Tracking down and fixing a GFCI outlet fault in the house
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- I had a constant GFCI outlet trip and had to track down the cause, and fix the cause. But to fix it I also needed the garage door to open for buying parts, and this GFCI cut the power to my garage door opener. So it was a fun trying to find the cause. But all was well once I figured it out.
This was originally recorded on May 29, 2016
Thank you so much for this video!!!! I had my house and deck power washed today and then when I went to leave, my garage door was dead and so was the freezer in my garage and the outlets outside. Odd enough the light in my garage worked. Anyways!!!! I couldn’t find one of those fancy outlets ANYWHERE. After watching your video and learning that some houses only have one of those outlets and it is usually in the bathroom, I went and checked and sure enough my upstairs bathroom outlet was one of those fancy ones and was tripped. I was able to reset it and HUZZAH Power!!!! Thank you so much for creating this video. I didn’t find that info anywhere else online. Your Dad would be proud of all the people you’ve helped in his memory ❤️
Welcome, I am glad it helped
I've been trying to figure out the exact same issue with a garage GFI outlet tied to 3 bathrooms without success for the last month. This video was just what the doctor ordered as I forgot that we had an outdoor outlet that was used for some outdoor string lights, which was partially covered in dirt. Dug it out and saw that it was also a GFI that was tied to the garage GFI!! A heavy rain had helped cover the outdoor outlet with dirt, which is when the system inside went down. Cleaned up the outdoor outlet and hit the reset button, and viola💡 Great vid👍👍Thanks!!
Wanted to say thanks. Had a similar problem on my outside socket thst controls my garage door and gate. I put a gfci for both new runs in my garage. Turns out one of the outdoor sockets, which I forgot to caulk, got water inside and shorted out the circuit. Within 45 minutes I had it replaced and wife was surprised by how quickly I got it fixed. Thank you and your dad for teaching you.
THANK YOU! You saved me from the local electrician's around here in Covina CA who go $400 just to step into your home! My GFI kept popping off so I did exactly what you did and found the same problem that you did, except that my outside outlets were soaking wet inside. I used WD40 (great non-electricity-conducting water disperser!) with it's long plastic tube, and sprayed copious amounts into the plug holes which flushed out all of the water. Pushed on my GFI and VOILA! Problem solved. Buying and installing a waterproof box that fits over the outlets finished the job.Thanks brother and a shout out to your folks!
Wow someone who used WD40 as it was designed to be used, lol. I’m glad it worked out for you.
Excellent video, thanks for putting it together. Your dad was a wonderful teacher. I'll say a prayer for his soul.
Thank you kindly
Kudos to you for beginning with a tribute to dad. I too feel so blessed with all taught me by my parents.
Thanks Pal. Your step by step, process of elimination was just what I needed to guide me as I located and fixed my similar problem here at home. I'll look for you when future problems arise.
Glad it helped.
Hi. Thanks, you gave me some ideas to keep in mind once it dries up enough here to have a go at my own gfci. I'd dearly like my hot water back.
One thing I found disturbing was just how goofy that original outdoor outlet install was. I understand your reluctance to tear it all out and face having deal with that big hole in the wall, but I'd be inclined to put some kind of support so the socket isn't just hanging in space. You could see it move when you plugged the tester in.
If there's enough clearance, you could try running your long screws through some nylon or brass cylindrical spacers. You'd be able to tighten those two screws up and get some rigidity back.
I came across this video because I had a similar issue. Once I saw the air freshener in your bathroom I paused the video unplugged the one I had and it fixed it. I got lucky seeing your video. Thanks
Your welcome. Yes , some of the air fresheners have gone cheaper instead of a big ceramic power resistors, they started to put 2 cheaper power resistors in series and place one in each side of the wick. This doesn’t product as much heat. I would guess thenchesper resistors could fail more often? But I haven’t seen one fail yet. I’ve taken both apart when I noticed they were not working as good as they used to a couple years ago.
GFIC outlets do go bad, that’s why they make a tester for them. If the find the air freshener is ok, then it’s possable your GFIC is gokngnbad and getting old. It still may need to be replaced. But at least it’s working for now.
Glad the video helped,
Scott
Awesome video bro, you’re very well spoken very descriptive and detailed! Love it! You would be a GREAT Electrician, your father would be proud of you seeing you today!
This video is great because it shows the reality of tracking down a problem as a solo person running up and down to the panel. Thanks!!!!
The outdoor receptacle should be Weather Resistant WR. It should now be TR Tamper Resistant also. I liked the electrical tape insulation on your screwdriver.
