Is my GFCI breaker bad?

[aaron_m]

I've been working on converting to an electric setup and installed a 50A spa panel in the area where I will be brewing. I already have an existing 50A line from an electric stove that is no longer used and set up my spa panel to plug into the existing outlet. I dropped a new outlet off of the spa panel and will be running my control panel from that.

Today was the first time I powered up this line since I added the spa panel. I turned on the breaker back at the main panel to send power to the spa panel. No breakers tripped, every things looks ok... so far so good. I then go ahead and press the test button on my spa panel to see if everything is working properly before I plug in my new panel. The GFCI breaker trips as expected.

Now the GFCI breaker in the spa panel will not reset. I can set it to the off position but it will not reset and stay in the on position. I then go back to the main panel and turn off the power to the spa panel. Even with the power off at the main panel, the GFCI breaker will still not reset. I even removed the breaker from the spa panel and it will still not reset and stay in the on position.

If the breaker will still not reset when there is no power to it then it seems that there is a problem with the breaker and it's not just that there is a fault causing it to trip. Is there something I'm missing here? Any suggestions to further troubleshoot this? I seems a bit ridiculous that my breaker would suddenly be bad after using the test button once.

Here's a link to the SquareD spa panel with a 50A GFCI that I got from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQT1AS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[Lax coach]

My spa panel and breaker are slightly different than yours, but when I tested mine yesterday, I had to push it really hard to the off side to get it to reset. Then I could turn it back on normally. But it probably took 5x as much pressure to reset the GFCI trip to off as it does to flip the breaker from on to off. Make sure you're actually resetting it, and don't be afraid to push pretty hard.

 

[aaron_m]

My spa panel and breaker are slightly different than yours, but when I tested mine yesterday, I had to push it really hard to the off side to get it to reset. Then I could turn it back on normally. But it probably took 5x as much pressure to reset the GFCI trip to off as it does to flip the breaker from on to off. Make sure you're actually resetting it, and don't be afraid to push pretty hard.

Thanks for the reply. I ran downstairs and pushed on it as hard as I could without ripping the thing of the wall but didn't have any luck.

 

[passedpawn]

I seems a bit ridiculous that my breaker would suddenly be bad after using the test button once.

Sadly, this appears to be the case. There are 3 failure modes of a GFCI, and this is one of them. If you completely remove the load wires (3 of them, line, line, and neutral) and it still won't reset, it's a bad part.

 

[aaron_m]

Sadly, this appears to be the case. There are 3 failure modes of a GFCI, and this is one of them. If you completely remove the load wires (3 of them, line, line, and neutral) and it still won't reset, it's a bad part.

Thanks, fortunately Amazon is really good about returning/exchanging stuff. I submitted a request to exchange it for another last night and it looks like a replacement should be here tomorrow. Now I just have to take down the old one and ship it back to them.

 

[golfindia]

I've had some bathroom GFCI plugs fail that way after just a few weeks. They are a crapshoot.... However, one of my other hobbies is Amateur radio. I use 1.5kw amplifiers and large antennas (enough RF to light flourescent bulbs when antennas are pointed right)
I have a suspicion that RF on the AC lines may kill them prematurely.