GFCI reversed polarity

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mlnk

Senior Member
If the hot and neutral are reversed on a GFCI receptacle, will it still work to power appliances but provide no shock protection?
 
Since a GFCI receptacle will work just fine with a two wire connection and no EGC to provide a ground reference, it should also work fine with the terminals reversed.
However in the event of a ground fault it will trip but interrupt the neutral instead of the hot, limiting the protection you get from it.
You may notice the appliance stops working, but you may still get a shock.

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Since a GFCI receptacle will work just fine with a two wire connection and no EGC to provide a ground reference, it should also work fine with the terminals reversed.
However in the event of a ground fault it will trip but interrupt the neutral instead of the hot, limiting the protection you get from it.
You may notice the appliance stops working, but you may still get a shock.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Are you sure that tripped GFCI receptacle only opens hot? I think I remember that neutral also opens.
 
Maybe the design changed with the application to ungrounded receptacles?

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Can't speak to if they have always been that way or not, but all that I've dealt with opens both conductors.
I had one recently that failed. It failed closed, well half closed, as the hot remained closed and the neutral was open.
 
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