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Peregrine1983 · 28-07-2022, 08:50

Hi all,

I just installed a 2000w pure sine GO POWER inverter on our sailboat. I bought the unit factory refurbished from GO POWER at about a 30% discount. Now I'm nervous that was a mistake.

The inverter is plugged into our 120v electrical system with a plug into a GFCI on the front of the inverter. (See pic)

The issue is whenever my wife runs her 1000w travel hair dryer on anything other than the lowest setting, the GFCI on the front of the inverter pops.

Two things are confusing about this - 1 - the inverter is rated for 2000w, 2 - the GFCI is popping like it's a breaker. My understanding is the GFCI should only pop if there's a difference detected between the hot and neutral wire.

Solutions I'm considering - 1 - swap the GFCI on the inverter for a new one, 2 - swap the GFCI for a standard outlet as we already have GFCI's on every outlet in the boat's walls, 3 - return the unit for a refund, 4 - have my wife get a different hair dryer.

EDIT: The GFCI in the unit sits slightly skewed, which I never liked the looks of. The one screw holding the GFCI in the unit doesn't grab, so it's tipped in slightly.

EDIT EDIT: My wife has run travel hair dryers (not this one though) on our boat for years without issue. Our house bank is 500+ah. Our old inverter was a cheapo Bestek 2000w and that worked fine until we had to switch to pure sine for our Starlink.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

phorvati · 28-07-2022, 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Hi all,

I just installed a 2000w pure sine GO POWER inverter on our sailboat. I bought the unit factory refurbished from GO POWER at about a 30% discount. Now I'm nervous that was a mistake.

The inverter is plugged into our 120v electrical system with a plug into a GFCI on the front of the inverter. (See pic)

The issue is whenever my wife runs her 1000w travel hair dryer on anything other than the lowest setting, the GFCI on the front of the inverter pops.

Two things are confusing about this - 1 - the inverter is rated for 2000w, 2 - the GFCI is popping like it's a breaker. My understanding is the GFCI should only pop if there's a difference detected between the hot and neutral wire.

Solutions I'm considering - 1 - swap the GFCI on the inverter for a new one, 2 - swap the GFCI for a standard outlet as we already have GFCI's on every outlet in the boat's walls, 3 - return the unit for a refund, 4 - have my wife get a different hair dryer.

EDIT: The GFCI in the unit sits slightly skewed, which I never liked the looks of. The one screw holding the GFCI in the unit doesn't grab, so it's tipped in slightly.

EDIT EDIT: My wife has run travel hair dryers (not this one though) on our boat for years without issue. Our house bank is 500+ah. Our old inverter was a cheapo Bestek 2000w and that worked fine until we had to switch to pure sine for our Starlink.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Try plugging in hair dryer directly to inverter GFCI and get rid of the black cable. If that doesn't trip it, then your "120V Electrical system" is leaky and GFCI is doing its job.

Cwens · 28-07-2022, 10:40

Inductive loads (e.g electric motors) can trip GFCI breakers. Without getting into a bunch of math that's above my pay grade, inductive loads reduce the power factor, which causes the flow of current and the voltage to be out of sync with each other, which under some circumstances can fool a GFCI into thinking there's a fault.

N.B. Just because inductive loads can cause nuisance trips, doesn't mean that's the explanation here: you might have an actual fault.

phorvati · 28-07-2022, 11:48

15A GFCI is designed and tested to work for various loads(inductive, capacitive, in presence of disturbances like lightning strikes, transients, etc etc) and is fully tested for 102-132V and 20A. 20A GFCI is fully tested/scrutinized to 30A. Its just not labeled and marketed as such. You could have a sensitive unit, or Hair dryer could be leaking to earth wire at high setting and earth wire in your AC system tied to boat ground/bonding. That would explain the missing 4-6mA required to trip it. That's why I said, bypass your AC system and see if it trips.

Peregrine1983 · 30-07-2022, 14:07

Hi all. Thanks for the responses. So, plugged the hair dryer directly into the inverter and it’s fine. No trip.

So, what does this mean for my 120v electrical system, and how do I fix it? The system was just overhauled (stem to stern rewire by an ABYC electrician) this past winter.

There are no other apparent issues with the system and we’re running several other 120v items.

Sailmonkey · 31-07-2022, 05:32

What else is attached to the inverter when the black cord is plugged into it? Are there any other loads present?
A battery charger?
A reverse polarity light on a panel?

Peregrine1983 · 31-07-2022, 05:48

Thanks, Sailmonkey.

What else is attached to the inverter when the black cord is plugged into it? Are there any other loads present? A Starlink regularly, but this issue persists with or without the Starlink connected/on. We often use two computers, but this issue persists without the computers plugged in/on. Also, a Standard Horizon VHF charger as well as an iPhone charger. .
A battery charger? There is a Victron solar charge controller feeding our batteries that has been there for two years without issue. This GFCI issue is new since our re-wire. We have an AC battery charger, but we never plug in at a dock, so it is never used and remains off.
A reverse polarity light on a panel? None present. See pic of new panel.

I'm going to try this again right now and remove all AC loads and see what happens.

Peregrine1983 · 31-07-2022, 06:13

Just removed all AC loads and plugged the hair dryer into a cabin outlet. It actually worked for about 3 seconds this time before popping the GFCI on the inverter.

Gary Mc · 31-07-2022, 06:34

GFCI receptacles do fail and trip unnecessarily, I would try putting in a new receptacle. They are inexpensive and not hard to install.
Good Luck

goboatingnow · 31-07-2022, 06:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Just removed all AC loads and plugged the hair dryer into a cabin outlet. It actually worked for about 3 seconds this time before popping the GFCI on the inverter.

Is the shore power cable in place during this time.

Also if your protective earth is grounded to seawater there’s a risk of a return path to the inverter outside of the GLCI

Plug the hairdryer into the inverter directly to eliminate it.

Peregrine1983 · 31-07-2022, 07:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary Mc

GFCI receptacles do fail and trip unnecessarily, I would try putting in a new receptacle. They are inexpensive and not hard to install.
Good Luck

Thanks GaryMC. I'm going to grab one and install and see how goes.

phorvati · 01-08-2022, 06:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Thanks GaryMC. I'm going to grab one and install and see how goes.

You already proved out that its not GFCI receptacle and its not the hair dryer. You said that when you plug hair dryer directly into GFCI outlet, it works fine. So leak is in the panel or somewhere in your AC system.
This is always the issue with large boats and complex AC/DC systems.
I would not worry about it. If you can route the extension cord for your wife to blow dry her hair directly from GFCI outlet, that would still be safe.

Otherwise your AC panel/system is leaking the 4-6mA required to trip the GFCI breaker. The "leak" might not be something you can easily fix. Especially because you said it works fine at low setting. That tells me its not a direct wiring issue.

It could be something as benign as 12V DC wire (red or black) running adjacent to AC wire (white or black). Even though there is insulation between them, if they are close together, as in bundled in conduit or tied together with a zip ties, they would be capacitively copulated and AC current will leak out depending on frequency of AC current. At high setting fan runs faster and heater coils draw more current. More chances of stray coupling.

Sailmonkey · 01-08-2022, 09:06

You’ve got a reverse polarity indicator lamp on your panel. It’s on the load side of your inverter mounted gfi outlet.

At 120v the 25k ohm resistor can pass 4.8ma. This is enough to trip a gfi.

If it’s easy to disconnect this light you can easily test my theory.