Radion tripping GFCI

[asylumdown]

Just set up my new Radions. All the plugs under my tank are GFCI and the radions (even one single unit) trip them almost instantly. I don't remember reading anything about the Radions not being compatible with GFCI, and yes, all the units are set to draw 110V (I'm in Canada).

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

 

[TEEtoGreen]

Hi Asylumdown,

Give Ecotech a call and let them know what is happening. I was having the same problems with both of my radions and Ecotech worked it out for me.

Justin

 

[voyager_rob]

I'm having the same problem.
In Burlington, Ontario.

Called support and they say they are working on the issue. Another power supply is available that MAY solve the problem but it's out of stock for 2 to 4 weeks.

 

[asylumdown]

Thankfully for me the electrical guys are still doing final odds and ends on my house, so they're going to look in to a solution. We're thinking that a GFI breaker might be less sensitive than the switch. If that doesn't work I'm going to see how closely they feel the need to adhere to code and ask them to run one non-GFI plug to my cabinet, but that's not really optimal either.

As an aside, the major hurdle seems to be plugging the devices in. If I can get them plugged in without tripping the circuit, they seem to stay on. However, to get them to plug in without tripping the GFI, I have to split my radions up between both circuits that are under my tank, which means that I can't isolate the lights from the return pump, vortech's, skimmer, and heaters. The potential for them to trip one of those circuits while I'm not here makes me really nervous, so hopefully our electicians can come up with a solution.

However, I did talk to Jon at Ecotech and he was awesome. I couldn't for hte life of me figure out how to set all 8 of my units up and totally borked it. I've got everything running now and it's beautiful.

 

[voyager_rob]

I had no problem getting mine to start but they tripped the GFI within anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes.

I found the support was great. Jon was very helpful with several suggestions.

I now run mine on a non GFI outlet and that has temporarily solved the problem.

Another idea was to locate the supplies away from the tank (water) area and run extension low voltage cables. Apparently, they are standard computer cables on the low voltage side.

Despite the problems, I'm happy with the lights knowing that such great support is available from Ecotech. Lots of other manufacturers have little to no support.

 

[milkman55]

Mine tripped my GFI and when I called customer support, they didn't offer any solution, just said some GFI are more sensitive than others. I tried them on a different GFI (different brand) and they worked.

I would be interested to hear from others that called customer support about what they were told and what the resolution as been. I think ths issue is widespread.

 

[mcrist]

The GFI you have is probably malfunctioning or is too sensitive. As suggested by several other people try plugging your light into another GFI in your house to see if the problem goes away. If it doesn’t trip on a different GFI just replace the defective one. This happens all the time, I don’t know the exact numbers but a lot of GFI need to be replaced for this exact reason. The quality of GFI’s have been going downhill for several years.

 

[voyager_rob]

I did replace my GFI with a new one. Same results. Still tripping.

 

[mcrist]

I did replace my GFI with a new one. Same results. Still tripping.

Are you plugging directly into the GFI (no powerstrip)? How many additional receptacles are on the same circuit with the GFI? Do you have anything else plugged into the same circuit with the GFI?

 

[toxic111]

I had the same problem with mine, so I just put them to another powerbar that is not ran through the GFI. It is is something with the Radions tripping things though. All my other equipment is through the same GFI that was tripping.

 

[asylumdown]

The electrician that was here helping me trouble shoot it said that some devices simply can't be plugged in to GFI for some reason, and if a device is known to trip one, a different outlet might be less sensitive, but the potential for them to do it again will always exist.

I have 8 radions, plugged in to two power bars in groups of 4, so they're not going directly in to the wall. I found that if I plugged the power bar plug in really fast, I could get half a day out of them, but as soon as the radions got close to switching over in to night mode (and changed their power draw significantly), both sides tripped within a few seconds of one another.

I've now got an extension cord running from a non-GFI circuit beside my tank, which is obviously not a long term solution as I can't shut my cabinet doors, but my next step is to try a GFI circuit breaker instead of a GFI plug. If that still doesn't work I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't really want a non-GFI circuit under my cabinet, as they would literally be 12 inches from flowing salt water, and there is a reason building codes are written the way they are.

 

[bbart12]

I'm not an electrician so take everything i am about to say with a grain of salt. I watch a lot of home improvement shows and seem to remember quite often that their should only be one GFCI outlet on a given circuit at a time. I recall something about them interfering with one another and making them more or less sensitive.

 

[voyager_rob]

mcrist,

I have tried various configurations including just one Radion plugged DIRECTLY into the GFI outlet. Same result. Trips eventually.

I moved all my fish related power to a regular socket for the tests so only the Radions where on the GFI.

Tripped when plugged in directly as a single light, two lights directly and one/two lights into a power bar.

I'm now back to running fish related power through the GFI and powering the Radion supplies from a separate NON GFI outlet.

 

[voyager_rob]

Has anyone successfully run a GFI with Radion lights?

According to the support line, this is a rare problem?

I'm curious as to how many successes there are out there compared to those that can't get the Radions to work on a GFI outlet.

... Rob

 

[asylumdown]

It's still a problem for me. I've done all the testing - put one radion on the GFI directly and it trips. Put it on with an extension cord, it trips. Tried the radions on a different plug (the kitchen has GFI plugs) and it trips there too. Haven't been able to get the electrician back in yet so I still have an extension cord running in to my cabinet...

 

[Redhat]

My 2 new Radions are running fine for the last 2 weeks no problems on a GFI. They are running on a RKL Pc4 which is plugged into the GFI(not enough free outlets in my regular powerbar). Haven't tried them directly plugged into the outlet.

 

[Tetra84]

My Radions don't trip my GFCI outlet, but I did have a power blip a few weeks ago that shut the outlet off (that powers everything on my tank) and I had to manually reset it. That's not going to fly. I can understand the safety.. but they are annoying and potentially disastrous for your aquarium if you were to go out of town, and they decided they didn't want to work.

 

[rmccue]

Radion also tripping gfi

Radion also tripping gfi

I will add that my Radion is also tripping my gfi. I have not isolated yet when it trips the gif. At times it will do it repeatedly within a short time period and other it will run for a day before tripping the gfi. Today, I plugged it into a gfi power strip and plugged that into a non-gfi outlet. That way it will not shut down the circulation pump if it trips.

 

[Tradewinds]

I encountered the same problem when running the Radion's from a GFCI protected outlet. I replaced the GFCI outlets several times and even tried different brands, all to no avail. I had two separate 20 amp circuits, both tripped the GFCI.

I had a similar problem with another manufacturers T5 lighting system and could never get it resolved, although they also bent over backwards to stand behind their product.

I went as far as to have an electrician perform an assessment of the house's electrical system. He found several problems, but none of which corrected the GFCI problem with the lights. He stated that he would typically see this type of problem with bigger appliances, like washing machines, that may be on GFCI outlets due to code.

 

[sjnovakovich]

I have all of my equipment, including my Radion in a GFCI with no problems.