Spa panel wiring problems.

[cbenn22]

I recently purchased a Spa panel from home depot and cannot figure out why it keeps tripping when I apply power to it. Below are 2 photos.

I'm only including the second image because when I test the resistance with my multimeter between the ground and H1 and ground and H2, I'm not getting infinite resistance... Why is this?

 

[BigFloppy]

Courtesy PJ

 

[cbenn22]

Yep. It's wired exactly like that.

 

[mxstar21]

Is breaker tripping or the GFCI?

 

[cbenn22]

The Gfci. I disconnected the load, and neutral input to the gfci, and it still trips. I'm thinking it has to be a faulty gfci. I'm going to Home Depot in the morning, and I'll report back.

 

[BigFloppy]

Which way is it wired and do you have 3 or 4 power feed wires?
Sounding like you have it wired for 3 way but actually have 4 wire power

 

[raouliii]

It appears that you are using a 3-wire source, given the green jumper. As others have indicated, it looks to be wired correctly.
Is it sourced at an existing 3-wire dryer outlet? If that is the case, you might validate the voltage measurements between the legs of the dryer outlet as a start.
If it's tripping with no load connected, all else connected normally and the source is good, it may very well be a bad gfci breaker.

 

[ajdelange]

I'm only including the second image because when I test the resistance with my multimeter between the ground and H1 and ground and H2, I'm not getting infinite resistance... Why is this?

It is because there is a leakage path between H1 and ground and H2 and ground. Current will, when H1 and H2 are energized, flow in these paths. It is exactly this current that the GFCI is designed to protect against. It will trip if the resistance(s) are low enough that a few ma of current can flow let's say 6000 Ω or less which would be low enough to trip a device is set for 20 ma. This would still be expected to happen if the neutral is disconnected from the GFCI. Find those paths and eliminate them and your problem should go away.

 

[cbenn22]

Just exchanged the gfci for a new one. Works perfectly. It's a wonder so many of these gfcis are bad from the start.

 

[raouliii]

Low cost retail equals low cost manufacturing equals high failure rate.

 

[doug293cz]

Low cost retail equals low cost manufacturing equals high failure rate.

Yeap. Rigorous quality control/assurance costs money.

Brew on

 

[ajdelange]

What about the resistance between hot and ground? That's the definition of a ground fault. How high was that resistance?

 

[cbenn22]

What about the resistance between hot and ground? That's the definition of a ground fault. How high was that resistance?

H1 and ground was ~250 ohms and H2 was ~620 ohms. The leakage must have been from the faulty gfci causing it to trip.

 

[ajdelange]

If it went away when you replaced the breaker I guess so.

Interesting paradox here. Can we really say the breaker was defective? It did what it was supposed to do: protect against a ground fault even though it was the cause of that fault.