GFCI's go bad?

[bobk]

My starboad main (original?) GFCI has tripped twice in the past month and the port side once. In all three cases, no one was aboard and nothing was running other than the the refrigerator (port side) and wine cooler (starboard) and the indicator lamps of the entertainment stuff (also starboard).

Do these GFCI's go bad with time (1981 48 MY)? If not, any suggestions on locating the issues?

 

[spartonboat1]

In my experience, yes, they can go bad. Replaced it, then was ok.

 

[REBrueckner]

Was there heavy rain during the period of tripping?? moisture around wiring can be enough to trip many GFCI's as they trip at about 5ma.....

 

[spcoolin]

Also GFCI's don't do well with motor starting loads such as refrigerator compressors...Too much "In Rush" amperage when the compressor starts.

If your fridge or wine cooler are plugged into those circuits it could be your reason/s....Especially if there was a power interruption causing the compressor/s to try to re-start before freon pressures had a chance to internally equalize...It takes around 5 minutes for a fridge to equalize pressures due to the small size of it's metering device (capillary tube) that sprays the refrigerant into the evaporator.

Steve~

 

[krush]

Yes they go bad...and it happens quite often in my experience.

 

[TopHattandTails]

Bob - check out this thread on same. http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12409&highlight=GFCI

Roger W. had a fix that gets you around the OEM breaker and still protects (its in the thread). Check Sam's, but earlier this summer I cleaned them out of stock. Roger's fix is the next best thing, and a whole lot cheaper.