GFI Breaker

[DarkSkySeeker]

So I warned the GF not to plug in 5 appliances to the outlets in the kitchen. She did anyway and the plugs stopped working, including the kitchen, living room, and outside plugs. All of the dead plugs are labelled "Ground Fault Protected" but none have resets or test buttons.

Turns out the bedroom and TV outlets are on their own circuit. The bathroom has a GFCI plug that tests, resets, and works independently of this problem.

A lot of the rest of this post is guesswork.

So I opened up my breaker panel and there is a 15amp circuit labelled "GFI" (no "C"). I bought another breaker ($25) and replaced it and the "failed" circuits continued to not work.

About an hour later, mysteriously, they were on.

Here's the real guesswork...

The contacts on the old breaker looked bent. While on there was continuity but I could not tell if power was getting to it through the bent contacts. I can not explain the hour long delay before power was restored. Some sort of reset process/lag?

Your thoughts?

[larry_cad]

Dusty R wrote:
GFI = Ground Fault Interrupter Is what they were called when they first came out/were required.
GFCI = Ground Fault Current is what they are now called, there maybe a slight difference.
A GFCI receptacle is most often the first receptacle on a circuit then all the other receptacle down the line are also GFCI protected, if properly wired.

National Electrical Code (NEC) defines GFCI as "ground fault CIRCUIT interuptor.

Most electricians interchange the two GFI and GFCI as meaning the same thing.

There are GFCI receptacles and there are GFCI circuit breakers. They both work the same way.

[Grit_dog]

Big thumbs up Dark Sky!

[DarkSkySeeker]

Months later - here is the update.

After the bathroom GFI, the circuit goes to 2 outdoor outlets, then outlets in the living room, then 2 outlets in the kitchen. I turned off the power to the rig and tested the continuity to all the plugs by shorting them together and measuring resistance. All were were connected. So I removed the outdoor outlets and found one bad connection. The wires in the outdoor outlet were the kind you just insert into a hole - not tied down the nearby screws. So I removed a loose connection and screwed it down. That was the culprit.

[enblethen]

Thanks for the update!
Could also been feed through function.

[DarkSkySeeker]

I bought a twin breaker. Sorry for the confusion. I replaced the GFCI in the bathroom. And now the downstream outlets work. Someone guessed "loose connection". I think that was it, so the replacement was not necessary, but the installation caused me to tighten things up.

[schlep1967]

I'm coming in late here. The "it worked an hour later" thing, did you or the GF unplug any appliances in that time? Removing one appliance or even switching it off, that has a ground fault internally would then allow the system to work after resetting.

[larry_cad]

Might also be a bad "stab" connection in one of the outlets in the string.

[ScottG]

enblethen wrote:
Let's get back on the OP's problem.
He has power leaving on a circuit identified as GFI. Some of his receptacles do not work. He has found one GFCI receptacle.
I believe he may have another.
Another possibility is the feed through function is not working in the one he found.

Ooh, that's an interesting idea.
A couple of years ago I replaced a GFCI in a friends kitchen only to find nothing after it worked. I finally figured out that in some point in time manufacturers swapped the input and output locations on newer GFCI's and the new ones just don't work if reversed (I just copied the existing wiring). I wonder if that's what's going on here..
If the OP's RV is anything like my Arctic Fox, wiring stuff backwards is a real possibility.

[Grit_dog]

Gdetrailer wrote:

enblethen wrote:
Double check the galley area for another GFCI receptacle
If you paid $25 for a single pole breaker, you got ripped off! There is nothing special about RV breakers!

Those are Eaton BD1515 Duplex or "twin" breakers, and are two breakers built into one full size housing.



Allows one to add more circuits to the breaker box than single full size breakers would have allowed. Works in boxes not designed for half size breakers.

They are more expensive than if you used a single full size breaker and $25 is not out of line..

Same one is selling for $22.63 at Amazon HERE, add in taxes and possibly shipping it would be right around $25..

Nothing special about that breaker, it is not a GFCI breaker and somewhere down the wiring line there is most likely a GFCI since the panel label mentions it..

Wahts your point?

[enblethen]

Let's get back on the OP's problem.
He has power leaving on a circuit identified as GFI. Some of his receptacles do not work. He has found one GFCI receptacle.
I believe he may have another.
Another possibility is the feed through function is not working in the one he found.

[enblethen]

Your BD twin breakers fit the same slot/opening as a standard breaker but has two amp rated outputs. They are considered thin, wafer or tandem breakers. Each breaker section is 1/2 inch times two making it one inch overall thickness.

[Gdetrailer]

enblethen wrote:
I was not able to open the OP's image on my old computer. I got it open just a minute or so ago, His photo is wafer, twin or tandem breakers. In his verbage, he said he bought a single pole breaker.
I am guessing verbage from OP is wrong and he did buy a wafer, twin or tandem breaker.
Yes, tandem breakers have gone up in price. I was talking price for standard single pole breaker.
Sorry if we were confusing one another.

His pix shows 1" breakers which are standard sized single pole breakers, if you look up BD1515 you will find it is a 1" standard size breaker.

It is not wafer thin or half size 1/2" breakers, those can only be used in specific panels (not typically found OEM in RVs)designed for those breakers and they have a different method of coupling to the breaker panel buss that is often incompatible with the full sized 1" breakers.

OPs verbiage is understandably not as direct as a person that has done a lot of electrical work would be, and that is OK as a pix as they say is worth a thousand words and the OPs pix gave me enough clues to figure out what they had.

[enblethen]

I was not able to open the OP's image on my old computer. I got it open just a minute or so ago, His photo is wafer, twin or tandem breakers. In his verbage, he said he bought a single pole breaker.
I am guessing verbage from OP is wrong and he did buy a wafer, twin or tandem breaker.
Yes, tandem breakers have gone up in price. I was talking price for standard single pole breaker.
Sorry if we were confusing one another.

[Gdetrailer]

enblethen wrote:
Gdetrailer: you posted a two two pole tandem breaker in your first post with what some call a twin breaker. These have one connection to the buss work yo provide 2 120 volt circuits. two pole tandem breaker
Your second post with photo is a two pole standard breaker. This connects to two different busses and provides 240 volts.

You ARE wrong.

HERE is my first post, it is not edited and does not say what you are telling me that I said.

Gdetrailer wrote:

enblethen wrote:
Double check the galley area for another GFCI receptacle
If you paid $25 for a single pole breaker, you got ripped off! There is nothing special about RV breakers!

Those are Eaton BD1515 Duplex or "twin" breakers, and are two breakers built into one full size housing.



Allows one to add more circuits to the breaker box than single full size breakers would have allowed. Works in boxes not designed for half size breakers.

They are more expensive than if you used a single full size breaker and $25 is not out of line..

Same one is selling for $22.63 at Amazon HERE, add in taxes and possibly shipping it would be right around $25..

Nothing special about that breaker, it is not a GFCI breaker and somewhere down the wiring line there is most likely a GFCI since the panel label mentions it..

Perhaps you can highlight exactly where in that post that I said what you say I said..

That pix in my first post IS a BD1515 single pole (120V) "Twin" or "tandem" breaker.

If you also look closely to the pix the OP provided, on each breaker you will find BD1515 and those breakers DO cost about $25 each.

Obviously reading comprehension on your part is not up to par here and obviously you have not bought any BD1515 breakers in the last 10 yrs.. There was a time that those would cost about $11 and the singles about $5, but those days are long gone and will never come back.