Mik;

I'm not an electrician, but have done house wiring more than a few
times, including my own home. I've never had a GFI receptacle fail in
almost 20 years of their having been installed in my home.

One failure of a receptable might constitute a faulty unit. Failures of
two would be incredible odds.

Any more than than one and I would tend to suspect that the wiring was
done improperly.

ie Undersized wire overloaded circuit, improperly designed circuits.

Mikhael47 wrote:
I have an outdoor GFCI outlet. About every two years, I have to
replace the
outlet. It doesn't trip very often (if at all) between the time I
install
the new one, and the time it finally starts to trip constantly. I
do run
pond equipment on this circuit all summer. It seems to fail in the
winter
time when I either plug my truck's block heater in, or I try and
start my
snowblower. It doesn't trip if I plug my xmas lights into it.

I am not an expert electrician, however when I built our home, I was
present
when the wiring for the house was done. I can confirm that there is
no
damage to the circuit cabling. This leads me to believe that the
GFCI
itself is failing. If I replace the GFCI it will work as expected.

My question is, is it reasonable to only expect 2 years of regular
service
out of a GFCI? What are the recommended brands for outdoor use?

Thanks

Mike