robrog
Guest
About 4 days ago my GFCI tripped. My wife was home and I was at work, she noticed the tank was silent and the water level had dropped a bit. She called me and I told her to make sure one of the kids hadn't gotten back there and turned the power strip off. It was on, but she found the GFCI had tripped. She reset it and everything started again.........strange.
Then, a little while later, the GFCI tripped again. Luckily I was going to be home soon, so I told her just to wait till I got there and I would do some investigating of my own. I got home and hit the reset, the pumps and all started fine. A few hours later, it tripped again.....
This time I checked the pumps and power heads individually. I plugged each one into the outlet, they all worked fine. I have two outlets that I use, one has most of the pumps and powerheads, the other has the fans, a powerhead and my auto top-off. I though maybe the GFCI has become weaker over time with the load on it, so I switched outlets putting the lesser load on this GFCI. Things ran fine until the next day when then new GFCI tripped......
Now the plan was to leave one thing unplugged and try to figure out what is causing the problem. First I cleaned my skimmer beckett to make sure it wasn't clogged causing the skimmer pump to have a problem. No problems there. So I left a return pump unplugged, started the system. It ran all day, then in the evening the GFCI tripped......
Ok, plug that return pump back in, unplug the other one. Ran fine for a while then tripped. Both return pumps on, skimmer pump off. Did well for a while, tripped. Returns and skimmer on, powerhead off. Ran all night, all the next day........we have a winner! Not......
Finally around 6 pm the third or forth day, losing track at this point, the GFCI tripped again. Only this time it wouldn't reset when all the other times it reset fine. So now I could unplug each item one at a time and try a reset. I went through all the pumps and the GFCI would not reset. Then I tried my Fuge light, which I hadn't even really considered before since it is not in the water. Bingo! GFCI reset!
Apparently there was enought moisture getting in there to cause the short. But by the time I noticed the tank had shut down and messed with the pumps it dried up and the GFCI would reset. My light is on a reverse cycle, so it is normally off all day, so every fix I tried worked fine till the timer kicked on! After it dried and I reset the system, it took a while for enough moisture to build up again I guess. Although it took me four days, I am glad it turned out to be something so simple!
Then, a little while later, the GFCI tripped again. Luckily I was going to be home soon, so I told her just to wait till I got there and I would do some investigating of my own. I got home and hit the reset, the pumps and all started fine. A few hours later, it tripped again.....
This time I checked the pumps and power heads individually. I plugged each one into the outlet, they all worked fine. I have two outlets that I use, one has most of the pumps and powerheads, the other has the fans, a powerhead and my auto top-off. I though maybe the GFCI has become weaker over time with the load on it, so I switched outlets putting the lesser load on this GFCI. Things ran fine until the next day when then new GFCI tripped......
Now the plan was to leave one thing unplugged and try to figure out what is causing the problem. First I cleaned my skimmer beckett to make sure it wasn't clogged causing the skimmer pump to have a problem. No problems there. So I left a return pump unplugged, started the system. It ran all day, then in the evening the GFCI tripped......
Ok, plug that return pump back in, unplug the other one. Ran fine for a while then tripped. Both return pumps on, skimmer pump off. Did well for a while, tripped. Returns and skimmer on, powerhead off. Ran all night, all the next day........we have a winner! Not......
Finally around 6 pm the third or forth day, losing track at this point, the GFCI tripped again. Only this time it wouldn't reset when all the other times it reset fine. So now I could unplug each item one at a time and try a reset. I went through all the pumps and the GFCI would not reset. Then I tried my Fuge light, which I hadn't even really considered before since it is not in the water. Bingo! GFCI reset!
Apparently there was enought moisture getting in there to cause the short. But by the time I noticed the tank had shut down and messed with the pumps it dried up and the GFCI would reset. My light is on a reverse cycle, so it is normally off all day, so every fix I tried worked fine till the timer kicked on! After it dried and I reset the system, it took a while for enough moisture to build up again I guess. Although it took me four days, I am glad it turned out to be something so simple!
