I have an odd one that has puzzled me for awhile now. I have a circuit in my house that is powered by a 20 amp breaker. The circuit consists of three lights, a half dozen outlets in bedroom/hallway and an outdoor GFCI. Here recently the GFCI tried killing the lights and outlets in the bedroom/hallway. It was raining very hard, so I assumed water got in through the rain cover on the outdoor GFCI and tripped it. It reset fine and everything came back on. A week later the lights and outlets went dead again. I checked the GFCI and it was not tripped. so I checked the breaker and it was not tripped either. A few hours later without any intervention, the lights and outlets came back on. Fast forward to last night. The lights and outlets went dead, GFCI not tripped, breaker not tripped.
Any ideas on what might be causing this? I have heard of GFCIs going bad and failing open. Is there a way to test the GFCI? I thought if it failed it wouldnt reset? Mine resets and tests fine with the buttons on the GFCI.
I had a gcfi go bad--actually it was bad right out of the box. Green light, reset not tripped, just no power from it or the circuit it protected. I just replaced it.
yes the breaker is seated correctly and the wire is tight. I checked both. The house was built in 2006 and this is the only electrical issue I have had.
GFCIs arent that expensive, maybe I will just replace it and see if the problem goes away. I also unplugged everything that was plugged into the outlets on this circuit thinking maybe one of them was causing the GFCI to trip but that did not help.
If you are competent with a volt meter, I would get one out and check around on the various parts of the circuit to see if voltage was present. My first stop with the meter would be at the GFCI unit to see if it is passing power. Check the hot leak to ground at various points in the circuit too, it is not only on the hot side of the line that you can have power problems. If your common is not continuous than you will not get the lights and things to work either. If you know what all is on the circuit, you might be wise to check for loose wire connectors. Wire nuts have a bad habit of not completely catching all of the wires and sometimes it will work and sometimes not. So just wiggle the wires and wire nuts to see if some are loose. If so either replace the wire nuts or just re-seat the wires in the wire nuts.
Purchase a cheap plug in tester. Only several bucks at any home outlet big box mega store. I have had a few GFICs look to be operable, but tripped internally.
Have you plugged something new onto the circuit? I have a GFI outlet in my garage. When we moved a fridge out there, it would not stay on. The fridge had just a tiny bit of ground leakage. Just enough to trip the GFI. Replaced it with a regular outlet, fridge runs fine.
20 plus years of twisting wire nuts and turning screws...
Remove and replace GFI. I have had TONS of them crap the bed really quickly. Even about as many more be junk straight out of the box.
I didn't see for sure but am guessing this is your home. If the offending GFI is located out of heavy traffic areas, replace the old cover with an update "in use" GFI cover. The reason I say out of heavy traffic areas is in use covers are rather large and stick out a bit. If it will be located some where that people might bump it, it will probably get busted off. You will see what I mean if you look at one at Home Depot. In use covers stick way out of the wall. However these covers are the best at keeping water out. Even with a cord or device plugged in you can close the cover. Hence the term "in use" cover.
Really GFI's go bad ALL the time. Even new from package ones, and this often really causes confusion when it happens. Get yourself a GFI kit from HD. Comes with in use cover and all.
Oh and kill the breaker before working on it.
Now that will be $65 for an after hours service call. Who do I bill it to?
Sometimes I like my old house. It barely even has any 3 prong grounded outlets and no GFIs. I figure if someone dumb enough to spray water in an electric outlet they deserve what they get. Theres never any children around here.
Sometimes I like my old house. It barely even has any 3 prong grounded outlets and no GFIs. I figure if someone dumb enough to spray water in an electric outlet they deserve what they get. Theres never any children around here.
That's not the only or even primary reason for using GFI outlets.
I would say GFCI is bad and wired wrong for the application. It should not kill the lights and receptacles if they're in the house. You should only have 3 wires connected to the GFCI ,black,white and green. On the line side and these will be short length wires. Wire nutted to the other 2 whites, blacks and greens. So total of 3 black wires in one wire nut, same for white and green. Maybe 4 greens if in a metal box. Or for testing purposes,turn off circuit breaker, verify no voltage, remove GFCI and wire nut the blacks together, whites together and same for greens/ bare, turn breaker back on, everything should work now. Hope this helps P.S. Check amperage of circuit breaker and replace GFCI of same rating. 15 or 20 ?
[This message has been edited by Lilchief (edited 06-07-2014).]
That's not the only or even primary reason for using GFI outlets.
Excuse my apparent ignorance. I thought thats what they were all about...so you didnt get electrocuted if you were wet. I figure they also do what other breakers do to...trip if theres a short or device fault. What else would they do that im not aware of ?
GFCI's are to be used when within 6' of water faucets, outside, craw spaces, water fountains and probably some others I have forgotten. Swimming pools another story.
Whole Circuit is Dead then likely not GFCI unless GFCI is first thing in chain and every thing else is on GFCI protected side.
Old breakers can go bad. Contacts get burn by tripping etc. Many use breakers as switches and that can burn contact too.
you needs start at replacing GFCI unit and box. Then check everything else and likely replace the old breaker as well.
Likely Old GFCI box and cover is let water in. Likely old box and cover doesn't meet Code either. HD etc have a kit w/ most parts. You need to add correct wire clamps/seals to the kit. What parts needed depend how kit will be mounted. Retrofit could be easy or hard depending on several things.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Whole Circuit is Dead then likely not GFCI unless GFCI is first thing in chain and every thing else is on GFCI protected side.
Old breakers can go bad. Contacts get burn by tripping etc. Many use breakers as switches and that can burn contact too.
we did just that to turn the hot water heater on and off to save a few bucks on the electric bill, don't do that, get a timer, tested the breaker and I didn't test it with a voltage meter, well I did but wasn't paying attention to the voltage, turns out it only had 120 v coming out of a 240 breaker. thought the water heater was bad and replaced it, only to find it was just the breaker. test the breaker.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
