That’s funny. I live in a house built in 2008 and all bedrooms are on arc-fault breakers for wall outlets. The house I lived in before that had them too and it was a few years older.
If you check Wikipedia, arc fault breakers were required for bedroom outlets since around 2000. That got expanded to almost all outlets in 2014 for the US and 2015 in Canada.
You are laughably and totally wrong on what the NEC is for. It is to stop/reduce lives lost and injuries due to shocks and fires. The NEC, like aircraft regulations, are written in blood because people have died and been maimed in their absence.
Your whole “code is for sissys” argument is full of holes. At least do others the courtesy of not dragging them down with you as you spout dangerous nonsense. Stop posting misinformation. Arc faults are not only still required but where has been expanded. It’s not just the US and Canada. A big part of the rest of the world adopts the US NEC because it’s good and saves lives. That you choose to ignore it and advocate violating it is not doing anyone any favors.
Never said code was for sissys dude. What I have said is true. Code is a requirement because local and state governments want consistent builds. Not all code is good. Code allowed Aluminum wiring to be installed. This was BAD code. But arc faults are a still looking for needs. If they were REALLY required, they would be on EVERY circuit in a new home and they AREN’T. There are still thousands of homes on nob and tube wiring. And the home I grew up in and still is inhabited by others didn’t have the first GROUND circuit on and outlet. NONE. Two wires. And there are millions of those homes in the US. Just say’n. Code is good to a degree, but it doesn’t stop issues from happening. It goes back to 99% probability it is the Arc fault Breaker that is at issue with the OP problem Not the 3d printer. And YES, it is the first thing any electrician does, replace it.
You didn’t say code was for sissies - true - but you keep finding fault. Yep. Aluminum wiring was bad but that’s now fixed. Mistakes can be made but the intent and overall effect is good and saves lives.
Arc fault was originally intended to catch things like electric blankets in bedrooms but it turned out other faulty appliances and devices also could be prevented from causing fires/deaths if they were on arc fault breakers too. Instead of a thing of the past like you called it, their use is expanded. You are missing that they just aren’t appropriate in all locations. That’s why they aren’t required in all locations.
I already noted where you were mistaken. I’m not going through each point again just because you deny it now.
I don’t argue that arc fault breakers aren’t damaged by high currents for long times. I’ve had to replace the one in my office because it started tripping easy too. And really, swapping for a regular breaker would be fine since it’s not a bedroom and I don’t sleep in there. But if I was to swap it out, I would swap an arc fault back in before selling the house. To avoid that hassle I just swapped for identical replacement.
We get you have some bug over arc fault breakers for some reason but advising folks who might not understand them or the risks to just swap them out and claiming electricians do it when there are legal liabilities for them doing it is where you are mistaken. They are the current standard for many circuits and that is written into the NEC.
Oh brother, arguing in the wrong place. Lets help instead of argue.
An arc fault detects when an arc is occuring that is greater than what happens when you flip a light switch. I’m sure many have noticed a tiny pop when flipping on a light occasionally. There may be something in the machine that is generating an “arc” that the breaker is detecting. It may be nothing, or could be something, but considering there are several heaters and electronic relays in the machine, it could be ghosting the breaker. Putting a line conditioning UPS between the printer and the breaker could solve the issue as well as protect the machine from brownouts and power losses. There might not be anything wrong with either the machine or the breaker and just a condition of the machine with an overly sensitive breaker.
We never did hear back from the OP as to how it got resolved, or even if it ever did get resolved, aside from his using an extension cord and plugging into a different outlet. @JGrimm Was that the end of the story, or was there more?
I was trying but the other guy was making stuff up about how electricians routinely violate the NEC to “fix” problems with arc fault breakers. Not going to apologize for correcting misinformation especially when it can cause the very thing the breakers are meant to prevent.
As to your explanation about how there may be something in the printer tripping the breaker, that doesn’t account for the breaker originally being fine unless OP modified his printer somehow to cause it to start tripping the breaker.
It also doesn’t account for anecdotal evidence where others (including myself) have had an arc-fault breaker start nuisance tripping after extended high loading. Don’t know that is OP’s issue but replacing a faulty breaker is a lot cheaper than buying a power conditioner.
