Breakers tripping
 

Does anyone else have their breakers tripping repeatedly?

Which breakers, and what's plugged in ??

I though the title meant spring breakers! silly me! ;)

Is it in your living room?

For me it is the kitchen. For others it is different rooms. Apparently this generation of breakers have issues. I am just wondering how many others are dealing with the issue of ELECTRICAL BREAKERS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH SPRING BREAKERS...that was funny.

You still under warranty? If so call them immediately. Or find someone in the neighborhood to take a look at your electrical stuff who knows what he is doing.

We are so far beyond that Gracie. TV is well aware. Apparently there are several issues on of which is if there is any ham radio within x amount of distance, houses have problems. The company that makes the breakers is trying to figure out what to do - they actually flew down from Pittsburg a couple weeks ago but they haven't been able to come up with a solution. It is a mess but we have electric people at our houses two to six times a week. It just goes on and on and I am getting very tired of it. I was trying to determine how many other people are finding the same irritation.

O. Sounds like a conspiracy. Hmmm.:shocked:

Why not just replace them with another brand that doesn't have problems?
That is a very unusual problem.

We have not tripped our breakers but did lose power sometime after going to bed both Monday and Tuesday nights.
We live S. of 466A.

Our breakers trip in our new home when I try to use my older vacum cleaner and the lanai GFI trips when hubby tries to use the shop vac, yet he can plug into indoor outlet with no problems. Used older vacum cleaner in rental home in Hadley with no problems. Found out the breakers used in new housing are very sensitive to surge. We are considering having the breakers replaced with another brand.

Conspiracy? Doubtful. They can't replace them with another type because of some national safety regulation. This is the third generation because there were problems with the second which tripped with hairdryers and vacuums. I really don't understand arcs and electrical terms...and this really wasn't meant to be a whining thread. I just wanted to hear if others are experiencing similar issues. Apparently it is localized.

schisamax: You said type and the suggestion was brand. It would seem that a different brand for this 3rd generation GFI exists somewhere?

My understanding is TV must use this brand Eton.

Calling all electrician
 

That is just wrong. So sorry for your dilemma....Hmmmm wonder why?

an all out points bulletin for an electrician to explain this catch 22

Same with us on certain outlets. We had this looked at under warrenty and were told that it is normal in new homes (Village of Hemmingway). We found a work around.

I've had two new homes in The Villages and never had a breaker tripping problem, so disagree that it is normal in new homes.

Our house just grew out of warranty and the only problem was when we plugged too many Christmas lights onto one outlet on the porch.

If your house is under warranty, I feel they will fix it someHOW.I would have to think that they require all suppliers to guarantee the products they buy from them. The have huge buying power and can call all the shots..

I was kidding about it being a conspiracy.

" Apparently it is localized" - If it is localized, which area (Village) are you in?

Betty

in warranty or not if you have breakers tripping for no known reason you need to get an electrician to determine why.

We had a problem in the bedroom and kitchen when our home was 3+ years old...obviously out of warranty.

Had an electrician come in and the problem turned out to be wires loosening and making intermitent contact every once in a while. Yes if the wire nuts in the switches or plugs connection boxes are not tightened maybe as much as they COULD be the humming and flow of electricity can move the.

Whether that is your problem or not you need to determine what it is BEFORE it becomes a more serious problem.

btk

Many of us had breakers tripping here.... We called The Villages and a gentleman came out and said it was supposed to trip... It was our vacuum causing the problem. Others said they went to Ace and bought something that helped.

We just had our one year inspection and showed it to the gentleman who inspected our home. He put it in the report. The same man who told us it was supposed to trip came out and installed a new breaker... All fixed!

Hope this helps!

If you have breakers tripping and you are using an electrical motor of any type that could trip your breaker. The new type of breaker and may I say it's not the fault of The Villages is called an Arc fault breaker not a ground fault breaker. There are new breakers that will support a motor but don't replace an arc fault breaker or(afci)with a standard breaker because if you go to sell your house and have an inspection you will probably fail the inspection. Best talk to a smart electrician on this one. And if you already know this then disregard all of the above.

