A GFI receptacle at every plug. Why not right?

Just did a house and every outdoor receptacle is GFCI, then in the panel the circuit is protected by Eaton E-45340 Combination AFCI/GFCI breakers. When I would plug in my Extech CT-70 or my Amprobe Insp-3 circuit analyzer, the GFICI would trip. Not because I was testing the impedance on the ground or something you would figure, but randomly. I got in the house and downstairs my tools would pop the circuit breakers in the panel. The client said that circuits just pop all the time, for instance they are always having to reset the breaker for the garage door opener, the master bath pops the garage breaker, one of the upstairs baths does also, they cannot vacuum or use a curling iron. The whole home is on 12 gage wire and 20 amp breakers.
I get upstairs and my tools work fine. Along with that the voltage drops look good. I mean really good 2.3% that sort of thing.
Would having a bunch of GFCIs in series on the same circuit, make it super sensitive? I know they need to pull all those GFCIs and just use one per circuit and that is the first place to start right?

It may be tripping the afci portion, not the gfi portion. You need to determine which is causing the trip.

Are you sure that each is a gfi receptacle and not just a Decora device? Did they have test and reset buttons?

Well the panel appears to have a combination of AFCI breakers with the white labels, and combination breakers with green or blue labels. I’ll post a picture of the breakers and the receptacles.

Here are examples of the breakers and receptacle.
You are right maybe, they do not state GFCI protected.
Yes on the test and reset.

Multiple gfi’s are not an issue. They may all be wired using just the line terminals.

OK its such a weird situation. They would just randomly trip with two different meters. And even using a regular dongle to test, I had one just trip. Must have made 20 trips to the main panel but all the issues were downstairs.

Since the bathroom circuits were kicking the garage GFI breaker. I cannot trust how the electrician wired the panel and labeled the circuits. The client mentioned that they had to re-sheetrock a room and cut some wires. Since it is way beyond my scope, the client needs to bring in a master electrician.

Thanks Jim!

Oh and BTW Jim or anyone interested. Not sure what the average impedance should be on the hot side. But on the problem circuits I fooled with long enough to get the readings on the neutral and hot for impedance, The Hot had the highest impedance at close to .45

Did you hire yourself out to diagnose their electrical issues or to inspect?

I seems like you may be operating under the wrong license. Electricians in Texas are licensed under the TDLR, whereas Home Inspectors are licensed through TREC and may go beyond the SOP as long as they are qualified and competent in the areas that they exceed the SOP. Seems to me that you are in the space where an electrician’s license would be necessary.

FYI: in your photo, only the white labeled breaker provides GFCI protection. If the other breakers are tripping it’s going to be due to a genuine arc fault or nuisance tripping, which needs further diagnosis than what a TREC licensed inspector is typically qualified to do.

The combination refers to series and parallel arc faults, not gfci/afci protection. Observing and reporting will get you in a world less trouble than trying to diagnose something that you are unfamiliar with and not required to.

Thanks Wayne.

Look I get where you and Chuck are going with this. BUT all I am doing here is trying to learn. The report included no diagnosis of symptoms or theory about the cause of the issue the client was having. Not trying to be an electrician :wink:

I did find this information at the Siemens website with great information about AFCI and GFCI troubleshooting. Not sure how the diagnostic leds relate to the other manufactures, but good information none the less. This helps me to know how to inspect. Not diagnose.

http://w3.usa.siemens.com/us/internet-dms/btlv/residential/residential/docs_afic%20circuit%20protection/sie_cm_cafci%20pocket%20guide.pdf

http://w3.usa.siemens.com/powerdistribution/us/en/product-portfolio/circuit-breakers/residential-circuit-breakers/1-pole-afci/1-pole-tabs/Documents/SIE_FL_AFCI-FAQUpdate.pdf

Here is a good one from Eaton on the Type CH combination AFCIs with diagnostic code breakdown on page 2.

http://www.eaton.com/ecm/groups/public/@pub/@electrical/documents/content/td003002en.pdf

Oh yeah then there is this info about AFCI really good stuff.

https://www.nachi.org/forum/f19/afci-questions-and-answers-mike-holt-5914/

Listen to Chuck …

Your inspection is over. Refer it to the electrician for service and repair and move on.