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Simple Q - wiring GFI Mamba 11-26-2007
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Posted by samurai on November 26, 2007, 8:52 pm

>Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
>that I don't know why my current setup won't work.
>
>I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
>outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
>outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
>goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.
>
>When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and everything
>worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have been
>a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
>with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
>wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white wires
>to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice on
>both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
>correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot wire
>on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style tester,
>but the switch did not turn on the lights.
>
>So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
>Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
>luck.
>I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
>everything works fine again.
>
>Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
>place?
>
>BrkrBox -----------> Outlet -------------> Switch -----------> Lights
>

If this is the type that has the 'reset' on it, you will have to push
it in ALL the way before the circuit will work.
I've got one that is wired in a similar fashion, when the outlet
downstream can cause the GFI to flip, I gotta got to the bathroom and
reset the button on the GFI.

Also, check to make sure the light switch is ON, as bathroom outlets
are wired to the light switch.

If there is power, does yours have a green LED on it? Is it lit?

samurai.

PexSupply Full Banner
Posted by Mamba on November 27, 2007, 3:55 pm
>
>>Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
>>place?
>>
>>BrkrBox -----------> Outlet -------------> Switch -----------> Lights
>>
>
> If this is the type that has the 'reset' on it, you will have to push
> it in ALL the way before the circuit will work.
> I've got one that is wired in a similar fashion, when the outlet
> downstream can cause the GFI to flip, I gotta got to the bathroom and
> reset the button on the GFI.
>
> Also, check to make sure the light switch is ON, as bathroom outlets
> are wired to the light switch.
>
> If there is power, does yours have a green LED on it? Is it lit?
>
> samurai.

Yes, it has a reset on it, and I did do the test and reset a couple of
times. It also has the green LED which indeed lights up as well.

I had actually purchased a 3-pack of the GFIs and probably should have
swapped in another one as a test. Another thing I did not do was to press
the Test button and see if I still read juice on the Load hot wire. I
presume that power should have been shut down along with the plugs
themselves.





Posted by David Combs on December 20, 2007, 4:39 am
suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
less chance of failure.

What result?

Fire?

No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)

Thanks,

David



Posted by RBM on December 20, 2007, 6:55 am
You can't wire them in series, but you can wire one off of the load side of
another. They'll work fine



> suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
> less chance of failure.
>
> What result?
>
> Fire?
>
> No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
>



Posted by John Grabowski on December 20, 2007, 8:23 am

> You can't wire them in series, but you can wire one off of the load side
of
> another. They'll work fine


I had a customer do that in his own home. Three bathroom receptacles and
one outdoor receptacle were all fed from one bathroom GFI as wired by the
original builder. The homeowner changed all of the standard receptacles in
the bathrooms to GFI but did not change the wiring from feed through to pig
tail. He called me to figure out why they didn't work. It was one of my
easiest service calls trying to figure out which GFI was tripped. When I
got all of them working I hit the test button on one and it tripped the GFI
that was before it. What a hassle.


> > suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
> > less chance of failure.
> >
> > What result?
> >
> > Fire?
> >
> > No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > David


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