Bless your dad, seems he was a great teacher !
my dad was an electrician local25 IBEW for 50 plus years, I was scared to death even though he taught me so much, he didnt teach me everything,,I learned a few things I didnt know from you, I love you!! all rooms back on except the Master bedroom,but I know the problem, I blew the outlet when I was using an electric log splitter,,yes Im a girl my dad had three girls I was the son he didnt get. now Im feeling brave enough to tackle the motor in my HVAC.. my kitties and I are suffering, thanks again!!
Thank you so much for the comment. It's still good to be scared of mains AC a little, at least respect it. Always make sure all lines are dead, keep on hand in the pocket as they say. I've heard of people still getting shocks from old homes beciase of leakage current on lines that have failed insulation even though they turned off the breaker for that room. That's why I say always test anyway.
I've been hit with 220 and it's no joke, if I wasn't 17 young then I might not have walked away. And the person who made the mistake was the electrician I was doing an apprenticeship with, he told me the line wasn't live in the box. Needless to say I didn't finish the apprenticeship and he retired early.
An electric log splitter, neat. We ran a hydrologic cobbled and welded together from random parts and a gas motor when I was a kid. I guess if the gearing is good then electric is posable. That thing must pull some current for sure? So it runs on 1110V?
How old is the breaker box, it's possible the breaker has decided to also die if it took a hit. They dont last forever, I just updated one in my box that was failing when I was adding a 30A line for the battery electric spot welder.
Thanks again for the great comment,
Scott
I know this is an old video, however thought I would share anyway. No need to keep old receptacle for re-wire. Black wires or ungrounded conductors to brass screws. White or grounded conductors to silver screws.
Good job troubleshooting for only one year of apprenticeship. Easy to see the culprit lmao. But nice process to get to finding it.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what the problem was with my GFI tripping. So sorry about your dad.
Your video clip helped. I found out that the Patio outlet was wet bc we have a plant that gets watered at the location
I am glad it helped.
very nice ,not licensed myself and appreciate the time you took to troubleshoot. Its
's the trouble shooting that has helped me. Thanx
I’m glad it helped, it’s always the troubleshooting and finding the cause that can sometimes be the hardest. Replacing a plug, or a part usualy is easier then identifying the failed part.
Thanks for watching,
Scott
I just had the exact same issue arise today, it was also the exterior outlet tripping the GFCI. Thanks for the video!
You're welcome!
Sorry to hear about your lose, great video, your father taught you very well, and he will surely be proud of you.
Thanks
Thank you for making this video!!! ⚡⚡⚡ I started upstairs, working down, checked all outlets, removed those incense plugs, reset the garage GFI (the garage outlets and outdoor outlets wouldn't work), and I'm up and running!
Again, Thank YOU and Merry Christmas to you and yours! 💪🏽⚡⚡
Glad it worked out. The incense plugs shouldn’t cause that, it’s possable one of the GFI’s are just getting old. I had on old one that would pop from one of those old energy efficient fluorescent bulbs before I replaced them with LEDs. Maybe something with the ballast? I replaced the outlet that was 30 years old and all was good again. Merry Christmas to you and yours also!
Scott
THANK YOU!! Last night I installed an LED floodlight. The frequency of the LED caused my Garage Door Opener to RESET. My garage door was open when I installed the LED. I had to close that door by hand.. This AM I learned about LED frequency, and that it DOES interfere with the radio frequency of the garage door opener.
Piece of cake I thought, except I had NO LIGHTS in the garage. After the LED / garage you tube folks, I found you.
"Ah ha," I said, that's why even though I threw the switch last night, I still didn't have lights. I pressed the GCFI button, and it wouldn't reset! (After 3 times, you know what Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over...)
YOU said, ..." one must track down EVERYTHING."
I went outside, pulled apart the outside "dusk to dawn" light fixture, and exclaimed the REAL "Ah Ha!" Last night, the lamp was loose from the house wall, it twisted a couple times while I installed the bulb. One of the Neutral (White) wires had come apart. I reattched it, flipped the switch on the electrical box, and then pressed the GCFI button. IT STAYED ON AND ALL the lights came on!! Garage Door is reprogrammed, and I'm taking the LEDs BACK to COSTCO. Thank You again!
I’m glad it got worked out and everything is back up with power.
Oh no, Costco leds, my house is full of them. What LED light did you install from Costco?
GFCI outlets do fail over time also, how old is that outlet?
I know when I first changed all the lights over to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) that same bathroom GFCI would randomly trip for now reason. A little research, and confirmation for my dad and I was able to confirm the older GFCI outlets don’t like the harmonic frequencies produced on the line from some of the newer energy efficient bulbs. I never looked into it deeper, and just replaced the GFCI outlet and it was good again for 5 years. Even after I changed all the CFL bulbs to LEDS still didn’t have an issue. But if I had to guess today it probably had something to do with the power factor and causing the 60Hz AC sine wave to go out of phase, or it picked up on the current spikes from a bad power factor and cheap CFL bulbs. The older GFCI outlets think this is a short, when it’s not.
