New Washer Trips GFCI

[dwsimpson]

My mother-in-law bought a new Sears washer for the house we bought her. We installed a GFCI on a non-grounded circuit. When she runs the washer, the GFCI trips 3-5 times a cycle. The line is a 20 amp line and it's connected to a breaker panel in the utility room.

What are possible causes of this problem, and would an appliance ground wire connected to a cold water line help at all?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Dale

[HayZee518]

Is the washer on a dedicated line? If so you don't need a GFCI.

[dwsimpson]

quote:Originally posted by HayZee518

Is the washer on a dedicated line? If so you don't need a GFCI.

It appears to be. There is one 120-volt outlet in the utility room, and a breaker panel with labeled switches, one of which is "washer." I thought you needed a GFCI near water.

[HayZee518]

Not true in every case where there's water. The gfci protects personnel not equipment.

[dwsimpson]

quote:Originally posted by HayZee518

Not true in every case where there's water. The gfci protects personnel not equipment.

Understood. Do you have a suggestion for why the GFCI trips several times during a wash cycle? If I replaced the GFCI with a standard outlet, would the breaker trip at the box, or would this solve the problem? Sometimes aren't GFCI's very sensitive to fluctuations?

[HayZee518]

The breaker would trip if an overload condition exsisted. The washer has a couple of solenoids and valves. These produce a condition known as inductance when current goes through them. When they shut off the collapsing magnetic field goes back into the coil which the gfci senses as an imbalance and so, trips.

[dwsimpson]

quote:Originally posted by HayZee518

The breaker would trip if an overload condition exsisted. The washer has a couple of solenoids and valves. These produce a condition known as inductance when current goes through them. When they shut off the collapsing magnetic field goes back into the coil which the gfci senses as an imbalance and so, trips.

Thanks for the information. Using your information and some more I found elsewhere, I concluded that I needed to replace the GFCI outlet with a regular outlet. So I did yesterday, and last night my mother-in-law ran a load of clothes in the washer without a problem.

I also replaced the GFCI outlet in the kitchen, in which the refrigerator was plugged. It is not a dedicated line, but I found out that refrigerators are not to be plugged into GFCI outlets.

Thanks again,

DWS

[HayZee518]

Same with the fridge. If there's not a path for personnel within site of an intentional ground a gfci is not needed.

[kactuskid]

Replacing the GFCI that the refrigerator was plugged into is fine, but only if there was only one cable (1 black and 1 white wire) going into this box. If there were 2 sets of cables then it's possible that one set was connected to the LOAD side of the GFCI that your removed. If this is the case then you have removed the GFCI protection from any receptacles that it was protecting.