GFI electrical question?

[Licreek]

Hello all, I have an electrical issue. This morning I found my GFI plug in the bathroom was tripped. When I reset it it would stay set for 2 seconds and it would trip off. So I unplugged EVERYTHING on all 6 outlets. When I reset the GFI it did the same thing. So I figured I had a bad GFI socket. I installed a new GFI and the new one does the same thing. Please can anyone tell me where to look next? The GFI plug is on its own 15A breaker in the main breaker box. That breaker has never tripped. Again at this point I have a new GFI and nothing plugged into that circuit but the GFI trips off as son as you reset it?? Thank you, Lee

[Executive45]

Thank you Mark, but apparently he didn't read both of my earlier posts on this subject either. At any rate, I have very thick skin so those things don't really bother me... 🙂

That said, my post was a warning to the OP not to bypass and/or replace the GFCI with a regular receptacle. Replacing that safety feature to trouble shoot is not a wise way to do so. That's what meters are for. Energizing a circuit to see if it works is a foolish way of troubleshooting although I know it's done. Anyone playing with electricity should be familiar with and knowledgeable about how to use meters and test equipment. It keeps people out of emergency rooms.....Dennis

[Mr_Mark1]

gutfelt wrote:

Executive wrote:

Licreek wrote:
Good morning, I have a couple final comments about my ground fault issue. I bypassed the gfi and all is working fine. Now for my last question. I just bought a Hughes Autoformers and this is the first time iv used it. What it does is monitor the line voltage into the rig. When I plug in my voltage to meter into an outlet I notice the voltage is changing from 123 to 126 volts. Could that change in voltage cause the gfi to trip? Thanks, Lee

Apparently you either didn't read my post or you don't care about safety. That said, the Hughes will not cause a ground fault. You have a GROUND FAULT somewhere in your circuitry. Bypassing the GFCI only gives you a feel good situation and the DANGER is still present...you just don't know it. Sooner or later you'll find it..your rig will catch on fire (unlikely) or most likely you'll touch the wrong part and fry your hair. Then you'll have a come to Jesus moment where you'll say, maybe I should have done some more checking.

Simply put...you have a ground fault in your system. You replaced the GFCI and the new one still trips. That means the ground fault was not in the switch. It's in ONE of your receptacles. FIND IT AND FIX IT!

instead of acting holier than thou and chastising maybe read and comprehend the OP questions and whats hes doing
maybe help him solve his problem not berate him continually
he simply bypassed the GFI to determine if he had a dead short verses a bad gfi or a GFI interference
That's what he did he has full intention of reinstalling the GFI once he determines the fault;; he as some others here(ME) like to figure things out on their own as most of do, some are lazy and call a repair guy ;;each one to their own
either help in the resolve or butt out in my opinion

Gutfelt, Executive is a very well respected long-term member here and you are chastising him.

He can have an opinion too just as you can. Quit acting like you are the moderator. You have only been a member for not even two months.

You seem so quick to jump on people.

MM.

[msmith1199]

delete

[msmith1199]

Dutch_12078 wrote:
The diagram is incorrect in that the upstream outlets are NOT protected by the GFCI. Only the GFCI itself is protected when connected as shown. The upstream outlets hot and neutral should be connected to the "Load" side of the GFCI, with only the ground wire connected as a common pass-thru.

D.E.Bishop wrote:


For illustration only, the two following diagrams show how to wire a GFCI and several protected down stream outlets.

I'm not much of an electrician, but you do appear to be correct. The downstream outlets are getting power directly from the supply bypassing the GFCI.

[wa8yxm]

No the Autoformer will NOT cause the GFCI to trip. it can not in fact.

Bypassing the GFCI is dangerous. I would suggest you restore it.. I have seen people do things where the GFCI is the reason they kept breathing.


Had the GFCI (Which in one case I had installed myself for just that reason) NOTE been installed. the person in question might have ceased breathing.

[Dutch_12078]

The diagram is incorrect in that the upstream outlets are NOT protected by the GFCI. Only the GFCI itself is protected when connected as shown. The upstream outlets hot and neutral should be connected to the "Load" side of the GFCI, with only the ground wire connected as a common pass-thru.

D.E.Bishop wrote:


For illustration only, the two following diagrams show how to wire a GFCI and several protected down stream outlets.

[msmith1199]

gutfelt wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Once again, too many folks making suggestions and the guy doesn't seem to know a single thing about GFCI circuits.

Time for him to get a pro before he screws things up.

Hire an electrician, not a handyman. I just went through this with my brother, it's not a game, it's very serious.

There was a time when I knew nothing about GFCI circuits either. So I read up on them and asked questions about them on here and I learned what I needed to know about them and I fixed my own. If that's what the OP wants to do, then good for him.

A Big X TWO

As you can see from my profile, I've been on this forum a very long time. Most of my participation on here has been learning stuff, and when something comes up I know something about, then I provide my knowledge of the subject. I can tell you over the years I have learned a lot of stuff on here and I've done a lot of do it yourself projects on my motorhome that I mostly learned on here. And not just motorhome stuff, but I've got good advice on tax issues, and repairs around the house, and a host of other things.

But having said that, the biggest trick on here is learning who to listen to and sorting them out from the ones who don't have a clue. And it's usually pretty easy to do that.

[1968mooney]

Does anyone else sense gutfelt was usersmanual in a former life?

[gutfelt]

msmith1199 wrote:

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Once again, too many folks making suggestions and the guy doesn't seem to know a single thing about GFCI circuits.

Time for him to get a pro before he screws things up.

Hire an electrician, not a handyman. I just went through this with my brother, it's not a game, it's very serious.