In fact, Big Clive just did a video that explains power factor that’s easy to understand. Might be worth a watch.
ruclips.net/video/uIlk8j8Ng2E/видео.htmlm28s
But I guess I’m explaining this because it might just be an old GFCI that doesn’t know how to understand the way newer electronics work with switch mode power supplies and DC bridge rectifiers. Seems like everything runs off DC these days except appliances. Older ones are used to monitoring only the wall wart transformer, so they trip because they don’t understand the newer way of powering things. So if it’s older, might be worth just changing the GFCI and prevent any issues like this also in the future with something else you plug in, or another led bulb even made by someone else. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the comments, and thanks for watching,
Scott
It is NOT about the BULB, it's about the FREQUENCY of LED BULBS. Like AM/FM radio frequencies. Frequencies travel through the air, invisible to our eyes, but turn on a radio, and depending which tuner you select your radio receives AM or FM.
Ah, the bulb needs to be close for this to happens usually. But I forgot most garage door openers (even mine) have light bulb sockets built in so a light comes on when you open the door and pull the car in. Yea, unfortunately the FCC requires most electronics to except any interference like listed in the FCC part 15. Newer electronics should know how to see this, accept it, ignore it, and continue like normal.
Older electronics, or even cheaply made stuff might think the signal interfearamce is for “it” and gets confused trying to decode the signals. But I can see how this could affect the garage door opener if it doesn’t know how to ignore the signal, it could act like a jamer to the garage opener.
Well glad you figured it out,
Scott
Great job on the video ! Just have one question, Why didn't you install pigtails?
Couple of notes: Modern NEC code requires that receptacles that are outside be weather resistant (WR) and tamper resistant (TR). Depending on the code adopted in your area, you might need AFCI protection as well as GFCI.
For determining Hot/Neutral, a contactless voltage detector can be handy. Hot should be black and neutral should be white. If it is reversed use white electrical tape to mark the black wire as neutral and black tape to mark the white wire as hot. When connecting to the receptacle, hot connects to the brass terminal and neutral connects to the nickel plated terminal.
For a box that deep, you should have used a box extension. You also might have been able to get by with a sleeve instead and those should come with longer screws that are designed for electrical boxes.
Also, receptacles and switches don't use philips, it's actually a combination of Robertson (square) and flat head. At the big box stores in the electrical tools section, they should have combo drivers for that, although a flathead works as well as long as the connection is secure.
Thanks. I've got one that trips but takes a while. Possibly my outside outlet too. I'll check that before I replace the GFCI outlet.
Great video!
I would've done a continuity test with the old and new outlets though. You'll then be 100% sure which wire goes where.
Klein tools & others sell a 2 part scan tool. 1 part is a transmitter and plugs into recepticle and also doubles as a gfci tester..The 2nd part is a receiver and is used to scan the breakers in the panel by simply squeezing the trigger then running down the breakers..It will ring when you pass over the circuit that leads to the receptacle that the transmitter is plugged into, thus saving a ton of time when you're by yourself to find your circuit.. Home Depot has them for about $35.. And moisture is a problem for gfci..
Salute for the trubute to your father.
How much more could the builder have screwed that up. The outlet box for the vinyl siding is nightmare. Its like a giant zit on the vinyl siding. Good job on explaining how you found the culprit. At the end I think I would have just pigtailed two new wires to the new outlet and shoved the other mess back into the outlet.
Yea, that house was a builder wreck. I don’t miss that house now this I sold it. But on my new house it has rope light in some rooms and I found mains wires just electrical taped to the rope light. No junction box or anything, can’t wait for the electricians explanation of this or how it passed inspection.
Seems like a lot on one circuit. My house is the same way. I believe now you’re supposed to have bathroom outlets on dedicated 20amp circuits.
I think so also. I dont own that house anymore since I moved but my new place has 20A breakers for just the two bathroom outlets. They increased bathroom outlets in one code change probably from having dryers. But recently houses can now have 10A with some circuits because TV’s and lights with LEDs use less power now.
I wish you were here! I have some wacky things going on here and can't find the cause!
Yea, wacky things are the worse. You can alway hit me up on my email and I can get some details and see if I can help you figure it out. You can find it under my channel profile, but you have to use a web browser (not a phone/tablet) to see the email option.
I have replaced light switches only thing different about them is neutral and live dosent matter which screw it goes in since it’s a toggle switch ground stil need to go on the metal screw
the screws are different colors silver being identified and gold being hot it would say that in the instructions that came with the receptacle and dont every bury a box as you mentioned when first finding the problem of the circuit its is never ok to hide a junction or splice of a circuit im happy you replaced the receptacle and didnt just splice them threw and re side it.
