@JumboShrimp these aren’t necessarily necessary if your circuits are on circuit breakers. The breakers in your box do the same thing.
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@JumboShrimp these aren’t necessarily necessary if your circuits are on circuit breakers. The breakers in your box do the same thing.
Well..I stuck my hand in my saltwater mixing tank last week and learned very quickly that my cheap ace Amazon special power head was leaking electricity. So there’s that…Ok so now I’m a lil bit worried can some one please tell me how would I know or find out that I had a voltage leak on a piece of equipment without pulling it out and testing it Ps ( no controller )
Can you just plug it into any outlet? How about an outlet on a surge protector or Apex? Forgive my naivety is this is stupid.
This is not correct. A traditional circuit breaker trips when a circuit pulls too much load, typically more than 15amps. The more load, the faster it trips.@jmichaelh7 you should have circuit breakers on every outlet in your house or it probably won’t comply with the building codes set by your local municipality. Those breakers are in your breaker box and are the same things as the GFCI at the wall outlet. The only reason an electrician installs one of those GFCIs as a wall outlet is if the owner wants to be able to flip the switch back on at the wall outlet instead of going all the way to the breaker box to switch back on or if the wall outlet you’re going to use doesn’t have a breaker in the box.
Great explanation! I always thought they looked at voltage not amps. I assume they will work in an ungrounded body of water like a pond with a rubber liner. I have to ask though why my gfci popped but not the breaker when I cut a wire with a shovel? I assume it sensed a current difference by maybe the neutral getting cut.This is not correct. A traditional circuit breaker trips when a circuit pulls too much load, typically more than 15amps. The more load, the faster it trips.
A GFCI device does not care about total load. You could pull 100A in a 15A circuit and a GFCI will not trip. A GFCI trips there is a difference of in current of more than 5mA between the hot and neutral prongs of an outlet.
You can have GFCI circuit breakers but they aren't nearly as common.
Good questions.Great explanation! I always thought they looked at voltage not amps. I assume they will work in an ungrounded body of water like a pond with a rubber liner. I have to ask though why my gfci popped but not the breaker when I cut a wire with a shovel? I assume it sensed a current difference by maybe the neutral getting cut.
Good point about saltwater being more conductive. Now you have me thinking about my pond. If the pump wire somehow leaked voltage I wonder if it would shock me then pop the gfci as now I am the ground path?Good questions.
As a general concept, voltage based protections are very unusual in residential and even industrial systems. I do use them at work, but for very specific functions (I manage a 500kV substation among other responsibilities)
A GFCI will typically not work in a pond with a rubber liner just like it won't work in an aquarium because glass is an insulator. The current needs to have a path to ground which is blocked by the rubber and glass. This is where a ground probe comes in for salt water aquariums. It provides the path to ground. Pure water is also a very good insulator. A ground probe would do very little in a pond or fresh water system because the fresh water insulates the failed electrical device from the ground probe. The salt in saltwater makes it conductive to electricity so the water completes the circuit between the ground probe and failed device.
As for cutting the wire, there is a very good chance that it became a race. The circuit breaker overcurrent protection is designed with a slight time delay. The GFCI is designed to trip as fast as possible so it should have tripped first. Not because it went from hot to neutral, but because it went from hot, through the shovel, to ground. To turn a light on or off you normally only open one wire, preferably the hot, but that should never trip the gfci.
Why would you make a post that is so incredibly wrong? I know you are trying to help, but if you don't know then it's better to not say anything.@jmichaelh7 you should have circuit breakers on every outlet in your house or it probably won’t comply with the building codes set by your local municipality. Those breakers are in your breaker box and are the same things as the GFCI at the wall outlet. The only reason an electrician installs one of those GFCIs as a wall outlet is if the owner wants to be able to flip the switch back on at the wall outlet instead of going all the way to the breaker box to switch back on or if the wall outlet you’re going to use doesn’t have a breaker in the box.
I use a ground probe GFCI combination. It does not matter where you plug the ground probe in. You could plug it into your neighbors house and it would work the exact same way.(I love what you have posted, @Brew12 “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” - Chinese proverb.)
... And so to boil it down for us 'five-minute-fools'... If I just plain-old don't want to get z-a-p-p-e-d, should I have a grounding probe in my tank, a GFCI, both, or dare I ask: A grounding probe plugged INTO a GFCI? Thanks in advance.
It probably wouldn't happen when you put your hand in the pond. Unless you have a lot of dissolved minerals in your water you probably wouldn't get zapped unless you grabbed the cord/pump at the location of the fault. The the GFCI should trip and protect you. Always a good idea to unplug anything in fresh water before touching it, but you are pretty safe leaving things running if you only put your hand in the water.Good point about saltwater being more conductive. Now you have me thinking about my pond. If the pump wire somehow leaked voltage I wonder if it would shock me then pop the gfci as now I am the ground path?
Ok then sounds good I guess my tank and a good then lolWell..I stuck my hand in my saltwater mixing tank last week and learned very quickly that my cheap ace Amazon special power head was leaking electricity. So there’s that…
Yes. But if there is stray voltage and you are using a gfci outlet it may pop and shut the power. But that's a good thing!!So these can be put in with livestock already in tank correct? Just plug in and drop probe in sump?
Good Morning Brew my good Buddy.You can have GFCI circuit breakers but they aren't nearly as common.