GFI Outlet

[clare]

Not city. Ontario Hydro.

[John Gilmer]

Not quite.

"Motor surges" don't cause GFCI trips in either washers (including dishwashers) or fridges.

But what does cause GFCI tripping is water getting on exposed current carrying conductors.

In a fridge, this sometimes happens when the defrost heater causes water to run over the heater leads. If your fridge is "ice logged" you can get water onto the lamp circuit.

In a washer (dish or clothes) it's because of a small LEAK which let some water go onto the wiring.

My clothes washer(s) (twice replaced) have never tripped the GFCI.

Because the bad consequences of a trip while you are gone for a time, it's not a good idea to have the ice box on a GFCI but for the washers a tripping GFCI is a warning that you have some water where it should not be. A word to the wish should be sufficient.

[bud--]

How many feet of 12/2 with ground romex does it take to get 5mA of 'leakage' current?

[gfretwell]

Several hundred feet

[bud--]

Sounds reasonable.

And sounds kinda unlikely you would get a trip from capacitive reactance.

[gfretwell]

I have never had a problem and I have an extensive network of lights and receptacles in my 2600 square foot screen cage and out to a remote shed and boat lift. It is all wire in EMT or RNC and all on GFCIs. All told there is close to a half mile of THHN/THWN out there.

[Wayne Whitney]

I'm curious--you said earlier that several hundred feet of NM cable might be enough to allow 5 ma of leakage current. But then you mention several thousand feet of THHN/THWN in conduit without any trouble. Is the upshot that the leakage current in NM cable is much greater (per unit length) because the outer sheath holds the hot and ground in close proximity?

Cheers, Wayne

[gfretwell]

There are generally several wires in each pipe (as in 333' of RX is

1000' of wire). I imagine the longest single run an a GFCI is about 250' of wire in EMT. The only time it has ever tripped was when I had water in a box. One tip. Point all wirenuts up and keep them towards the top of the box. They all collect water now and then. All outside wiring is a "wet location". That is particularly true underground