"Doug" wrote in message
...
I believe most of my outlets are wired in one series to a GFI outlet
in my garage but I'm not sure of the outlet beside my garage door
opener. Is there a way to tell if this outlet is also protected?

Also, is there a difference between a GFI outlet and surge protected
outlet ? Keep in mind, I'm far from a electrical guru so easy words
please grin.

If you want to do it simple, the GFI outlet should have a test button on it.
Press that button, it should trip the GFI. You will not have any power at
that outlet. Then go to the other outlets and see if you have power there.
Plug in a lamp or radio or any small device to check for power. When you
have found outlets that do not work, go back to the GFI outlet and press the
reset button. That will turn the power back on. Go to the other outlets
and power should also be restored there.

Of the garage door opener is in the cealing of the garage, I doubt it is
hooked to the GFI as you want to get the door open if that is where the
opener is plugged in. Same as you do not hook a GFI to a refrigerator.
Those things can trip for no good reason and all the food will go bad.

A GFI outlet or breaker if in the main box are to prortect you. In simple
terms it senses a current differance between the hot and neutral wires. All
the curent goes out of one hole in the outlet and should come back in the
other hole. If for some reason some of the current goes out of one hole,
but say there is a short from that wire to the metal case of something you
have in your hand (say electric weed eater). Some of the current will go
through you and to the earth and not return to the other wire. If enough
goes this path, you will get electricuted. The ammount is less than it
takes to light up a 10 watt lightbulb. If working correctly, the GFI will
open up the circuit before the current will cause you any harm. Also if an
outside outlet gets wet, it can trip the GFI if it has one.

A surge protected outlet will not do anything to protect you. They are made
to protect electronic devices from over voltage. Say during a thunder
storm, lightning hits some electrical wires down the road , a high voltage
may be developed and comes into your house. The surge protector is to send
this voltage to the ground wire and protect the electronic devices in your
house. They are not big enough to protect extreanly large surges if say
lightning hits the pole outside your house.

Very shout version. GFI protects you, surge protector protects equipment
from over voltage.

There is some more to that above, but this is the simple version that should
get the meaning across.