10 gauge wire to wire to code.

As an alternate, plug into a non-GFI outlet in your house.

[jgellis586]

Update replaced gfci with same result. Next step is to replace the heater element hope to get that next week. Will let u know the result.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Cobra21]

I have had them trip in my garage when it has rained a bunch and it is very very humid in the air.
Brian

[CharlesinGA]

GFCI's will get "weak" and become overly sensitive. I have seen them new out of the box that were unusable because they would trip after a few minutes. I bought a "portable" generator (new) that had two GFCI receptacles. You could start it up and run it and in a few minutes it would trip both of them (randomly) with nothing plugged in. I have had them get weak in my shop and start tripping.

I would start by installing a new, good quality GFCI receptacle. The new ones will not let you press and latch the reset unless the wiring is correct, after you install it.

Charles

[road-runner]

2 GFCIs on the same circuit will "Fight" each other and trip one or the other. Remove the one in the garage, and your problem should solve itself.

If this were true, hair dryers, pressure washers, and other devices equipped with their own GFCI would never work when plugged into a GFCI protected circuit. Check out this post for isolating the cause of a GFCI trip:
http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/19917878/gotomsg/19918592.cfm#19918592

[Stranger]

2 GFCIs on the same circuit will "Fight" each other and trip one or the other. Remove the one in the garage, and your problem should solve itself.

Not an electrician but, I have had the same issue.

[ScottG]

Unplug the WH - does the GFCI still trip?
If it does, unplug the fridge and try again. Repeat until the GFCI doesn't trip anymore and you have your source of the fault.
GFCI has nothing to do with overloading.

[jgellis586]

If the heating element is causing the issue would it still heat the water? I started the generator and the water did heat up. I am thinking generator is not as fussy as a gfi.

[jgellis586]

Is the heating element a diy and how difficult?

[DrewE]

Ground fault circuit interruptors do trip on ground faults (well, on current imbalances between the hot and the neutral, which is an indirect way of finding a ground fault) and not on overcurrent conditions. Modern units also have circuitry to actively detect continuity between the neutral and ground wires, so they can trip on a neutral to ground fault even if there is no power flowing from the hot to cause an imbalance.

I would also guess that the water heater element is burned out and leaking or partly shorted to ground, quite possibly on the neutral side, which would not cause it to trip the breaker but would create a ground fault regardless of whether it's turned on or not. Shutting off all the breakers in the RV won't stop a neutral to ground fault from causing the GFCI to trip.

While it is true that GFCIs can wear out and become temperamental, it's also very often the case--probably more frequently--that they trip due to an actual ground fault. This is especially the case when the tripping is related to some other action, like turning something on or plugging it in or whatever.