I don’t think I bought one with instruction. But as I explained in another comment I’ve found some backwards wording in the house. I think because it was a rental for so many years and cheap electricians, or none electricians. This is why I followed the picture. But yes, usually you are correct with the brass screw if the wiring is correct. I did eventually find some of the issue, it was wired wrong at the breaker for one room.
If I had decided to re-side it I would have sealed it in a water proof junction box and terminated the wires correctly. I’m not looking to have a smoldering fire in my wall sparked from a surge, that would suck.
Gadget - Great detailed video. Remember, there will always be demons out there to knock you down. You father was a good man who took the time to implement a skill to you that you can use for life. Pass it on to someone else too.
Since you did this repair, the NEC now requires that the duplex receptacle outside be TR(tamper resistance) and WR(weather resistant). And the cover should be a heavy duty in-use cover to allow cords to be plugged in without allowing water to enter. Best regards...Dan
That’s true, I know the code was updated. I sold that place and recently moved. The new house has all sorts of new code installed including GFI breakers in the box for most of the house. Makes it easier to test them now with all the test buttons in the same place.
Daniel Howie, Sr. Can you please tell me the NEC article that says if you replace a receptacle that it must be upgraded to the current NEC? Although in this instance I agree it is a good idea, not sure where what article you are referencing.
My apartment building has 8 individual sockets (or just 4 dualsocket outlets) sitting right outside our door. They all have weatherproofing, but I've always been concerned. Asked the landlord today and apparently if any of those outlets become faulty, it will trip something in the panel of our upstairs neighbors system
Thanks for the vid, I have a similar issue I’m looking into, I think it’s my outside outlet.
No problem 👍
I am an electrician by trade and you don't even know how common it is to find the GFCI in the master bath hop to the guest bath then the downstairs bath then the garage then exterior outlets common builder move back years ago to save money by installing one GFCI to protect all required areas. Thankfully that is no longer code you can protect multiple bathrooms with a 20 amp circuit but that's it and for the garage it requires a 20 amp GFCI circuit of its own.
Thank you for the informative video. We have a rental that has a mystery electrical problem that 2 electricians worked on yesterday. Bad plug or wiring somewhere in 1976 house so they said they have to replace every plug/switch in house, put in GFCi's bathrms & kitchen...gonna cost us $2800. Wish I knew how to do electrical but now understand there is a lot more to it, & need a lic. electrician.
Your welcome, their a lot more to what I mentioned but it’s a start.
Yea, it’s better to have a licensed electrician with an overhaul like that. I would just make sure they get the proper permits for your city/township and are iinsured and bonded. This way if they make something worse their insurance covers it, not yours.
Mystery ones can be complicated without the correct equipment, it could be little arcs in the old wire insulation in the walls, maybe a mouse chewed though some wire insulation. To test wire insulation needs a good insulation tester, or most of the time called a megger tester and they cost $1,500 to $5,000 for a reliable gold one depending on the specs of the unit. A 1976 home probably needs a new breaker box to meet code as well if it was never replaced and maybe even the main line to the house from the grid might need changed.
And any room with water or outside outlet would need a GFCI.
Older code allowed you to piggy back other outlets from one GFCI like mine built in 85, but newer CES code changes now want a separate GFCI in each room that needs one, and honestly it’s safer that way, also easier to trouble shoot later if something does trip. I know my build 85 house doesn’t meet the current latest code, but it’s a lot safer then older homes and someone did change my electrical panel before I bought it.
Every city laws are different as to what needs licensed and permitted, and what doesn’t need to be. To replace an outlet in my city is ok for anyone, as long as I don’t move the outlet to another part of the wall or change the wire, or add another outlet. But you still run the risk if something isn’t correct and causes a fire that your home owners insurance may not cover the fire damage if you do even a simple outlet replacement by yourself. And the obvious that mains voltage is dangerous and can kill you.
The house I bought was a rental, and you wouldn’t beleive the shadey work I found that I know wasn’t done by a professional.
Well good luck on the work. Maybe think about what rooms you might want extra power for if you run big tools in the gauge. For me my next home will have it’s own 20 Amp power line just for my lab and notmshared with three other rooms like it is now. Or a separate breaker for a planned hot tub later? Or maybe you plan to install solar later, so might want to see how much a tranfer switch would cost now that can be used for solar or a generator at a later date.
If your getting work done, it can be cheaper most of the times to have the additional changes done at the same time as the other work.
Scott
You never showed if that outlet breaker stopped tripping after your fixing the outside outlet.
Hey man this was a great video. I have a few outlets that have gone bad and I'm trying to chase down the issue, 2 in the bathroom, 1 outside, and 1 in the garage. I've changed the GFI I'm the bathroom still not working. Black line has power per the multimeter but I'm guessing the replace outlet was bad too..
If these outlets all went out at the same time and you changed the GFI, then I would check and replace the outside or garage outlet. If either of the dead outlets are causing a fault then the GFI will trip.
