240 GFCi not in the shop

[Bill Dufour]

I have a 30 amp two pole gfci I installed in a shop panel. Never used that outlet before the other day. It ran my VFD all day long as long as nothing was turned on beyond warming up the electronics. As soon as I started the motor it ran for about five seconds then breaker tripped out.
What really surprised me is when I plugged in my air compressor to the gfci outlet. The contactor coil would not pull up and energize the motor. I pushed the contactor closed with a wood stick and the motor ran for about one minute before breaker tripped out. Simple contactor not even a transformer. The coil may be 120 volt not 240?
Both machines still work fine on a non gfci outlet. I suppose the gfci may be bad but I will just install a regular type breaker. The gcfi is something I found used so it may have been bad when. I got it. but square D QO breakers are one of the best.
Bill D

[ChrisA Edwards]

My lathe, with a VFD, used to trip my garage GFCI. I swapped it out for a regular breaker. No issues since.

[roger wiegand]

All but the most expensive GFI's (like the $800 industrial ones) will be tripped by a VFD-- they generate exactly the kinds of current anomalies that a VFD is designed to detect. I had a situation where for my trailer-mounted organ with it's VFD controlled blower I needed to be able to plug into (non-negotiable) GFI-protected circuits and I jumped through many hoops to finally make it reliable. After messing with shielded cables, gigantic RF chokes, and everything else anyone suggested, the solid solution turned out to be to put in a big isolation transformer.

Much easier if you don't have to use the GFI on that circuit. With your compressor, either it's generating noise that trips the breaker and the breaker is doing what it is supposed to do, or it's defective. In my shop I'd swap it for a non-GFI breaker unless I detected an actual fault.

[Josh Molaver]

Same experience here; received a Felder AD741 jointer/planer used, would not run until I removed the GFCI.

[Rich Konopka]

I’ having 4 new 240 outlets installed this week. My electrician said that a GFCI for 240 is not recommended for my purpses. He’s coming on Tuesday and I can ask him

I have had issues with some EATON 120gfci breakers tripping. My electrician said they have a recall on them and replaced them for me. KaChing they’re expensive

[James Baldwin]

I have Jet 1642 lathe with a VDF and it was tripping the 120 GFCI plug. Reread the instructions and low and behold it says it will not run with a GFCI plug. Swapped it out for a regular plug and all is well. Jim