Hair dryer tripping AFCI

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Aug 5, 2002
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We noticed that all of our bathrooms' wall sockets ran out of power at the same time, and it narrowed down to a 20A GFCI in the garage stuck in test mode, and reset switch was only able to reset once and stuck somehow afterward, then the reset switch fell out.

I replaced that Eagle 20A GFCI with a Leviton 15A AFCI/GFCI combination in a pinch. The socket works afterward for most stuff (including one of our hair dryer) but we have one loud hair dryer that just trip it within 5 seconds. The 2 red flashing LED on the Leviton said it is tripping AFCI. The hair dryer is a 1875W "Anton" (or something like that) from Target.

So is it the bad hair dryer arcing? or am I going from 20A to 15A being the problem? or I just shouldn't use something with AFCI in the circuit that feed into bathroom? Typically I use this hair dryer in the bedroom or kitchen and my wife uses hers in the bathroom. Problem happened since about 3 days ago, I forgot if I accidentally tripped the test button in the garage, or something else.
 
Fun story: while I was replacing the GFCI, I did turn off the whole house's circuit breaker just to be safe. Suddenly I heard my mom calling my name and I though I have electrocuted myself and I died. Luckily it was just her stopping by to drop off some stuff (she lives about 1 hr away).
 
It's probably the hair dryer is tripping the AFCI. Solutions:

1)Try another hair dryer

2)Try a different brand of AFCI/GFCI

3)Just use a regular GFCI with no AFCI functions
 
Is this hair dryer brushed DC, by chance? Brushed motors and AFCI don't always play well together and will cause nuisance trips. My electrician mentioned older vacuums as a popular complaint after installing AFCI breakers.
 
It could be a faulty hair dryer but before you throw it away check the screen where the air enters the fan. My wifes got clogged up and would overheat and trip the AFCI and take out both bathrooms. I had to use an old toothbrush to clean it and everything worked fine.
 
Is this hair dryer brushed DC, by chance? Brushed motors and AFCI don't always play well together and will cause nuisance trips. My electrician mentioned older vacuums as a popular complaint after installing AFCI breakers.

That is true, but AFCI breakers are continually being updated. I think Eaton/CH is on the 3rd revision of their AFCI breakers now. The updates address the nuisance trips.
 
Testing at lunch time:

1) This only happens on 1 hair dryer on warm / hot, not on cool. It doesn't happen on another hair dryer
2) This only happens on the AFCI / GFCI circuit, on each socket upstair and downstair.

So it seems like the problem is there is a series arc inside the hair dryer. It is not overloading on 15A as even warm will cause it instead of only causing it at hot.

I'll see if I can replace this with a newer hair dryer and cause the same problem.
 
A new hair dryer of the same model came, it doesn't trip (likely the old one has worn brushes). My wife's hair dryer started tripping today however....
 
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