There was a time when I knew nothing about GFCI circuits either. So I read up on them and asked questions about them on here and I learned what I needed to know about them and I fixed my own. If that's what the OP wants to do, then good for him.

A Big X TWO

[gutfelt]

Executive wrote:

Licreek wrote:
Good morning, I have a couple final comments about my ground fault issue. I bypassed the gfi and all is working fine. Now for my last question. I just bought a Hughes Autoformers and this is the first time iv used it. What it does is monitor the line voltage into the rig. When I plug in my voltage to meter into an outlet I notice the voltage is changing from 123 to 126 volts. Could that change in voltage cause the gfi to trip? Thanks, Lee

Apparently you either didn't read my post or you don't care about safety. That said, the Hughes will not cause a ground fault. You have a GROUND FAULT somewhere in your circuitry. Bypassing the GFCI only gives you a feel good situation and the DANGER is still present...you just don't know it. Sooner or later you'll find it..your rig will catch on fire (unlikely) or most likely you'll touch the wrong part and fry your hair. Then you'll have a come to Jesus moment where you'll say, maybe I should have done some more checking.

Simply put...you have a ground fault in your system. You replaced the GFCI and the new one still trips. That means the ground fault was not in the switch. It's in ONE of your receptacles. FIND IT AND FIX IT!

instead of acting holier than thou and chastising maybe read and comprehend the OP questions and whats hes doing
maybe help him solve his problem not berate him continually
he simply bypassed the GFI to determine if he had a dead short verses a bad gfi or a GFI interference
That's what he did he has full intention of reinstalling the GFI once he determines the fault;; he as some others here(ME) like to figure things out on their own as most of do, some are lazy and call a repair guy ;;each one to their own
either help in the resolve or butt out in my opinion

[msmith1199]

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Once again, too many folks making suggestions and the guy doesn't seem to know a single thing about GFCI circuits.

Time for him to get a pro before he screws things up.

Hire an electrician, not a handyman. I just went through this with my brother, it's not a game, it's very serious.

There was a time when I knew nothing about GFCI circuits either. So I read up on them and asked questions about them on here and I learned what I needed to know about them and I fixed my own. If that's what the OP wants to do, then good for him.

[Executive45]

Licreek wrote:
Good morning, I have a couple final comments about my ground fault issue. I bypassed the gfi and all is working fine. Now for my last question. I just bought a Hughes Autoformers and this is the first time iv used it. What it does is monitor the line voltage into the rig. When I plug in my voltage to meter into an outlet I notice the voltage is changing from 123 to 126 volts. Could that change in voltage cause the gfi to trip? Thanks, Lee

Apparently you either didn't read my post or you don't care about safety. That said, the Hughes will not cause a ground fault. You have a GROUND FAULT somewhere in your circuitry. Bypassing the GFCI only gives you a feel good situation and the DANGER is still present...you just don't know it. Sooner or later you'll find it..your rig will catch on fire (unlikely) or most likely you'll touch the wrong part and fry your hair. Then you'll have a come to Jesus moment where you'll say, maybe I should have done some more checking.

Simply put...you have a ground fault in your system. You replaced the GFCI and the new one still trips. That means the ground fault was not in the switch. It's in ONE of your receptacles. FIND IT AND FIX IT!

[gutfelt]

Licreek wrote:
Good morning, I have a couple final comments about my ground fault issue. I bypassed the gfi and all is working fine. Now for my last question. I just bought a Hughes Autoformers and this is the first time iv used it. What it does is monitor the line voltage into the rig. When I plug in my voltage to meter into an outlet I notice the voltage is changing from 123 to 126 volts. Could that change in voltage cause the gfi to trip? Thanks, Lee

Glad the perseverance paid off that's how I work also The hughes sounds like it working fine and should not be effecting any GFI
however still need to figure out the gfi reason for tripping
you as suggested by another here may have mixed up the load wires when u put in new one there the direct load wire and line load so u need to know what the supply black wire is(from breaker) and the other one feeds downstream outlets same with white neutral
Bishops deal is a great post showing the systems

[D_E_Bishop]

First let me say that I did not mean to offend anyone and that I did leave things hanging instead of giving an explanation of what would be a safe and method of troubleshooting.

63 years ago my much older brother told me that I wasn't going to spend my entire summer goofing off. He said he would pick me up at 06:30 on Monday and to be prepared to go to work with him. I have been in one way or another involved in mostly residential wiring ever since. The following is based on my experience and training, it is what I would tell a person with little or no knowledge of wiring, it is safe and systematic.

1. The OP said he replace the GFCI and it is still tripping, as suggested, first disconnect all fixtures or appliances attached to the protected circuit, retest. If the the GFCI does not trip, reinstall one fixture at a time until the fault device trips the circuit. Repair or replace.

2. If the device trip without anything attached to the circuit, open any outlets that are expose to the elements and blow off any dirt or moisture and retest. As suggested, this is often the problem. dust will absorb moisture and cause a grand fault.

3. Next, disconnect the wires from the load side of the GFCI and retest. No fault, continue with step 4

4. Unless you know specifically the order in which your outlets are in the circuit, disconnect all of them. Reset th GFCI and test each wire until you find a hot. That should be the first from the GFCI. Write that down should there be a problem in the future. Next, manually trip the GFCI and hook up the hot or line side, neutral and ground wires and retest, if no fault hook up the load side wires and retest. If still no fault, start this step and find the second and third etc.

For illustration only, the two following diagrams show how to wire a GFCI and several protected down stream outlets.





To me this is a simple and safe way of isolating a problem and doesn't assume anything. After finding the problem, repairing it requires another process of elimination. If you are a professional, you will have tried and true shortcuts, if not try the safe way.