waldowonka wrote:
Yes it's a 20 amp breaker. I'm pretty sure it's 14/2. It has a white
jacket, I think 12/2 is a different color. A wash machine has been the
only thing on the circuit for the last few years so I'm thinking its
ok. I asked the question because when I installed the GFI recept. the
GFI tripped. Not sure if you can jumper across the 2 hot sides of the
recept. with the black wire, white on neutral etc.

Yellow jackets on 12/2 (and blue ones on AFCI-protected 14/2) are a
newish convention that the cable makes have brought forth; I don't
think it's code (here at least) and at any rate it's only come out
within the past couple of years. So don't presume that your cable is 14
ga just because it's white; I have much white 12 ga in my house. Look
for the printing on the cable, or examine the conductors with a wire
gauge.

If it really is 14 ga, replace the breaker with a 15A one. If only your
washer is using the circuit, it shouldn't trip it. (If it does,
something's wrong and needs to be fixed; your 14 ga has been
overloaded. If the washer has a normal parallel-blade plug it should be
ok on a 15 A circuit.)

Your code may require a "dedicated" circuit for a washing machine, and
would prohibit two outlets on the circuit. However, I'm pretty sure
even a "dedicated" circuit can be a duplex outlet, so you could replace
the simplex outlet with a duplex and run the washer and the 'lectric
litterbox at the same time. I see no advantage to adding a second
receptacle; surely the litterbox would be happy on a good extension
cord if distance is the issue.

And you could certainly try making it a GFCI receptacle. Nuisance trips
from the washer are a possibility but wouldn't be the end of the world;
it's not like it's a freezer or a sump pump. If they're too frequent
then you'd probably want to revert it to a normal receptacle.
(Actually, I have my sump pump on a GFCI and I've had no nuisance trips
at all.)

(Were you trying to jumper across two hot terminal screws on a GFCI
receptacle? No, no, no. Those are the "in" and "out" connectors; the
former gets the power feed from upstream, and the latter are for
feeding downstream outlets that you want to provide GFCI protection to.
It is not at all the same as a normal duplex outlet in which each
outlet can be fed from its own terminals.)

Chip C
Toronto