GFCI Keeps Triping

[Jcparmley]

I purchased a 97 Monaco Executive this past October.  I flew out to Colorado to purchase it and drive it home to Wisconsin.  On the way home I noticed that every time I plugged something into the outlets the GFCI tripped.  I stopped at Walmart to sleep and purchased a couple new GFCI outlets assuming that the ones in the RV were old.  Switching them out did not work and the new GFCI tripped as well.  So the next day I purchased a tester and the test showed that the wiring was ok.  So I purchased a standard outlet and installed them until I made it home.  Now I need to figure out what is happening and why the GFCI keeps tripping.  I am planing on upgrading the inverter from the old one to a new Zantrex 3012.  Any suggestions on where I should start to diagnose the GFCI issue?

[timaz996]

My first step would be checking grounds. Make sure all of your connections including the ground in your 120 circuit box or boxes including the inverter box are all tight. On a second note isn’t it a little chilly to be back in Wisconsin now?

[Fasthobie16]

GFCI receptacles trip when there is an unbalanced amount of current between the hot and neutral. That would mean that some is going to ground. That protects you from a shock or electrocution. Or  …. They are wired wrong. You don’t say if anything is plugged in to the circuit or not. You may have a piece of equipment that may be causing the problem. Isolate the problem by starting out with one unit at a time till it trips. My coach 120volt panel has GFI breakers for the circuits that need that protection.  (I have no GFI receptacles in the coach).They work much better than GFI outlets. If you install them make sure you wire the neutral (white wire ) for that circuit to the breaker and put the curly white wire on the breaker to the neutral bar. The  you put regular outlets in place of the GFI outlets. The GFCI breaker will protect the whole circuit. 

[Dwight Lindsey]

Most GFCI outlets do not like Modified Sine Wave Inverters.

Xantrex published an article about this, that you can find here:

https://nanopdf.com/download/gfci-compatabilities-output_pdf

I bought one of the Pass & Seymour GFCIs and it worked fine for many years.

I've since upgraded to a Magnum Pure Sine Wave inverter and of course the GFCI continues to work well.

IF you have an MSW inverter, probably the GFCI issue can be solved by buying one of the "Xantrex MSW approved" GFCI outlets.  That will be your cheap solution, compared with replacing the inverter with a PSW inverter.

Dwight

[Jcparmley]

23 minutes ago, Tim-AZ said:

My first step would be checking grounds. Make sure all of your connections including the ground in your 120 circuit box or boxes including the inverter box are all tight. On a second note isn’t it a little chilly to be back in Wisconsin now?

Yes. I live in Wisconsin and it is -10 today. Unfortunately I have another 20 or so years to work so I can’t go south quite yet.   I did check the grounds that I could find. I will look for more. 

13 minutes ago, Fasthobie16 said:

GFCI receptacles trip when there is an unbalanced amount of current between the hot and neutral. That would mean that some is going to ground. That protects you from a shock or electrocution. Or  …. They are wired wrong. You don’t say if anything is plugged in to the circuit or not. You may have a piece of equipment that may be causing the problem. Isolate the problem by starting out with one unit at a time till it trips. My coach 120volt panel has GFI breakers for the circuits that need that protection.  (I have no GFI receptacles in the coach).They work much better than GFI outlets. If you install them make sure you wire the neutral (white wire ) for that circuit to the breaker and put the curly white wire on the breaker to the neutral bar. The  you put regular outlets in place of the GFI outlets. The GFCI breaker will protect the whole circuit. 

I was thinking about installing the GFCI breaker and just leaving every outlet as is. That’s a good idea. Thank you

12 minutes ago, Dwight Lindsey said:

Most GFCI outlets do not like Modified Sine Wave Inverters.

Xantrex published an article about this, that you can find here:

https://nanopdf.com/download/gfci-compatabilities-output_pdf

I bought one of the Pass & Seymour GFCIs and it worked fine for many years.

I've since upgraded to a Magnum Pure Sine Wave inverter and of course the GFCI continues to work well.

IF you have an MSW inverter, probably the GFCI issue can be solved by buying one of the "Xantrex MSW approved" GFCI outlets.  That will be your cheap solution, compared with replacing the inverter with a PSW inverter.

Dwight

 

I have a new pure sine inverter to install. The unit that is in the coach is a “heart” unit. I’m not sure if it is modified or pure. The outlet would trip when I plugged in my cell phone charger or electric toothbrush. So clearly something was not correct. But my tester showed that everything was wired correctly. That’s why I thought it might be the inverter. 

[Dwight Lindsey]

My bet is that an inverter in a coach of that vintage is MSW.

The PSW inverter should solve your issue.

Dwight