DIYbanter - View Single Post - GFI in Medicine Cabinet

Dan Lanciani

In article , (RBM) writes:

| I've never seen one. It probably isn't practical to make one.

It isn't clear why it is any less practical to make one with a GFCI
outlet than one with an ordinary duplex outlet, and the latter certainly
exist. (You might even argue that the Decora punch outline is easier.

And of course we see built-in GFCIs popping up in various places (e.g.,
hair dryers and trouble lights with outlets) so the concept isn't that
far-fetched.

| There was a
| time when outlets weren't installed in bathrooms, then later when they were
| being installed, a fixture mounted outlet was a cheap solution. Once GFCI
| protection was required, you had to install a new outlet or protect the
| bathroom feed upstream

True enough, but for the case of replacing an existing cabinet/fixture
with outlet (I'm sure I'm not the only one with such things) the
built-in GFCI seems like an obvious win. The market for the units with
a non-GFCI outlet appears much smaller. They would be useful only if the
lighting circuit was already protected. It would be funny if it's all
about patent royalties...

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

| "Dan Lanciani" ddl@danlan.*com wrote in message
| ...
| In article ,
| (mm) writes:
| | On 21 Mar 2007 03:41:11 GMT, ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote:
| |
| | In article , (RBM)
| writes:
| |
| | | It's fine to install the outlet in the cabinet, although I'm sure it
| would
| | | meet the bathroom outlet requirement, which is to say, to meet code,
| you may
| | | need an outlet outside the cabinet as well.
| |
| | Speaking of outlets in medicine cabinets...
| |
| | My house (like many of its age) has bathroom outlets integrated into
| the
| | medicine cabinet/light or over-cabinet light assemblies. It seemed to
| me
| | that it should be easy to find replacement lighting fixtures with
| integrated
| | GFCI outlets, but after poking around the big box stores and doing a
| lot of
| | Googling I didn't see any. At first I thought that outlets in bathroom
| | lighting fixtures were simply no longer allowed and/or that you are
| expected
| | to install a normal GFCI in the wall if you are replacing the cabinet,
| but
| | then I found some bathroom lighting fixtures with *non*-GFCI outlets.
| | (Unfortunately, the non-GFCI outlets aren't Decora so swapping in a
| GFCI
| | would require some metal work and would probably void the UL
| listing...)
| |
| | Eventually my Google search came across a patent on (I think) the
| concept
| | of GFCI outlets in bathroom lighting fixtures. Please tell me this
| isn't
| | the reason for the scarcity of such products.

| |
| | I have no idea, but you can find the circuit breaker for your light
| | fixture with outlet, and replace that breaker with a GFI breaker.
|
| Actually I can't, because there is no circuit breaker.
|
| I could of course intercept the circuit in the basement and install a
| GFCI outlet inline, but I'm still curious about the existence of
| fixtures with GFCI outlets built in.
|
| Dan Lanciani
| ddl@danlan.*com