Mamba wrote:

Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights



Almost impossible for me to believe that the GFI outlet itself was
defective, but it sure looks like that's the most likely answer.

Any chance of your springing for another GFI outlet and trying again?

Too bad you didn't have a conventional analog multimeter with two leads
on it that you could have used to see if there was voltage between the
black and white wires on the Load side of the GFI. Those pencil style
testers can mislead you real good.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights

Is there a jumper between the screws on both the hot and neutral side.
There also should be another hot connector that is downstream hot can be
wired to if you want GFI protection downstream as well.


"Mamba" wrote in message
. ..
Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and
everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have
been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white
wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice
on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot
wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style
tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights

In article , "Jeff" wrote:
Is there a jumper between the screws on both the hot and neutral side.

Not on a GFCI receptacle.

There also should be another hot connector that is downstream hot can be
wired to if you want GFI protection downstream as well.

That's what he means when he talks about wiring to the Load connectors on the
GFCI.

I agree with Jeff Wisnia: sounds like the OP has a defective GFCI.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Nov 26, 3:42 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Mamba wrote:
Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights

Almost impossible for me to believe that the GFI outlet itself was
defective, but it sure looks like that's the most likely answer.

Any chance of your springing for another GFI outlet and trying again?

Too bad you didn't have a conventional analog multimeter with two leads
on it that you could have used to see if there was voltage between the
black and white wires on the Load side of the GFI. Those pencil style
testers can mislead you real good.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

re :Any chance of your springing for another GFI outlet and trying
again?

Oughta be able to just exchange it for a new one. Not many places,
especially the borgs, argue about returning anything these days. If it
scans, they'll take it back.

Sounds like a bad unit. Just be sure you didn't transpose the line and load
neutrals


"Mamba" wrote in message
. ..
Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and
everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have
been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white
wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice
on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot
wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style
tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:13:23 -0800, "Mamba" wrote:

Well, having wired several of these in the past, I am embarrassed to say
that I don't know why my current setup won't work.

I have a 20 amp circuit shared by several switched lights and a couple of
outlets. The load on this circuit is minimal. I recently added a new
outlet to this circuit, just upstream of a switched light. So the circuit
goes to the outlet, then to the light switch.

When I originally added the outlet, I used a standard outlet, and everything
worked great. This past weekend I decided that the outlet should have been
a GFI (damp basement, etc), and pulled the existing outlet and replaced it
with a new 15A GFI. I wired the supply wires to Line, and the
wires-to-the-light-switch to Load. (black wires to gold screws, white wires
to silver). The GFI lit up (the green indcator glowed), and I had juice on
both of the GFI plugs. The GFI test/reset buttons appeared to work
correctly. However, I had no juice going to my light switch. The hot wire
on the GFI Load connector appeared to have juice on my pencil style tester,
but the switch did not turn on the lights.

So I figured I must have messed up the light switch while playing around.
Hard to imagine, but I replaced it anyways, also with a new one. Still no
luck.
I ended up pulling the GFI and putting the original outlet back, and
everything works fine again.

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights


If this is the type that has the 'reset' on it, you will have to push
it in ALL the way before the circuit will work.
I've got one that is wired in a similar fashion, when the outlet
downstream can cause the GFI to flip, I gotta got to the bathroom and
reset the button on the GFI.

Also, check to make sure the light switch is ON, as bathroom outlets
are wired to the light switch.

If there is power, does yours have a green LED on it? Is it lit?

samurai.

"samurai" sammer003 @ yahoo.ca.spam wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:13:23 -0800, "Mamba" wrote:

Any clues as to why my "downstream" switch won't work when the GFI is in
place?

BrkrBox ----------- Outlet ------------- Switch ----------- Lights


If this is the type that has the 'reset' on it, you will have to push
it in ALL the way before the circuit will work.
I've got one that is wired in a similar fashion, when the outlet
downstream can cause the GFI to flip, I gotta got to the bathroom and
reset the button on the GFI.

Also, check to make sure the light switch is ON, as bathroom outlets
are wired to the light switch.

If there is power, does yours have a green LED on it? Is it lit?

samurai.

Yes, it has a reset on it, and I did do the test and reset a couple of
times. It also has the green LED which indeed lights up as well.

I had actually purchased a 3-pack of the GFIs and probably should have
swapped in another one as a test. Another thing I did not do was to press
the Test button and see if I still read juice on the Load hot wire. I
presume that power should have been shut down along with the plugs
themselves.

suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
less chance of failure.

What result?

Fire?

No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)

Thanks,

David

You can't wire them in series, but you can wire one off of the load side of
another. They'll work fine



"David Combs" wrote in message
...
suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
less chance of failure.

What result?

Fire?

No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)

Thanks,

David

"RBM" rbm2(remove wrote in message
...
You can't wire them in series, but you can wire one off of the load side
of
another. They'll work fine


I had a customer do that in his own home. Three bathroom receptacles and
one outdoor receptacle were all fed from one bathroom GFI as wired by the
original builder. The homeowner changed all of the standard receptacles in
the bathrooms to GFI but did not change the wiring from feed through to pig
tail. He called me to figure out why they didn't work. It was one of my
easiest service calls trying to figure out which GFI was tripped. When I
got all of them working I hit the test button on one and it tripped the GFI
that was before it. What a hassle.


"David Combs" wrote in message
...
suppose you wire two gfci's in series, trying to get
less chance of failure.

What result?

Fire?

No protection at all, since they cancel? (joke)

Thanks,

David

"John Grabowski" writes:

I had a customer do that in his own home. Three bathroom receptacles and
one outdoor receptacle were all fed from one bathroom GFI as wired by the
original builder. The homeowner changed all of the standard receptacles in
the bathrooms to GFI but did not change the wiring from feed through to pig
tail. He called me to figure out why they didn't work. It was one of my
easiest service calls trying to figure out which GFI was tripped. When I
got all of them working I hit the test button on one and it tripped the GFI
that was before it. What a hassle.

The original installer *should* have labelled the downstream outlets
protected by the GFI with a label that says as much. Then you'd know
(a) not to install a GFI at this location, and
(b) if the outlet is off, you need to search for a GFI somewhere else.

But not labelling them seems typical. My house has one GFI on the
outside wall that feeds (and protects) two other outdoor outlets, both
unlabelled. There's a GFI in the tiny ensuite bathroom off the bedroom
that also protects outlets in the main bathroom and the downstairs
bathroom, again without labels.

Dave