Other possibilities is the break is tripped or might also be going faulty.
Another possibility is you might be have CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs? Sometimes those bulbs can trigger a GFI to trip is the ballast is starting to go bad.
Is this an older house?
@@GadgetReviewVideos hey thanks for the reply. I checked the outside and it was actually the end of the bad circuit. Turns out it was the first one in the bathroom that cause all 4 to be bad. When I changed it the first time it didn't solve the problem so I pulled the all the out let's out.
End result: the replacement outlet was already bad once I switched that one out I had power to 3 of the outlet. The outside outlet was like yours, probably been in place since the home was built and had a little moisture in it., so I changed it out too (since I had a gfi 3 pack) now everything is working like a charm.
I’m glad its all working again.
Your house must have been wired by the same Jackleg that wired mine. We have a GFI in the front bathroom that spider legs all over our house and goes to outlets that make no sense.
That’s the way they allowed it before the code changed. Not sure why, but newer home can’t have any extension load outlets connected to wall GFI’s. But they can have break GFI in the panel that covers the whole room and circuit.
I don't like the use of the receptacle terminals you chose. I put a pigtail in place.
Do GFCI outlets need to be above bathroom sink? I would like to install one opposite of another room that has one at 6" above baseboard or so. I am installing a bidet toilet and would like it behind toilet.
You should have installed a junction box extension so you can correctly stiablize
Next time, I was already up all night as you saw the daylight coming up in the video. So I wasn’t going to drive back to the store. To be honest, I dint use the outlet at all, I would rather patch the wall up if I had some spare siding that matched.
You helped me fix my issue! Thanks!
Im glad you fixed it, you’re welcome.
I'm having the same problem you were having here. I have some electrical experience and I think I may have traced the problem to my outdoor light and/ or the outdoor receptacle. I think this problem may have fried the circuit breaker it is attached to. One question for you. You replaced the GFCI receptacle with a standard outlet. Isn't this dangerous?
No, I never replaced a GFCI with a normal outlet. It was a normal outlet that weathered and cracked that was wired from the load side of a GFCI in series. I think US code these days doesn’t allow wireifng other outlets off the load side as of 2010, but that house was built in 1985 before the code was update.
That was a dumb way to loop that I would have done the garage off that gfi but not garage and upstairs, the up stairs bathroom should have been looped from the bedroom if it could have handled it...the gfi in your guest bathroom probably has the plug in the garage loop wire in the wall through into the garage plug if it were on the other side of that wall the fridge and microwave should have their own dedicated circuits that used to not be code but it is now I've ran into that multiple times in older homes. You should upgrade that outside plug cover to the bubble dome plastic style, most contractors use the shortest amount of wire possible so if the outside light and plug are on the same circuit its most likely the plug is powering the switch then the leg from switch to light...but like I said originally, looping the gfi plug and garage plugs should have been fine by themselves, but since the master bathroom was also added that is probably putting too much work on the wires and the gfi is thinking overload
That whole house wiring was a puzzle. We did the kitchen all new from subfloor up, and thats when I noticed bu cutting off the microwave outlet breaker it also cut out one room upstairs. Like. you said, the 80’s was a different time and different codes. Down stairs bathroom GFI with a load to upstairs bathroom, I never saw a house that shared so much down and up stairs electric before. It must have been built cheaper for that time. I sold it 2 years ago, the new house is a 2019 build and breaker box nicely labeled, GFCI and AFCI in the box, dome covered outside outlets. The only issue I found was some ceiling rope lights, they cut the rope and shoved the wires into the rope, wrapped it in electrical tape and done. I may not know all the code, but I almost positive this need to be in a junction box, or at the least wire nuts. Nope, its just electrical tape.
The people who wired that panel should have said what lights they were I always do, and anything in 6 foot of a water source requires a gfi recep. I would have put a gfi in that outside plug for the heck of it I'd get new sheilding because of the water getting in and thats fuckin crazy the way they wired it...but the 80's was a different time, thats another good reason to get a new gfi outlet for your outside plug with the bubble dome kind of protector I hate those old ones for two reasons, 1. because I have changed a ton of them because the foam wears out in the metal covers and 2. You can see the plug through the dome and know it isn't collecting moisture. I would have just wire nutted all those together with some waterproof wire nuts and put a waterproof cover over the junction area unless that initial gray cover comes off then I would put a stab in box in it and made it just a covered jbox and made a note of it in my panel on the door cover or something and relabled my panel on the light circuits and added what lights they went to I'm glad you used the wire under rhe screw plates instead of tapping the back in those stupid holes I would have put tailed off the junction to the plug and used some red wire nuts on the junction I find that method easier than putting all three wires in that plug lol that seems like a pita situation
I always use the rhe screws, I never liked or trusted those whole in the back. Even when I replaced all the switches and outlets in the house I used the screws, except the outdoor outlet because I never used it. I guess I forgot about that one since I didn’t use it. As for that night, I was just wanting to get that circuit back up without having to redo the siding for a different junction box. If you notice, the video went from night to daylight, that was all the same night into the day.