$200 is cheap insurance for Equipment and home. Have one on my machines after we had some voltage spikes that took out my $8500 wide bed printer. I now have to pay $300 just for one blown Scanner card, and I still don’t know what needs to be replaced to get the printer to recognize one of the heads. What sucks is I have about a dozen prints I need to run and have a down machine.
We had apartment inspection and I told the head maintenance guy who is a nice guy, so he said he would have maintenance put in a new 20amp circuit breaker.
Maintenance guy who’s been here a long time and has poked fun at me before shows up and says there couldn’t be anything wrong with the breaker. I told him after a while of the printer working it suddenly starting tripping at startup when it uses 1300 watts to heat the bed. He repeats again that it can’t be the breaker. He asks me how many amps is it. He doesn’t seem to make the connection between amps and watts. I tell him that a 15amp breaker should be able to handle it and this is a 20 amp breaker. So he says well “I’ll put in a new breaker but it’s not going to do anything” so then I turn low power off on the printer and try printing. The heatbed heats up fast (on low power it heats up really slow). And the printer is working fine. So then the guy says “well these breakers are expensive and if it happens again you’ll just have to operate it on low power”
The guy is a jerk but everything is fine for now. When he said it couldn’t be the breaker I also asked then what can it be? And he says the machine is too high amps.
I must say that the guy is no electrician, just 1 of 3 maintenance guys who have worked here for over ten years. The guy has never been pleasant to talk and poked fun at me a number of times.
dang I am suddenly having the same thing happen, it is tripping both my APC UPS and the breaker, this is all of a sudden, I’ve got 1,200 hours on this H2D and TODAY on a tiny print to print a 1-inch pLA part it breaks all electrical - no clue why. Just reset the breaker, did a full power drain and reset on my APC and ran its diagnostics, battery is good, electrical is good, etc. ran it, and as soon as the bed started to heat up BEEEEEEPPP the APC says its overloaded. ARGH.
Edit: Okay I tried “Low Power Mode” (had no idea this printer even had such a function!) and now its’working at 50% load, but that’s still A LOT - as I’ve got 5 X1Cs and this H2D on this UPC running constantly for the past year, I’ve even been cognizant to not have more than one heating up at the same time but I’ve also had emergency jobs to run and have run all 7 printers heating up nearly simultaneously and never had an issue, This is strange.
The APC UPS says 445w pull in low power mode. according to the wiki the peak power draw is 860w in low-power mode. and as high as 1250w in high-power mode.
Also my flabbers are gasted, just looked up my UPS (APC BX1500M) and it’s max wattage load is actually 900W… I thought it was 1500W, I misread the models numbering, it’s max 1500 VA, not watts. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. My bad.
Keep in mind your UPS is also putting a load on the circuit. This is an old thread though, but if you’re going to do load calculations do it before the UPS while it’s charging up not just topped off/maintaining charge. Some UPS in online mode pull a little power always. Its not much, but it is there.
I just found the limit on a 15 amp surge power strip. I ran 2 H2D and one H2C on it all at once, ran fine for PLA/PETG, as long as I staggered startup. Then ran ABS! CLICK! dead machines. Oh crap. So now I have 2 on one 20 amp circuit, one on the power strip the other direct connected since it is right next to the outlet, and the H2C on it’s own circuit. Draws quite a bit when printing ABS with a 100C bed. LOL. I also have these on Kill-o-watt meters, and the max draw was the 1500 watts that tripped the breaker on the power strip, but now max draw is back to 1380 per machine. I can run 2 H2D at full power printing ABS on one 20 amp circuit.
You’re depending on luck, essentially, to make sure two machines aren’t doing initial heatup at the same moment. At least when your luck runs out, both prints will just be starting so you won’t lose a partially complete print.
No, I have a Kill-O-Watt on that circuit, so I can see total wattage in use. Well within the circuits amperage requirements with both machines starting up within minutes of each other. 3 machines starting up, thats an issue, but two work just fine. On a 15 amp circuit, yes two machines starting up will overwhelm the breaker.