New Syncrowave 180SD trips GFI's

[KS2K]

In my shop, I have GFI outlets on the bench and around the walls. There are 4 seperate circuits with a Duplex GFI at the start of each circuit run. My new Syncrowave 180SD trips out all the GFI's when welding in TIG Mode. In Stick Mode, the GFI's do not trip out. I believe its the high frequency start getting into the GFI's.

Does anyone have a fix for this problem ? I cant have everything electrical dump out just because I start a TIG arc.

Thanks for your thoughts

Paul

[cope]

Re: New Syncrowave 180SD trips GFI's

Originally posted by Paul
In my shop, I have GFI outlets on the bench and around the walls. There are 4 seperate circuits with a Duplex GFI at the start of each circuit run. My new Syncrowave 180SD trips out all the GFI's when welding in TIG Mode. In Stick Mode, the GFI's do not trip out. I believe its the high frequency start getting into the GFI's.

Does anyone have a fix for this problem ? I cant have everything electrical dump out just because I start a TIG arc.

Thanks for your thoughts

Paul

I believe you have diagnosed the problem. Can you legally/easily re-do the wiring so one outlet is upstream of the GFI?

[KS2K]

180SD/GFI's

Yes, Legeally I could, but in reality I want all my outlets under GFI protection. I am not talking about the 240 volt outlet for the Welder, just the 120 volt GFI protected outlets in the shop trip out.
There must be some fix as many places are required by law to have GFI's.

Paul

[cope]

Sorry, wasn't thinking clearly. Don't know what to tell you except to re-post at Hobart's forum. More real time and several electricians over there.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/

[ASKANDY]

GFCI/GFI receptacles trip when they sense a ground current imbalance. It could be a grounding issue with your power supply for the welder not being grounded well enough to pass the HF to ground. It seems to be leaking back into your system and tripping the GFIs.

Try an additional ground wire to building frame if metal or to a ground rod driven outside the building. Try a 3-5ft rod. Longer the better. The additional ground wire should be a 12-10ga wire from a cleaned bolt from the case of the machine to the ground rod. Also, are all the 120v GFI runs tied to one side of your power box? If so, you could be causing an imbalance situation on your hot side of the 120v.(rare but it happens) Something else you could do is get rid of the cheap GFI outlets and go with a GFI breaker in the box.

Andy

[KS2K]

Thanks Andy

I will drive a good ground this weekend and give it a try. To be honest, I am not sure if the GFI lines are on one side of the main box or not, I will also check on that. Thanks for the tip on the GFI Breaker, that would put the GFI almost 50 feet from the welding area.

Appreciate your input

Paul