Outdoor receptacle held in place with deck screws ? Receptacle not in box ? Receptacle not pigtailed . That was not installed by an electrician.
It did have a box, but it was back further then the grey siding cover, lol. So basically a pointless junction box with a 1/2 gap between the outlet and the box and thats why they used deck screws. The siding and roof was replaced a year before I bought it. I think the siding people did this with the fancy outdoor siding part. But I agree, it should have been pigtailed. What I never figured out is since that outlet obviously had another outlet/switch or light running off of it then what happened to the other grounds that is usually pigtailed?
i am having the same problem. I CANNOT FIND WHY MY GFCI KEEPS TRIPPING. I have a switch connected to the dishwasher to the gfci and the overhead stove light and fan which is connected to the gfci, and an outside outlet connected to the gfci. everytime i turn on the stove light or dishwasher it keeps tripping. could it be the outside outlet?
I can't say for sure, it depends on if these things you mentioned are connected to the load side of the outlet or not. But if you turn on the stove light and it trips, or the dishwasher and it trips then it sounds like it wouldn't be anything to do with the outside outlet.
The GFCI outlet could be going bad, it happens. I had one tripping from the frequency that a power efficient CLF bulb, so I replaced the GFCI with an updated one and it was fine. If you have some power efficient bulb in the stove lamp then I might understand this, but the dishwasher shouldn't cause it to trip unless theirs a problem and the GFCI is bad or it's doing its job and detecting a fault lolemot should. Dishwashers can leak and water can get into the mains electrical, this would cause the GFCI to trip when you power on the dishwasher. I would have an electrician looks at it.
Gadget Review Videos i totally forgot to delete this comment. it's taking care of, my dad didn't wire the gfci right.
No Problem, Glad to hear you got it worked out.
good video, everyone should know alittle about electricity
What does it mean if the gfci red light flashing every 42 seconds, when its on
With most manufactures the following applies. Blinking sometimes indicates it wants you to press test or reset? After testing/reseting if the light still blinks red then it is indicating that it should be replaced.
@@GadgetReviewVideos ok perfect i replaced it with leviton gfci . Because did electrical trade school, we was never told about that red light
👍Thank you. 💞
Interesting video. Thanks mate!
Your welcome
Why didn't you put another GFCI on each room as NEC 2014 recommanded ? Or $10 GFCI each its so easire to trouble shoot ? Too many out let on one line dengerous overloaded just needed to add other dedicated line on other room? Too many thing on one line are cause for fireing. Anyaway sorry I couldn't watch allway too long video
The house was built in 1985 so it didn’t meet the standards at the time. The main point was showing how older houses daisy chained off the GFCI load and how to track down the fault by understanding this. As of the NEC 2017 Article 210.8 (I did this in 2016) with following the new code revision any outlet in a required GFCI area being replaced would have to be a GFIC outlet with and additional AFIC Circuit breaker on that line. I’ve since sold that house and bought a new contruction one that has AFCi breakers and meets the latest code, but a lot of people are still trying to troubleshoot older homes and why the GFCI trips and that was the main point of the video at the time.
The vinyl siding guy did the outlet
good vid. I accidentally sprayed my outdoor gfci with water and I could not find the which one was trip. long story short it kicked the far bathroom one
Good deal, I guess this helped a lot being the same thing. Outdoor outlet loosing power from bathroom GFI. I'm glad the outdoor power was on the load side of the bathroom GFI or that could have been lethal, possibly standing in water with a perfect ground to earth. Water can be the one way to arc around and over the rubber souls of your shoes after all.
Soles of rubber
I think your dog could use a cold beer.
Yea, maybe a 6 pack. Dogs have a tendency to pick up on their owners anxiety and stress. And when they don’t have an outlet they get worse. Unfortunately with my health issues and Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis, father passing and all it was a stressful time. And I wasn’t able to play with her as much, or walk her like I used to 4 times a week, so this built up in a bad way for her.
With my disease getting progressively worse and not able to walk her to use up her energy I decided it was best she go to another home that can play, walk her, run with her and care for her. So she’s doing much better now, going to DA (AA for canines) and without the beer :-) In fact she just got her 30 day bone.
All kidding aside, she is doing much better now. She was an active breed I couldn’t be active with anymore anymore and picked up on my stress with being told I can’t work anymore.
But she’s happy again, so happy ending.