Thanks
 

We are close to our 1 year insp. and will bring this up to the inspector so the issue is on record and go from there. Thus far we have worked around the issue in our home which is in Sanibel. By the way, we had our older vacum serviced by an authorized service center and they found our vacum is in perfect working order. But we bought a new Dyson and no issues with the same outlets. It's a mystery to me.

I use a Dyson battery operated. They have yet to figure out what is causing the tripping. They even had an electrician in the attic checking the wires to see if a staple perhaps had pierced a wire. I was told today by someone we should go to Home Depot and replace them with the old fashion kind and when you have an inspection swap them back so they pass inspection. It is ridiculous. TV is well aware of the issue but legally they have to use these breakers for new builds.

it's a nationwide problem...new code

Recently, I had an AFCI breaker tripping every time I had the outside lights on and then turned on the guest bathroom light. I had replaced the outside light, in the front door foyer with a CFL bulb. Once I removed the CFL and went back to a regular light bulb, problem went away.

Mystery to me, but everything is fine for now....

Loads of tripping breakers in Pennecamp. All our neighbors have called The Villages to complain when we were in warranty, still calling out of warranty.

So what does tv say when you have been dealing with this over one year? What have they said is "the solution" ?

What OP stated is true. Apparently, these breakers were put into new homes because of a change in electrical codes. I had two breakers replaced while under warranty----so far problem solved. An electrician told me that the change that was made was totally unnecessary. In addition, the breakers are very expensive when compared to the breakers of previous code. Like another who posted on this thread said---"this is a mess.".

We have one neighbor that has documented all calls to The Villages from the whole neighborhood, breaker manufacturer has been out, adapters were given in some instances, some breakers replaced. Explanation is that new breakers are very sensitive. No one is satisfied. In our house it is our master bath. Cannot use hair dryer while shower light and fan are on. Fan in shower was replaced. Still happens. I adjusted usage. Vacuum cannot be used in all plugs, just some.

I am aware of issues where certain breakers have been tripped but I do not know all the details. I also know that Eaton, the manufacturer of the boxes and breakers, sent two guys from Pittsburgh here to run some tests. They spent over 4 hours running tests and measurements on a home south of 466a. It is going to take some time for the results to be known.

This cause here may or may not be the cause in your situation so a fix on one may not correct your issue.

VG

"I've had two new homes in The Villages and never had a breaker tripping problem, so disagree that it is normal in new homes"

evidently your homes didn't have the new code breakers.

Fault breakers detect surges or shorts to ground to prevent you from getting shocked. These new sensitive breakers detect surges that put on there circuits. Vacuum sweepers, hair dryers, toasters, Micowaves, ect. pull alot of amps. The surge of amps when the motor fires up or several lights coming on all at once may pull enough amps to trip the new sensitive breakers.... Probably another fine American product made in China, india, Mx, or Bangladesh....

NEC code changed in 2008
 

The "ARC" breakers are designed to trip with any arcing. If you remember the old drill motors or saws you could see a little "blue arc" where the the brushes meet the armature. Some vacuum's do the same thing. This will cause the ARC beakers to trip. Another problem is "Back Stabbing" of outlets on 15 amp circuits ( It is legal to do). They just push the wires in the back of outlets instead of wrapping the connection around the screws. I tested voltatage at a 15A outlet to be 123volts, plug an Iron in and the voltage dropped to 114 volts. That is more than a 5%. Plug the Iron in a 20amp circuit and the the voltage drop is 2 volts. Some the the voltage drop on 15 amp circuit is the smaller wire allowed. IMHO "Back Stabbing" of outlets should be outlawed. It is a terrible connection and can lead to arcing in the outlet. I will be changing all of them in my home in the near future. One thing you can do is buy a $4 single surge suppressor from Home Depot and move it around where you want to plug a motor into. :blahblahblah:

