Changed my mind about AFCI breakers after a chat with an old timer

I used to think AFCI breakers were just a waste of money and a pain in the ass. Nuisance tripping drove me nuts on every new build. But then I was doing a service upgrade in an old house in Austin last month and this 60 year old master electrician came by to grab some parts. He told me about a job where a loose wire in a wall almost burned down a family's kitchen. He said the AFCI caught it before the smoke even got bad. That hit different because he wasn't trying to sell me anything. Now I actually take the time to troubleshoot the tripping instead of just swapping in a standard breaker. Has anyone else had a similar chat that made you change your mind on a code requirement?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana_west2715d ago

Wait, a loose wire in a wall almost burned down a kitchen and the AFCI caught it before the smoke even showed? That's wild. I mean, I always figured those things were just for nuisance tripping, not for actually stopping fires. The old timer wasn't even trying to sell him anything either, that makes it way more believable. Honestly, I've never heard a story like that before. Maybe I should stop swapping them out so fast.

fiona98515d ago

@diana_west27 old timers know their stuff for sure.

river_allen14d ago

Respect the old timer angle but I've got to say AFCIs are way more trouble than they're worth in my experience. I've swapped out at least a dozen of them in the last year alone because they kept tripping from a fridge compressor or a vacuum cleaner startup. They catch some real arcs sure but they also false trip on totally normal loads way too often. I'd rather have a standard breaker and a good smoke detector than deal with the headache.