Doug wrote:

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.


NOT A SERIOUS SUGGESTION
========================

If you are brave:

Wire a resistor with a value about 3000 ohms between line/live and
ground/earth and plug it in.

Assuming this is a 110-120V outlet and the GFCI is set at 30mA this should
cause the GFCI to trip out (it would cause a current imbalance of about 35mA
RMS which is a little more than a 30mA GFCI would be looking for. Adjust
resistor if your GFCI is differently rated.

If there's no GFCI and the resistor has a power rating less than about 3-4W
it's likely to act like a fuse and explode.

This is NOT an entirely serious proposition unless you are careful but it
would make a fairly valid test and show that the GFCI was tripping at the
right amount of current imbalance.

I would not be surprised if there was a ready made plug version (safely
designed) that you could buy.

In fact:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sperry-GFI6302-GFCI-Outlet-
Tester-/290770585838#vi-content

Looks like a variation on the classic neon based socket-wiring verifier.
Only $18. Worth having I would say - GFCIs (or RCDs as we Brits call them)
are prone to failure and sticking. At the very least, push the test button a
couple of times a year as routing maintenance.

Of course, it does not tell you that your GFCI is tripping in the required
time - for that you need a fancy tester.


--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies."