On 24 Jul 2018 19:49:43 GMT, Allodoxaphobia
wrote:

On Tue, 24 Jul 2018 03:02:48 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Monday, 23 July 2018 19:22:39 UTC+1, wrote:

In my 10 year old home I am having trouble with a couple GFCI
receptacles. But I think the problem is probably with every one in the
house, as they are all the same age and brand. In the bathroom when I
turn off the hair clippers I use for beard trimming the GFCI almost
always trips. But only when the clippers are being turned off.
In the basement we have an twenty year old washing machine that we
kept to use in case the upstairs new washer needed repair, which has
ben more than once. When the washer changes cycles it will randomely
trip the GFCI. Like the upstairs GFCI it only happens when the load is
removed from the GFCI. For example, the water valve solenoids, when
switched off by the washer, will cause the GFCI to trip. Or when the
washer motor is turned off when it changes speed.
Do I need to buy better GFCI receptacles? Or is this just because
the things are generally so sensitive to arcing when a contact opens
that any brand will show the same behavior/
Thanks,
Eric

We had a thread on this very recently in sed. GFCIs are unbalanced at
relatively high frequencies, the result being they tend to trip on
arcing. Of course that doesn't rule out your GFCIs being faulty or
substandard, or your washing machine having N-E leakage.

In a previous residence I had an "outside" GFCI trip when using an
electrice lawn mower --- when the mower was plugged into the
still-coiled 75 foot extension cord (... about a 3 foot diameter coil).
Uncoil the extension cord and it ran Just Fine. The inductive kick of
turning on the motor was enough to "do it".

Jonesy
I am pretty much convinced now that it is the inductive kickback that
is causing the problem. The clipper motor is more akin to a solenoid
and I figured out that the washer is almost always tripping the GFCI
when a solenoid valve is turned off. In any case the tripping ONLY
occurs when the load is removed.
Eric