- Location
- Tennessee NEC:2017
- Occupation
- Semi-Retired Electrician
A few months back I was called for a problem where neither of two bathrooms receptacles were working. I discovered there was a GFCI breaker feeding both baths. Since the breaker was old, I replaced the GFCI breaker with a new one and it still wouldn't set. I checked everything that was not working and found that an outside receptacle was also on the circuit.
Since it was late and also raining outside, I just put in a regular breaker and told them not to use the outside receptacle until I could get back to check further.
I just "squeezed" this call in as I was very busy. I totally forgot about it and hadn't heard from the customer. Now, fast forward to now, I was called to the customer for a different problem. When I get there, I remembered I hadn't done anything to fix the GFCI problem. I didn't have a GFCI breaker with me so I decided to put a GFCI receptacle outside and in at least one of the baths as I figured one of them was fed from the other.
When I took out the outside receptacle I looked at everything to see if there was something causing a ground fault. Didn't see anything obvious and the box was an old "bakelite" nonmetallic. What I did discover was the outside receptacle was the first outlet on the circuit. I put the GFCI receptacle in and it set with no trips. I was expecting it to not set since the GFCI breaker would not and this is the first outlet. Only thing I can think of is maybe the receptacle was wet when I was there earlier causing the GFCI breaker to trip.
Thoughts?
Since it was late and also raining outside, I just put in a regular breaker and told them not to use the outside receptacle until I could get back to check further.
I just "squeezed" this call in as I was very busy. I totally forgot about it and hadn't heard from the customer. Now, fast forward to now, I was called to the customer for a different problem. When I get there, I remembered I hadn't done anything to fix the GFCI problem. I didn't have a GFCI breaker with me so I decided to put a GFCI receptacle outside and in at least one of the baths as I figured one of them was fed from the other.
When I took out the outside receptacle I looked at everything to see if there was something causing a ground fault. Didn't see anything obvious and the box was an old "bakelite" nonmetallic. What I did discover was the outside receptacle was the first outlet on the circuit. I put the GFCI receptacle in and it set with no trips. I was expecting it to not set since the GFCI breaker would not and this is the first outlet. Only thing I can think of is maybe the receptacle was wet when I was there earlier causing the GFCI breaker to trip.
Thoughts?