Actually this is a question about my cabin. We have been in the process of building it for about five years now. Kind of a build as funds permit type of thing. Anyway, I had my final inspection for the electrical this week. I did not have one circuit gfi protected. I changed an outlet to fix the problem. I put this at the beginning of the circuit. Now the circuit trips when the circuit goes hot. Before I replaced the outlet the circuit worked just fine. Can anyone give me direction? I know the new outlet could be bad but any other suggestions? Thanks in advance


Jim

Sounds like you have a ground fault issue. Check all wire and boxes down stream.

Any outlet downstream of the GFCI could be your problem. If there are outdoor outlets on the same circuit, I'd check those first. It's also possible that the wiring itself could be the problem, but regardless a thorough inspection is in order. There are probably better methods, but you 'could' just start disconnecting/inspecting downstream outlets (start at the furthest one) and work your way back...You'll know which one is the problem once the problem goes away!

I had a ground fault outlet tripping, I had bought the cheapest one on the shelf.
I replaced it with a mid priced one and no more problems.

quote:

Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
I had a ground fault outlet tripping, I had bought the cheapest one on the shelf.
I replaced it with a mid priced one and no more problems.

I would ask the professional electricians on the forum if there's a good reason, other than price, to buy anything besides a Leviton GFI outlet?

Go to the next outlet downstream and disconnect it. See if the gcfi still trips.

If it does not trip, the gcfi is ok and the problem is downstream.

If it does trip it may be the Gigi itself or the wiring up to the second outlet.

With troubleshooting circuit problems like this it’s always best to do it in “halves”.

Go to the halfway point in the circuit and disconnect there. See which side the problem is on. This eliminates half of the possibilities at a time. Just keep narrowing it down until you find the problem child.

That's the way I do it, and it works every time.

The problem most likely is a bare ground touching a neutral terminal.

I'd do exactly as farva is suggesting. Then if it stays on, pull all outlets downstream or split in half again. If GFI trips after splitting, split again until you find the problem.

Doesn’t the breaker for the circuit also need to be GFCI? And all the outlets on said circuit as well?

If the circuit was fine before you added the gfci outlet then it is either bad, it is mis-wired or there is a wire shorting in the box the new gfci is in. If that doesn’t fix it, check all boxes downstream. It’s a good idea to wrap the terminals on the receptacles with electrical tape. Receptacles tend to move side-to-side with use over time.

Did you hook up the wires to the GFCI correctly? The hot should be on the “line” side, and the wire to the rest of the receptacles should be on the “load” side. Also be sure the neutrals are correctly landed on line and load and not reversed.

New GFCI receptacles since 2016 (or so) are self diagnosing and will immediately trip if power is supplied to the load side of the receptacle. This is to prevent you from thinking you are protected when you are not. These newer GFCI receptacles have a diagnostic light on the face to indicate their status.

A ground wire that manages to touch a neutral lug when you push the receptacle back in the box will cause a trip, but usually not until you put a load on that circuit.