GFI failures, why?

[J&JD]

Just had my second GFI failure. This time it was the one in the half bath above the sink in the medicine cabinet. Amazingly this GFI is hooked to all the outlets in the rear of the coach AND the Gerard awnings (go figure). The other GFI failure was some months ago and was located in the ps basement near where the Gerard awnings plug in. I also had one fail in my previous coach. I have never had a GFI failure in S&B home and it has several. Why are they failing in the Rv?

 

[Neal]

Failing or Tripping? They are GFI for a reason, you know that, question is what is tripping it? Electrical overload? Faulty wiring? We all know there's none of that (sorry for the sarcasm but we all know the quality of the wiring in our Newmars).

I don't have an answer, the issue is if it trips again, then obviously something is flaky in the circuit and the protection this provides is doing its job. Can a hair dryer in the rear bath cause this such as if the high wattage? I know you use the curling iron and the wife uses the hair dryer

 

[J&JD]

Failing or Tripping? They are GFI for a reason, you know that, question is what is tripping it? Electrical overload? Faulty wiring? We all know there's none of that (sorry for the sarcasm but we all know the quality of the wiring in our Newmars).

I don't have an answer, the issue is if it trips again, then obviously something is flaky in the circuit and the protection this provides is doing its job. Can a hair dryer in the rear bath cause this such as if the high wattage? I know you use the curling iron and the wife uses the hair dryer

Complete failure, not tripping. They had to be replaced.

 

[Neal]

Complete failure, not tripping.

Wow!

 

[Old-RV'er]

The NEC is sort of responsible, why? The NEC (National Electric Code) specifies the type and quality of the electrical components in our RV's, they are not even up to construction quality of a home, they are less quality, and remember it's always about the money. FWIW-Lets say, Newmar builds 2000 MH's a year, and puts two GFI's per coach, that is 4000 units. Lets say the ones required in the RV are 2.00 each, and the ones in the home are 10.00 each, Newmar is going to look at the cost difference and it's a no brainer from the cost perspective for them to always by the cheaper ones, because they meet code, (NOTE: Much of the NEC is not applicable to RV's for any reason, which is why they use Romex instead of stranded flexible cable, also again money). Marine applications specify a higher level of quality (water) and they get more stranded wire, and better quality of components for the electrical side. RVIA, is a joke concerning any qualify specifications period. FWIW2-So far we have never had a GFI fail either at home or in RV, and the last coach (Alpine) was in my opinion the worse wired RV in my experience of over 30+ years. Those never failed. The types of receptacles in an RV are very different from a home, and the boxes they are in are also different, so I am not positive if you can take a residential type and change it from RV type. Over time, the RV ones will fail because of the type of connection is neither screw or push in, more of a slide in thing. Worthless in my opinion, but we have what we have. I suspect, you need to do additional checking on the circuits hooked to that and see if possibly something is turned around. You can get a checker for 6-10 dollars at Home Depot and see if all the receptacles are up to correct specs. Let us know if you find any bad circuits.