Bathroom GFCI trips and kills voltage to random receptacles in my garage and downstairs... how bad is that?

L

littlesparky88

Member
Location
Gig Harbor, WA
Occupation
Fire Alarm Installer
The GFCI tripped in the upstairs bathroom while my wife was blow drying her hair. I finally figured this out because the receptacle in the garage that my spare fridge is plugged into stopped working. No breakers were tripped, so I started testing other outlets in my house. I found that several outlets in my garage, an outdoor outlet on my back porch, and the downstairs bathroom were all effected by that GFCI outlet in the upstairs bathroom. How bad is it that all of those outlets are on that same circuit and after that GFCI? Do I need to look into getting this resolved?
 
Welcome to the forum.

All of those locations require GFCI protection for receptacles.

When the house was wired, it was legal and cheaper to use a single circuit.

It's obviously only an issue if the hair dryer and the fridge are both running.
 
Back in the 80's-early 90's it was standard practice to wire the garage, bathroom and exterior receptacles to 1 circuit and the first receptacle would be a feed through GFCI. The GFCI was usually in the garage. Its also usually the receptacle behind the refrigerator/freezer or large cabinet. :)
 
curt swartz said:
Back in the 80's-early 90's it was standard practice to wire the garage, bathroom and exterior receptacles to 1 circuit and the first receptacle would be a feed through GFCI. :)
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Exactly. They began requiring separate circuits after hair dryers caused the garage ridge to quit. ;)
 
Ok. That makes sense. The weird things is that there were still a couple outlets in the garage that still had voltage. There was another outlet just on the other side of the fridge that still had voltage, so I plugged the fridge in there until I figured out where the GFCI was. I am assuming that the previous home owner wanted more outlets in the garage and just tapped whatever circuits he could find. I found out today that the wall plugs in the living room also power half the garage lights...:oops:
 
My suggestions:

Add GFCI protection to those receptacle outlets that are in the garage, if they aren't already. Take care because you may open that can of worms that now includes AFCI protection.

or

Close eyes and walk away.

Newer GFCIs have a better reputation for handling area lightning strikes. They may trip but are more likely to survive.
 
Just FYI: The present code requirement is that either (1) A circuit can supply receptacles in more than one bathroom, but it can supply nothing other than bathroom receptacles, or (2) A circuit can supply anything and everything in one bathroom, but it can supply nothing outside that bathroom.

Your situation would not satisfy the present code. Depending on when your house was built, it may not need to. But you can make use of this information to assist you in deciding what you wish to do with your installation.
 
One way to fix this is to not feed though the GFCI from the bathroom to the rest of the circuit. Just pig tail the feed and now the downstream circuit is not GFCI protected. But, now will need to add a GFCI receptable(s) downstream that was previsouly protected by the one in the bathroom. What this will do it protect the downstream stuff from bathroom GFCI trips. For example, my house has all the bathrooms (except the master) on the same circuit with the first bath in the circuit containing the GFCI. I don't want people to have to hunt down the offender, so I pig tailed the cirucit in each box and installed GFCI's at each bath receptable.
 
tthh said:
One way to fix this is to not feed though the GFCI from the bathroom to the rest of the circuit. Just pig tail the feed and now the downstream circuit is not GFCI protected. But, now will need to add a GFCI receptable(s) downstream that was previsouly protected by the one in the bathroom. What this will do it protect the downstream stuff from bathroom GFCI trips. For example, my house has all the bathrooms (except the master) on the same circuit with the first bath in the circuit containing the GFCI. I don't want people to have to hunt down the offender, so I pig tailed the cirucit in each box and installed GFCI's at each bath receptable.
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No need in pigtailing, just use the line side to feed the next receptacle. They are made for two conductors in the terminals.
 
Little Bill said:
No need in pigtailing, just use the line side to feed the next receptacle. They are made for two conductors in the terminals.
Click to expand...
Yes, of course that works, but I still prefer to just pigtail and not use the receptacle for the downstream contunity.
 
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