"Maynard A. Philbrook Jr." wrote:

In article ,
says...
Hi David,

I should have been clearer in my description. After noticing that the power
was off to the outlet, I pushed the GFCI reset button but I didn't hear a
click. At that point I figured either the GFCI hadn't tripped and there was
an internal problem, or it had tripped and there was something wrong with
the resetting mechanism. I removed the outlet from the wall and that's when
I noticed the missing ground connection. Regarding the GFCI, there was
nothing wrong with it. I read on a message board that you may have to apply
quite a bit of force to get it to reset. I tried again and it finally reset.
This was the first time this GFCI has tripped.

I looked again at the ground wiring you see in the picture. It exits the box
through a hole in the top of the box. If it's secured to anything outside
the box I can't tell. Is there some official test to perform to check if a
junction box is grounded?

Thanks for your reply.
--
David Farber
Los Osos, CA



The ground wire is connected to the ground screw of the duplex, your
outlet in most cases, if not, it's connected to the metal box and when
the duplex is screwed into the box, it then gets connected to ground.
You can also have it both ways which is better but takes longer to
install.

Ground wires are part of the romix wire so it gets connected to your
main ground in your home back at the sub panel box, where your breakers
live. In there the ground wire is attached to the same bus strip as the
neutral wire.. Somewhere around there you should have a real earth
ground connecting to the sub panel.

Although a GFCI will trip with an older non grounded system, it's not
advisable, because in order for this to happen, the circuit has to
become
unbalanced and if it is the appliance that is shorting, you maybe
touching it at the time. Grounds are there to isolate you from the
high potential when things go wrong. Having no ground plug means the
appliance is not grounded.

As for the reset on the GFCI outlet, for most units your power has to
be on before it'll reset.

jamie


Sigh, why do you post so much crap?

GFCI are allowed on non grounded outlets. If the device is 'shorted'
it will trip a circuit breaker. If it has developed a fault path to the
case, you won't trip it unless you are touching the defective device and
a suitably grounded item.
--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.