Thanks for watching,
Scott
Thanks for video,and reply Scott. You're awesome, Dog has place to run!! And W/O the cold bud!! 1love brada!!>>>>>>>>>Peace Out.
you found a short but the problem was not with the GFCI. Your title of the video is a bit misleading.
Well I don’t think we will really know the answer to this since when a Short happens the hot wire makes contact with the neutral wire. And a fault is when the hot wire makes contact with the ground. I never tested the broken up cracked outlet to see what ones were touching.
But with a nema 5 outlet broke open like this one it’s more likely that the ground would make contact with the hot wire since these contacts are closer together on the outlet, and the hot a neutral are further apart in distance. I’m talking about the area the plug goes into the outlet, since the wires on the outside connections of the outlet were not visably crossed.
Also a short would have caused a larger current to run through the neutral and should have tripped the circuit breaker as well as possable tripping the GFCI. A short can also take a GFCI up to 6 seconds to trip, my GFCI was tripping instantly as required by code to trip in under 25ms with a smaller current detected running over the ground and not returning over the neutral. This difference in current over the ground and not seen returned on the neutral is the ground fault that causes the Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt (GFCI) to trip in this shorter time. My breaker never tripped, but the GFCI constantly was tripping when resetting in a very short time. But I’ll digress since I didn’t test what wires were sorting out, and if I had tested after removing the outlet it was in such sad shape I might not have seen any short if I did check it since just by moving it could have separated the short to open again. I guess the title of the video was based off the knowledge of what best fit the symptoms when I was having the issue.
Thanks for watching,
Scott
Nice
This has been a real thorn in my side since I moved into my new place last year. I can have my window unit AC on high, have my, nintendo switch, satellite box, laptop and 2 lamps plugged in inside my bedroom (which is right next to the bathroom that houses this god forsaken popping button from hell) with no problem. But even after unplugging everything in the bedroom the second I plug my xbox one into the wall it trips. What confuses me the most is that nothing in my room actually loses power, only items plugged in inside the bathroom. Super confusing.
So the XBox one will cause it to trip, but the xbox still has power? Try plugging the xbox power supply in another room that also has a GFI like the kitchen or garage. If the xbox causes those GFI’s to trip also then I would say the power supply to the xbox might need to be replaced. It might have a short or be arcing and the GFI’s are doing what they are designed to do.
Or it might be the GFI outlet that is going bad. The same bathroom outlet in the video was replaced 4 years before this video. It was tripping when I turned on certain lights, at the time I had CFL curly bulb lights I just installed. It was something with that type of light causing it to trip, I unplugged everything, even checked the wiring on the lights switches and didnt see anything wrong but the outlets were old. This was the reason I replaced all the outlets and switches in the house. Then when I replaced the actual GFI that was tripping for no obvious reason it stopped. The GFI might have been the original one from 1985 and they do go bad. GFI outlets do go bad with age and get more sensitive to inrush currents that some power suplies pull when you plug them in.
I hope this helps,
Scott
Thanks for the reply! I'll give that a shot. It's hard me perplexed lol
thank you
You're welcome
you skipped the main thing is to test the outside outlet and show us what it read
You can’t test the outlets 100% because they have no power when the GFCI tips. If the GFCI is daisy chained to multiple other outlets since it was installed before the code update in 2010, then when it trips it breaks the power circuit to all those daisy chained outlets. Very time I reset it because of the fault it would trip all the load daisy chained outlets in under a second. Without power to all those outlets from the GFCI outlet tripping you can’t test the outlets. This is when you have to start eliminating the possible causes and find what’s causing the GFCI to trip.
That’s NOT good time to re wire those 3 rooms should have their own circuit
Yea, it was built in 85 before they changed the code. I just moved and the new house has GFI breakers in the panel.
He didn't say if that fixed his GFI problem
Yes, it did fix the GFI issue. GFI is ground fault interruption. The short i found in the outside outlet was snorting to ground causing the GFI to trip. So the GFI was doing it’s job and stomping further sparks as a potential fire hazard.
Tks
I can't find my GFCI outlet that's connected to my garage, front and back porches. None of the outlets work and none of the circuit breakers are tripped. Therefore, I can only conclude that I have a GFCI that's hidden somewhere, right? The Garage door opener outlet (on the cealing) and the water softner outlets work fine in the garage. There's one outlet on the wall plus the 2 outlets front and back yard outlets that are not working and neither are GFCI outlets. Any ideas? House was built in 2006. a CP morgan home. THanks.
So it’s not using any of the GFIC outlets from a bathroom or kitchen? 2006 is when they would have daisy changed from another outlet to save money.
I guess the other option is the breaker acturaly failed? They do fail over time.
The worse case would be that they are not GFIC protected at all. And like my old outlet one has cracked open breaking the circuit?
My outdoor was was bad, but I also replaced all the ones in the house before this because one broke on me when unplugging the vacuum cleaner. Some outlets are just cheap and break down, even indoor ones.
