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[email protected] gfretwell@aol.com is offline
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Default Help finding underground wire/box

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 07:33:49 -0400, Todesco
wrote:

On 6/16/2020 10:59 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:56:57 -0400, Todesco
wrote:

On 6/16/2020 7:14 AM, Todesco wrote:
On 6/14/2020 6:29 AM, Todesco wrote:
On 6/13/2020 7:36 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 6/13/20 6:21 PM, Todesco wrote:

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* Snipped a bunch.

I opened the, now found 4" plastic box, expecting to find it full of
water.Â* Nope. Just a little condensation and some mud which leaked
in through where the UF wire goes to the lamp post and also another
outlet. Â*Â*I cleaned the area where the wires enter and sealed with a
sealant. Power to the box comes through a 2" orange plastic flexible
conduit. Wire nuts were centered in the box not touching the sides.
So, the GFCI breaker trips from something, so I plastic bagged the
outlet on the bottom of the post light.Â* The other outlet is covered
with a bucket. Now it's a waiting game to see if I get "false" trips.

Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* Were the open ends of the wire nuts on the down side so any
condensation that might've existed could drain?
Â*Â* There are wire nuts available that contain silicone sealant or
something similar.Â*Â* Maybe using those would help.

Good point, I'll open the box and check it later today.Â* It's
suppossed to rain today, so I don't know if I will get to it.
Well it did rain, about an inch, so I didn't open the box.Â* But, with
both outlets completely covered, no GCFI trippage.Â* That doesn't really
mean anything because before it would trip the next day after a big
rain.Â* More to come in this saga.
Today, even though it was threatening to rain, I open the outside
(formerly burried) box. I wanted to put some better screws holing the
cover because at least one was stripped out. I was surprised at how
much condensation was on the inside of the cover. I did reposition the
wire nuts so the open end faced down. I think I am going to put a vent
on the cover. Maybe a 1" plastic pipe coming up, 90 degrees to the
right and then 45 degrees downward. A piece of screening in the pipe
would keep bugs and critters out.


Underground installations are considered wet locations because they
all fill with water over time. Get some direct burial rated splices
like they use on well pump wires and eliminate that as a suspect.

Next update. It rained quite a bit on Tuesday, no trippage on Tuesday
night or Wednesday. On Thursday, just a drizzle in the 3AM area ...
Thursday night, tripped! I'm ready to remove the GCFI and go 'illegal'
with a regular breaker. As this never happened when I had the original
dead front GCFI just below the breaker box, I think I will exchange the
breaker for a new one. I might also try the old dead front GCFI again
to see what happens.


If you want to make a worm chaser you could move the GFCI protection
to the first "outlet" outside. That is still legal, even on the 2020.
They did require GFCI on all outside "outlets" (including utility
buildings) in the 2020. That includes lighting outlets. (light
fixtures)