I recently purchased a new table saw and miter saw and they are tripping my AFCI breakers. Curiously, each saw starts up and runs fine the first time I try it and I can stop it without tripping the breaker. If I attempt to restart the saw shortly after stopping it, the breaker trips. I haven't tried waiting a longer period of time yet.
The breaker is a Siemens AFCI and the LED on the breaker confirms that it is an AFCI fault (and not a GFCI fault) that is causing it to trip.
Another possible piece to the puzzle: the saws are in the garage which is super cold at the moment (-30 degrees celcius).
Two questions:
Why does it seem to only trip the breaker on the second attempt?
- I'm curious if the breaker has some kind of memory from the previous startup load that pushes it over a threshold and causes it trip on the second start, or if it's something specific to the second start of the saw motor.
Is there any kind of "filter" I can put between the saw and the outlet to avoid tripping the AFCI?