!!!New Problem!!!

[CruiseX]

Ok so for those that read my other post in the lounge, sorry wrong forum, you are aware that i got to wash my tile floor this morning with 50 gallons of salt water. Well that is all cleaned up now and I have replaced my check valves with flaper valves which are working like a charm. Plus they are clear so I can monitor them. All the water stays put when the pumps go down, but now I have a new problem.

First let me lay down the closed loop system so you can make sense of it. Starting from the sump water is picked up by a little giant pump and pumped into a frag tank. Water is overflowed in the frag tank where it is picked up by another little giant (same one) where it gets pumped back up into the main tank where again there is an overflow down into the sump to start things over again. There are ball valves where needed so I can control the flow here and there due to running two pumps.

Now..at the second little giant I have a series of ball valves where I can route water directly into the main tank, or I can route it through the chiller. So the problem is, with everything running fine, when i change the ball valves to route water through the chiller the GFI snaps and kicks the tank off line as everything for the main tank and both pumps is wired through a GFI. I touch nothing electrical just the path of the water. The main circuit for the house does not pop, just the GFI. Any ideas???

I am thinking a bad GFI - they are so sensitive. Sorry for the long post, I tried to avert further questions to provide more possible solutions.

In any event I am flood free now and in the future

[BigAir]

Very well could be the GFI. Changing the valves is also increasing/decreasing the load on the pump. Load goes up, the GFI pops.

[GoTakuF1]

Sorry to hear about your flood. These problems can be such headaches. Well, it could be a new problem or it could be the same problem that caused the flood in the first place (if I understand correctly). Short of the GFCI itself malfunctioning, it could be something else that's tripping it. If you can't figure it out, I have a GFCI tester you can use to troubleshoot. Good luck

[CruiseX]

well when i reset the GFI and run the water flow without it going through the chiller all is well. It is when i change the water path to go through the ball valves that it pops the GFI. It has to be the load on the second pump, which is odd cause I am literally adding like three or four feet to the head it has to push.

[BigAir]

How many amps is the gfi rated for?

[CruiseX]

and BTW this whole set up ran for two weeks fine as I mentioned above. The only change was an additional flapper valve - it would be a real bummer if that one valve is screwing my up. If i take out the GFI and replace with a regular outlet will it pop the circuit breaker in the breaker panel??

[BigAir]

Don't know, it all depends on the amp rating of the breaker and the load being put on it.

[CruiseX]

I guess I will just have to try it out and see - its a 15 AMP breaker, but that makes no difference as you have no idea what I have on that circuit already.

[rudy]

Try unplugging everything that is plugged in to the GFCI except the pumps, then try diverting the water to the chiller.

[DaveMorris]

You are probably running things very close to the GFCI capacity on that breaker. 3 or 4 feet of head can make enough of a difference in the load. Also, every time a breaker, GFCI included, trips it's lifespan and capacity is shortened a little. A breaker tripping is a mechanical event and causes wear and tear on the breaker itself. After tripping a couple of times, it may be affected enough to be a bigger problem.

[CruiseX]

so this morning i bought down the pumps, changed the water path into/out of the chiller, fired the pumps back on and things work fine. Been going fine now for the past couple hours. I guess we will have to see how things go. At least this time I won't overflow ~50 Gallons onto the floor if they do go down