Vent: My AFCI breaker kept tripping for no reason... until I checked the neutral bar

So I had this call last Thursday in a new build tract home in Chandler. First floor lights were fine but the upstairs bedroom circuit kept tripping the AFCI randomly. Customer was losing it. I swapped the breaker, checked every box, nothing. Then I noticed the neutral bar had like 4 different circuits sharing the same lug. Not even a bad splice in the panel - just someone got lazy. How common is this on new construction these days? Anybody else seeing sloppy work like this straight from the builder?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_cooper1mo ago

Cooper here too, halfway through a panel swap last month and found a neutral bar lug holding five wires and a penny.

casey84329d ago

Cooper's story made me laugh out loud (which I probably shouldn't admit given the safety issue). A penny is a bold move, gotta respect the creativity even if it's the worst kind of hackery. Five wires under one lug is bad enough but I bet that penny was a real nice ground path until it wasn't. I've started checking the neutral bar first on any new build call now, just saves me the headache of chasing ghosts through every box.