Air Conditioner kicks off

[Vttrekkie]

I have a mid 70's built home.

I recently bought a 10,000 btu air conditioner that has a GFI plug. When I plug in the ac unit it will run ok for a few hours. After the intitial few hours of running, I shut it off, only to find that in the morning the reset button on the GFI attached to the cord has clicked off. If I reset it, it will run for a bit, then click off again. Eventually, it will not reset. I have taken this unit back and exchanged it for another one. Same problem. I have tried the outlet in a different part of the room with the same results. The ac unit requires min. 15 amp breaker, I have a 20 amp breaker for the circuit.

As a side note, sometimes the GFI units in the bathroom and kitchen would click off also. It hasn't happened recently though.

What could be causing this? I have 5000 btu ac unit in the bedroom with the same type of plug that does not bother.

Do I have a bad ground somewhere? I normally run a couple of fans from this outlet w/out any problems.

[PipeDown]

Sounds like condensation inside the A/C is setting up a leakage path to ground and legitamately tripping the GFCI circuit (I assume this outlet is actually grounded). But that explanation is fishy because you say it trips while it is turned off.

These cordset GFCI breakers are not supposed to trip due to downstream loads like wall receptacles (wired correctly) do. So another load on that branch should not be able to trip the GFCI.

Does this A/C have power off functions like a remote control or lighted display or is it really off when turned off.

First call the manufacturer customer support hotline. If they do not have a plausable explanation then take it back and get a different brand. If they have a defect and can't admit it or simply do not understand their product to come up with an explanation, you don't want them.

[Vttrekkie]

Actually, as I discovered, the plug is an AFCI. There is a remote, but the AFCI has tripped while it was off. I called an electrician last night and he said it is unusual to have this happen, he thinks it is being tripped on the load side, the AC unit itself. He told me to try another outlet that isn't on the same line and see if it does the same thing.

PipeDown wrote: