Two EV ZLX 15P PA speakers constantly trip gfci wall outlet

[ajparenteau]

Hey guys i bought two EV ZLX 15P PA speakers a few weeks back and at the majority of my gigs they have tripped the wall outlet and i loose power completely until i reset the outlet by pushing the button. Keep in mind my trim is at the 12 o'clock position as well as my master. The clarity is perfect and the speakers barely limit. Has anyone else had this issue or may know how to fix it? each speaker is connected to its own outlet.

[light-o-matic]

Ok, there are two possibilities I can think of:

1) Some GFCI's are just really sensitive to audio equipment, they trip from the widely varying load presented by audio amps.. and I'm sure the switching power supplies don't help either. Nothing you can do in this case except find a non-GFCI outlet. Ground lifts sometimes help but that's dangerous.

2) There's actually a problem with one of your speakers. When you say they're each in their own outlet, do you mean two outlets in the same box protected by the same GFCI? Or two totally different GFCI's? If two and they are both tripping then that's not your problem.


The amount of power used by your two speakers should be fine on one circuit, so the amount of power isn't the issue.

[ajparenteau]

Ok, there are two possibilities I can think of:

1) Some GFCI's are just really sensitive to audio equipment, they trip from the widely varying load presented by audio amps.. and I'm sure the switching power supplies don't help either. Nothing you can do in this case except find a non-GFCI outlet. Ground lifts sometimes help but that's dangerous.

2) There's actually a problem with one of your speakers. When you say they're each in their own outlet, do you mean two outlets in the same box protected by the same GFCI? Or two totally different GFCI's? If two and they are both tripping then that's not your problem.



The amount of power used by your two speakers should be fine on one circuit, so the amount of power isn't the issue.

Two totally different GFCI's Each speaker is connected to a separate outlet 7 feet away from each other

[David Bowman]

The venue is not supplying enough amps out of one outlet

Just a suggestion, I may be wrong.

[light-o-matic]

Yea this will happen with some GFCI's, they don't like audio amps plugged into them. If it doesn't trip right away but only when you start playing a good volume then that's the deal.

The only good choice really is to run an extension cord to a different outlet without GFCI.

[BillESC]

It's either low voltage out of the outlet, a faulty GFI or lastly a bad extension cord. It's not the speakers.

Are you running anything else off the outlet? Is there another load on that circuit?

[STLRiverCity]

Deleted, duplicate post

[STLRiverCity]

Are you using a "surge suppressor" power strip between the outlet and the speakers? The "surge suppression" device in those strips can trip GFCIs.

GFCIs work by detecting the current draw on the hot and neutral legs. If it differs by more than 4-6 milliamps it will trip the protection. Cheap surge strips can sometimes do that just by how they function.

[Incognito]

Unless you traced the circuit back to the panel, removed the cover & took an amperage reading on the circuit in question then you don't know what else is on that circuit drawing power. Your speakers could just well be the straw that is breaking the camels back.

EDIT, I misread your original post. It's your GFI that's tripping not the breaker so my advice doesn't apply.

On that note: A GFI works by sensing the difference in potential between the neutral & the hot wire so yes the cheap MOV in a low budget surge protector can cause issues with a GFCI, just as using a 2nd GFCI upstream of another GFCI (without using the passtrough on on a GFCI) can cause issues.

[Coronaoperator]

Are you using a "surge suppressor" power strip between the outlet and the speakers? The "surge suppression" device in those strips can trip GFCIs.

^ This.

GfI's don't trip from over-current, they are NOT circuit breakers. They trip when more than 6 ma current leak away from the hot/neutral wires. All devices leak some amount of current to ground and if the total amount leaked (it is additive) exceeds 6ma, then the GFI will trip. The cure is to limit the amount of devices or the biggest offenders of current leakage on that outlet.

By far the biggest offenders are power bars. Almost all power bars have cheap "surge protection" MOV's in them. These MOV's leak to ground. Power bars usually leak about 3 ma each when new, and more once they get older. Using power bars or even worse using 2 of them on the same outlet will trip GFI's. Get rid of them or open them up and literally use side cutters to remove the MOV's inside. There will usually be 2 or 3 of them inside the power bar. They do little to "protect" you from anything anyways.