Ground Rod
 

I live in Sanibel also. I am very close to the Ham Radio. IMHO The grounding system they use in Florida is not good. I installed another ground rod at 12 homes around the Ham Radio ( 2 seperate rods at the Ham Radio home). As far as I know, no more problems. When I moved in 1 year ago, I installed 2 extra rods, and have never tripped a breaker. You may want to ask TV to install and extra rod at least 5' from the foundation.( Sould be 10' but that might put it neighbors yard). Also have them check all connection in the panel box, I found a couple of "loose" ones.:(

2 Oldcrabs: YOu clearly know something about electricity. Wow. Well, it was our house that the guys flew down from Eton came to along with another two. What is so annoying for us is the breaker that goes is affecting the computer.
Actually, my neighbor who has suffered this tripping problem told me his computer totally died yesterday. He is an engineer by profession so has a little more pertinent knowledge than I and he is wondering if this constant tripping was involved as he has had no issues with it prior and it is relatively new. He is off to purchase a new one and get all his tax info that was almost complete taken off the old one. I think he is unhappy :)
Well, I am glad I posed the question because I now know that this is a widespread issue not just localized and that TV will just continue to go through the motions of working on it but they already know there really isn't an answer. Their hands are tied. I now understand why they say that Eton is working on it but it isn't really going to be fixed. It is inherent in the design and I now understand why certain things, especially ham radios with their frequency arcs will set them off at an alarming rate.

And as someone suggested yesterday, this was some idea of some greedy dumb guy looking to jack up the price for personal profit and got DC to pass regulation saying all the world must use these to make our lives safer so they could 10 fold the price...HAHAH. There we go Gracie.. you were right...it's a conspiracy !!!

So I gather from this thread, we are on our own on this issue so we should replace them all with the old type after the warranty period is up? which TV cannot suggest and then if we sell the house, put in the original ones? Is that what you mean 2 OldCrabs?

2 OldCrabs: I have no idea what you are talking about but you definitely have me convinced you know what you are talking about. I will ask TV to do that with installing rods. Thank you for taking the time to write this for those of us who have had this problem and those that will be experiencing it in the future. I wish you a really really really wonderful day.

By any chance do you have a ham radio operator in your area? If you do not know, can you ask Galaxy or Pike or...who do you use anyway? if there is a ham radio in your area. Thanks.

Initially, the AFCI in the master bath was tripping intermittently. The Warantee Dept. sent an electrician. He said that AFCIs were too sensitive for the cheap arcing motors in the bathroom exhaust fans. I urged him to change out the one that was tripping, although he said that it would not make any difference. He had to put in an exact replacement. That was about a year ago, and the replacement has not tripped. So, maybe there are manufacturing tolerances from piece to piece.

Someone mentioned switching to a different brand of breaker. That can't be done since each manufacturer of breaker panels design them so you can only use their brand of breaker. When we purchased our home in Pennecamp, we had the problem of the vacuum tripping the Arc Fault breakers. I called Warranty Dept and they had the electrician bring me one of the little plug adapters to use on the vacuum and we have never had a problem since. It's a PITA to keep up with that little adapter, but it solves the problem.

Some more information.

There are two types of breakers that are now being used by code. One is called a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters - GFCI. GFCI circuit-breakers operate by sensing unbalanced currents in the hot and neutral conductors of an ac circuit. An imbalance indicates the presence of a fault somewhere in the circuit, creating a shock hazard. The breaker then trips (opens) to remove the shock hazard.

An Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter - AFCI circuit breaker is similar in that it monitors current to watch for a fault condition. Instead of current imbalances, the AFCI detects patterns of current that indicate an arc – one of the leading causes of home fires. The AFCI is not supposed to trip because of “normal” arcs that occur when a switch is opened or a plug is removed.

Under current codes, GFCI protection is required for all basement outlets, outdoor outlets, and for outlets in kitchens and bathrooms. AFCI protection required for all circuits that supply bedrooms.

The problem is not only one here in TV but appearing across the country. Older homes nave no problems but that can't be said for new homes.

VG