I inspected a house today that had 2 water feature pumps (full size pool pumps) wired to ARC fault circuit breakers in the service panel. There were no GFCI’s at the pump control timers and, of course, the pumps were not bonded. The pumps/filters/piping is 30’ from the nearest water feature. Can ARC’s be used in this situation?
NO way unless they happen to be combo devices and I don’t know if they are available yet.
Hate to ask, but are you sure they were AFCI ?
Were they hardwired or plugged into receptacles? If they were plugged in, did you test the receptacles?
My pond pumps and fountains are hardwired and run off a GFCI breaker in the panel.
There should be no arc faults in any outdoor location. Only GFI’s are used for outdoor locations. Rick