Will GFCI work with items without equipment ground
I know it's probably a dumb question but my wife's hair dryer is old and has no equipment ground. Wanted to be sure she is still protected if it should be dropped into water or otherwise shorted.
Forum Discussion
Bobbo wrote:
I replaced the $12 GFCI and had no more problems.
And this is the other reason why GFCI does not obviate the need for a third grounding wire. They fail way too often, and according to that bastard Murphy, they're going to fail when you need them the most!Sam Spade wrote:
......nor would I ever put one on a sump pump, even though the electrical code requires it.
That second one requires you to be VERY careful when you wade into the water if the sump pump ever does fail.
They make 12 volt sump pumps, primarily so they can keep running off the battery if a storm knocks the power out, but I imagine they would also protect you if you were wading in the water.- I had a freezer in the garage on a GFCI outlet. Worked fine for years. Finally, it started tripping the GFCI. I bought the largest most expensive freezer they made to replace the freezer that kept tripping the GFCI. The new freezer tripped the GFCI. I replaced the $12 GFCI and had no more problems. DW has not let me live that down yet, and it has been 20 years.
road-runner wrote:
I have a fridge and freezer in the house, plus the RV fridge, all on GFCI circuits with zero trips in 10+ years.
You are lucky.
Every house I have owned since GFI came into common use....about 5 of them.....has been prone to tripping the GFI outlets during thunderstorms (think power surges).
I would never put one on a seldom used freezer......nor would I ever put one on a sump pump, even though the electrical code requires it.
That second one requires you to be VERY careful when you wade into the water if the sump pump ever does fail.Harvey51 wrote:
Would it be fair to suggest that the safety ground system is a waste of copper when all circuits are GFCI protected?
NO.
For the GFI to work, that unintended part of the device that is now "hot" needs to shed it's power to ground by some means other than the neutral wire.
If there is no ground "wire" present, that path is likely to be through something else dangerous......like a human hand.road-runner wrote:
Harvard wrote:
Not sure what the message is, but I also don't have to imagine. I have a fridge and freezer in the house, plus the RV fridge, all on GFCI circuits with zero trips in 10+ years. RV has been powered by 3 different generator make/models over that time.
Just imagine if your fridge or freezer was powered by a GFCI.....
I added a second small freezer to our garage and the one GFCI-free receptacle was already taken so I plugged into a GFCI one. Twice I found the freezer off and getting warm. That receptacle got rewired for now. ;)
So yeah, there’s a good reason fridges and freezers don’t require them.Harvard wrote:
Not sure what the message is, but I also don't have to imagine. I have a fridge and freezer in the house, plus the RV fridge, all on GFCI circuits with zero trips in 10+ years. RV has been powered by 3 different generator make/models over that time.
Just imagine if your fridge or freezer was powered by a GFCI.....Harvard wrote:
Just imagine if your fridge or freezer was powered by a GFCI.....
We have a condo with a den. The den is used as a pantry c/w an upright freezer.
Being a den it is powered on the same "anti arc" breaker as our bedrooms.
Oh well, you know the rest of the story...
From what I've read, AFCI (arc fault circuit interrupters) are far more prone to nuisance tripping than GFCIs. Part of the reason is that some appliances, particularly ones with largish universal motors like power tools and vacuums, naturally have some arcing internally in operation that is not an actual fault or danger. Another part of the reason is that they detect arcs by "listening" for certain noise frequencies on the electrical line (or combinations of noise frequencies), and if you're unlucky some switching power supply or motor controller may generate a little noise that looks enough like an arc to it to trip it.
I'm very glad my house predates the AFCI requirements. I'm less glad it predates the GFCI requirements and have been adding in GFCIs where appropriate as I have reason to work on the electric system.pianotuna wrote:
Sam,
My Magnum hybrid inverter/charger trips on SOME but not all GFCI outlets. When I remove the inverter from the circuit path, the RV does not trip any of the GFCI outlets.
This behavior is why I'm getting bald. * grin *.
Another anomaly is that occasionally when I run the Yamaha generator, the one and only gfci circuit in the RV may trip. Again--not always. And it does reset.
Just imagine if your fridge or freezer was powered by a GFCI.....
We have a condo with a den. The den is used as a pantry c/w an upright freezer.
Being a den it is powered on the same "anti arc" breaker as our bedrooms.
Oh well, you know the rest of the story...- Sam,
My Magnum hybrid inverter/charger trips on SOME but not all GFCI outlets. When I remove the inverter from the circuit path, the RV does not trip any of the GFCI outlets.
This behavior is why I'm getting bald. * grin *.
Another anomaly is that occasionally when I run the Yamaha generator, the one and only gfci circuit in the RV may trip. Again--not always. And it does reset.
