Beats me

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highresistance

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Working on a friend's cabin. Mix of bx and romex, new 200 amp service installed by a licensed contractor recently. He has a GFCI outlet in the bathroom which does not trip on test so he purchased a new one and asked if I would change it out. Installed the new on using the line connections on the device. New one does not trip either. Plugged in my tester, no lights at all and test button has no effect. Checked voltage with my Fluke, polarity correct, 124.7 vac hot to neutral & hot to ground, continuity between neutral and ground. Golly gee whiz? Only thing I need to check is perhaps this was added to existing bx old wiring, could that make a difference?
 
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If you plugged in an external tester and saw no lights, you should also find that nothing plugged into the receptacle will work.
This is an indication that the supply wires are connected to the Load (downstream circuit) terminals not the Line (supply side) terminals and the GFCI will not reset because it detects this miswiring. (As stated tersely in post #2)

Otherwise, as suggested in post #3, it is not a real GFCI receptacle.
 
Are you using the test button on the GFCI itself or just an external tester?
If you do not have an EGC at the receptacle which is bonded back to the utility neutral an external tester will not work. But the lights on the external tester should still work as long as the unit will reset properly.

On some GFCI receptacles it was difficult to distinguish between not tripping and never resetting in the first place.
 
GoldDigger said:
On some GFCI receptacles it was difficult to distinguish between not tripping and never resetting in the first place.
Click to expand...

That's what I would suspect. that it's not resetting.

I would install the GFCI at another location to make sure it really works.

Some GFCIs won't reset if the receptacle shows it's not wired correctly. There may be some reason the GFCI is locking out or it's just a bad one.
 
highresistance said:
Working on a friend's cabin. Mix of bx and romex, new 200 amp service installed by a licensed contractor recently. He has a GFCI outlet in the bathroom which does not trip on test so he purchased a new one and asked if I would change it out. Installed the new on using the line connections on the device. New one does not trip either. Plugged in my tester, no lights at all and test button has no effect. Checked voltage with my Fluke, polarity correct, 124.7 vac hot to neutral & hot to ground, continuity between neutral and ground. Golly gee whiz? Only thing I need to check is perhaps this was added to existing bx old wiring, could that make a difference?
Click to expand...
No indication with your (bug eyes) tester, yet your Fluke says there is voltage? Put load on it and check voltage again. If it works with a load you still have unexplained things to look for, if it don't work with a load - you have a bad connection somewhere in the supply line(s).
 
highresistance said:
Thanks, yes I know the difference between line and load on a GFI also there was this big bright yellow warning tape.:happyno:
Click to expand...

You may know the difference between line and load but if there are feeder wires to another receptacle, do you know which was line and which was load?

Take the wires off the GFCI (with breaker off) then turn the breaker back on. Take your meter and find which set of wires is "hot" and put them on the line side. The GFCI should work if there is true voltage present.

If only a single set is present and you read voltage then take a "pigtail socket" and connect the wires to the "pigtail". Make sure you have a good bulb in the "pigtail". If there is true voltage the bulb should light. If you were reading "phantom" voltage the bulb won't light, or maybe light dimly.
Then you need to find where you have lost the voltage.
 
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