All,
As you probably remember I had 3 yrs of trouble with tripping GFCI breakers and the infamous Hayward EcoStar VSPump. I had a nbor that was a Master Electrician/EE that brought all of this tools of trade - We isolated everything, but the trips are so random, it could never be pinpointed to a specific incident.
The Siemens DP 20AMP GFCI breaker is the best one bc it had the highest mA rating of 6. The pentair version is a pure copy of re-labeling the Siemens...$ave your money.
There are add'l variables that can help to induce the GFCI breaker to trip, but the main cause is the harmonic electrical field that when it reaches 6+mA, it grounds the breaker and you’re off to the electrical panel. Anything that causes add'l heat will help to increase the probably of a trip: the sun's direct UV, very high ambient temps, living in a hotter climate, running the VSP at higher RPM's [usually 2800+ but should not be run over 3000 anyway), all of the aforementioned w much higher humidity rates and finally, running your pump w many combination of diff RPM's on a daily basis. The best case for any VSPump not to trip the GFCI breaker would be a drier, cooler climate where the equip pad is not exposed to the sun and you run the VSP at the same low RPM 7x24....like 1200-1300 RPM's. But, if you ran the pump at one constant RPM, do you really have a VSpump? Only that you can change the speeds. Any and all of the above can be impacted by erratic power surges [more so w out any SPD's] and forget errant lightening plus.
Finally, I was so frustrated w the breakers tripping, I tried joining this forum, but you had to be either a licensed electrician or an EE degree as a minimum to join:
Mike Holt's Forum I ended up working my way into the back door of the forum and actually got the founders email address, Mike Holt. He was nice enough to allow me to forward a long laundry list of my issues to key forum members and they too knew of VSD's and harmonics tripping GFCI breakers...never an issue w standard circuit breakers.. If anyone wants, PM and I will try and dig up those emails. Also, they had threads on their forum w Hayward EcoStar tripping GFCI breakers...google it and you can read them....
To the original poster, as long as the CB's substrate fits correctly into the busbar and there are no NEC memo's stating known safety violations, you should be good to go....many manufacturers will push their proprietary technologies and tie-in arrangements, but if spec's are met, you're legally ok.
