We recently had our main electric service panel upgraded (from a 50 year old 100 AMP panel to a 200 AMP panel).
As part of the upgrade, the electrician installed an arc fault breaker on the bedroom circuit (15 amp). I've noticed that when the Vacuum is running and plugged in on that circuit for extended periods of time (say, 5-10 minutes), it triggers the breaker. This only happens when the vacuum is on and occurs regardless of what else is running on the circuit. We've tried turning everything else off and it still occurs.
Is this indicative of some major electrical issues? We have a variety of other electronic devices on the circuit (PCs, Piano Keyboard, TV, etc). This only happens when the vacuum is on.
This didn't happen before when the vacuum was running on that same circuit using a "normal" breaker.
Best Answer
The arc fault breaker detects arcing between wires in appliance cords or house wiring which could cause fires. Unfortunately, such similar arcing also occurs in electric motors as a part of normal operation. The Arc Fault breakers are supposed know the difference between the two, but often trip anyway. In my experience, they trip most often when the vacuum turns on or off.
The vacuum tripping the arc fault breaker, by itself, is not an indication of an electrical issue.