Scott
You can pull the safety lever on your garage door rail to open the garage door manually usually has a short rope with a red handle that's in case of a fire if the power goes out and your olny way out
Normal I would say your correct. My back isn’t the best, and I have a solid garage fireproof door. The lighter aluminum and foam insulation door wouldn’t be an issue.
What a terrible wiring job. This was just bound to happen eventually
Agreed. I sold this house, but one of the first things I did in the new house was check the breaker panel and some of the wiring especially on the outdoor outlets.
Want to come to my house and I will video you fixing my broke stuff? Good video. Thanks.
I think the cuss filter is broken on RUclips, lol. You did that one comment about the fake Hakko iron and it didn’t catch it, but this comment was flagged for cuss words and in the spam folder. Go figure.
I still have a few things to fix at my place before I can sell it this summer. If you really want tk do videos I could use a camera person, then I can get mine fixed faster, lol.
here is the vid i learned the "B to B" technique
"B toB" starts around 8 min in the video
ruclips.net/video/GTWF0A_OWr0/видео.html
HeroCaleb.com
True, but I mentioned I follow the old wiring in that house because it was a rental for many years and I found some wiring that didn’t follow the proper color code. So for me, and maybe for others sometimes it’s better to keep the way the old one was installed it it checked out correctly with a proper ground. When prevoise owners do their own work or cheap landlords they don’t always follow the correct wire colors.
Scott
FYI: Your comments keep getting flagged for spam because tou have the herocaleb web link in them. Might be better to remove that from future comments.
Gadget Review Videos, ok, I do that for my website. Free advertisement!! 😜😜😜. Thank you for replying!
Understood, but you don’t want youtube flagging you as a spammer or they may always put you in spam for comments in the figure even if your remove it. Just wanted to let your know.
Gadget Review Videos, thank you sir! Enjoyed the video!
If you got some knowledge about electricity then how could you not know on the new $1 outlet you bought, the gold screws are hot or black wires and the silver screws are neutral or white wires. Also any outside outlets by the new codes is supposed to be GFCI.
According to the updated dated code (maybe 2010?) after my house was build in 1985 it would have had to be a GFCI outlet, but my house already doesn't meet code and that outlet is on the load side of the GFCI in the bathroom, this is the main point of the video is tracking down the fault in older homes.
It's messed up, but if I replaced it with something different according to my local and township/city regulations and laws I would have to file for a permit. But replacing it with what was already their before is ok. It doesn't make sense to me but then most local laws that conflict national code and regulations are out dated and don't make sense.
I was giving a different refence view incase it was more then an outlet being changed. For example a switch at the bottom and top of the steps that control a single ciurcut sometimes doesn't follow the colored screws and you still need to reference your old one. Then it also depends on when the house was built, what shadey cheap landlord did their own wiring from years of renting the house out (like with the one I bought) and you might find the wire colors are completely wrong. As per my warning I state I am not an electiacian and if you don't feel comfortable then you should hire one. I'm glad the guy in the Chicago suburb video pointed that fact out to you, I'm guessing your in an area that the junction boxes are grounded then. I would usually say always trust the meter and not the colors because you don't know who touched it before you. Or follow what was arelady in place using the old one as a reference because it worked and I had previously tested it and the polarity was correct in the past.
Gadget Review Videos Ok I see your points. I guess all that matters is that your job worked. And it did, so cheers.
MY HOUSE was built in 1978. tHE "CONTACTOR" WHO OWNED "UDPATED" few things after he moved into the place. I have found 2 electrical overhead light he installed using a piece of OLD EXTENSION CORD. That has two copper wires, one hot , one neutral. Unfortunately, not everything is always to code. My Dad was an engineer, he taught so much, and after his death, I have called my brother long distance and said, I'm going to do "x" do NOT go far from home in case I run into issues. So today, with two You Tube vids, and the experience and knowledge from Bro' and Dad. I probably saved a couple of hudred dollars as I would have had to call 2 different pros. Sometimes you need the pros, but... it sure makes me feel good to accomplish something on my own!
It does feel good, congrats on your accomplishment.
My neighbor asked me to look at his furnace with the winter coming now. I found the same thing, and extention cord cut up for a patch wire to an outlet for the dryer. The dryer that is a higher dedicated separate breaker for the extra power. The extention cord might have been rated for 7 amps, but defiantly not 20 amps. It was a rental for many years, but I couldn’t believe what I saw. And with kids in the house I couldn’t just leave it. Lucky I just did some new breakers and had some extra 12/2 wire left over to run this properly.
I can believe the home inspector didn’t find this, it was in plane sight. He didn’t even mention it in the report.
My house was a rental also before I bought it, it’s amazing what you find from cheap landlord and shaded work that could have burnt down the house and put peoples life’s at risk.