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Ryanallen11 June 19th 19 04:14 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this?
The outlet is on a wall inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button) outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one room of
my basement are also connected to it as well.
I disconnected the fridge and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably had the
most rain.
Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any help is
much appreciated!

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...g-1194081-.htm



Ed Pawlowski[_3_] June 19th 19 04:41 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On 6/18/2019 10:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall
inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button)
outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any
of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one
room of
my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge
and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no
problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are
popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is
worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably
had the
most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not
sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement
lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the
lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights
in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be
getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any
help is
much appreciated!


Could be moisture. Rain, condensation. Could be any one of the plugs
causing it. Check the grounds for good contact.

Refrigerators should not be on a GFCI for the reason you are
experiencing. Would suck to have it trip while you are on vacation.

[email protected] June 19th 19 07:41 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Tue, 18 Jun 2019 22:41:57 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 6/18/2019 10:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall
inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button)
outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any
of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one
room of
my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge
and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no
problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are
popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is
worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably
had the
most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not
sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement
lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the
lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights
in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be
getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any
help is
much appreciated!


Could be moisture. Rain, condensation. Could be any one of the plugs
causing it. Check the grounds for good contact.

Refrigerators should not be on a GFCI for the reason you are
experiencing. Would suck to have it trip while you are on vacation.


Power off the circuit. open all of the boxes on that circuit. Make
sure the wires are away from the sides of the box, no wires are nicked
and make sure all wire nuts are pointed up. That fixes about 99 % of
these things.
Boxes in wet locations get wet inside. Eliminate the ground paths made
by the water.

Dean Hoffman[_12_] June 19th 19 12:57 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On 6/18/19 9:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall
inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button)
outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any
of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one
room of
my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge
and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no
problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are
popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is
worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably
had the
most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not
sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement
lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the
lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights
in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be
getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any
help is
much appreciated!


Use a trouble light or small lamp to trace the circuit. Plug it
in at different
spots, then flip the gfci off and on to see if the light goes off and
on with it.
The problem could still be the fridge. A gfci is more sensitive
than a
regular circuit breaker.

trader_4 June 19th 19 04:00 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 6:57:50 AM UTC-4, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 6/18/19 9:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall
inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button)
outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any
of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one
room of
my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge
and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no
problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are
popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is
worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably
had the
most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not
sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement
lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the
lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights
in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be
getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any
help is
much appreciated!


Use a trouble light or small lamp to trace the circuit. Plug it
in at different
spots, then flip the gfci off and on to see if the light goes off and
on with it.
The problem could still be the fridge. A gfci is more sensitive
than a
regular circuit breaker.


I'd start by finding out if there is an outside receptacle on it. Very
common for a garage GFCI to also be used for a receptacle outside.
That could have water in it. Or it could have an extension cord in it
that's left laying out or powering something. If all the receptacles
and anything else on it seem OK, then next replace the GFCI.



[email protected] June 19th 19 06:31 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 

I'd start by finding out if there is an outside receptacle on it.


or an outside post lamp fed by an underground wire.

m


[email protected] June 19th 19 06:40 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Wed, 19 Jun 2019 05:57:45 -0500, Dean Hoffman
wrote:

On 6/18/19 9:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall
inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button)
outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any
of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one
room of
my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge
and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no
problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are
popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is
worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably
had the
most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not
sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement
lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the
lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights
in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be
getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any
help is
much appreciated!


Use a trouble light or small lamp to trace the circuit. Plug it
in at different
spots, then flip the gfci off and on to see if the light goes off and
on with it.
The problem could still be the fridge. A gfci is more sensitive
than a
regular circuit breaker.


She said she already eliminated the fridge. Trader is right an out
side box is likely on that circuit but that is where my previous
advice is most important.Keep your wires away from the inside of the
box as much as possible, keep them off the bottom of ther box and your
wire nuts pointing up so they won't fill with moisture.
Ants in the boxes will get you every time.

Fred McKenzie June 19th 19 07:04 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
In article ,
Ryanallen11 m
wrote:

So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping.


Others have given you good advice. Most likely you have leakage via
moisture.

Another thing to consider is that the GFCI outlet may have failed. Do
you have another you could swap with it?

Fred

Oren[_2_] June 19th 19 07:42 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Wed, 19 Jun 2019 13:04:20 -0400, Fred McKenzie
wrote:

In article ,
Ryanallen11 m
wrote:

So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping.


Others have given you good advice. Most likely you have leakage via
moisture.

Another thing to consider is that the GFCI outlet may have failed. Do
you have another you could swap with it?

Fred


+1

dpb[_3_] June 19th 19 08:09 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On 6/19/2019 12:41 AM, wrote:
....

Power off the circuit. open all of the boxes on that circuit. Make
sure the wires are away from the sides of the box, no wires are nicked
and make sure all wire nuts are pointed up. That fixes about 99 % of
these things.
Boxes in wet locations get wet inside. Eliminate the ground paths made
by the water.


...."make sure all wire nuts are pointed up."

Hadn't ever thought of that one -- makes some sense if there is really
heavy condensation problem or the box actually does take on water,
though. Altho in SW KS unless it's outside in a downpour, such issues
are pretty-much a non-issue, I could see in those swampy places to live
like Houston.

--




Mark Lloyd[_12_] June 19th 19 09:29 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On 6/18/19 9:14 PM, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first
happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it
and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it
and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I
reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute
where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just
immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before
tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this?


I had a GFCI in my kitchen (also on an exterior wall) with that problem.
The electrical box was full of dead ants.

[snip]

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he
him." [Jethro Tull, "Aqualung"]

Dean Hoffman[_12_] June 19th 19 11:25 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On 6/19/19 1:09 PM, dpb wrote:
On 6/19/2019 12:41 AM, wrote:
...

Power off the circuit. open all of the boxes on that circuit. Make
sure the wires are away from the sides of the box, no wires are nicked
and make sure all wire nuts are pointed up. That fixes about 99 % of
these things.
Boxes in wet locations get wet inside. Eliminate the ground paths made
by the water.


..."make sure all wire nuts are pointed up."

Hadn't ever thought of that one -- makes some sense if there is really
heavy condensation problem or the box actually does take on water,
though.Â* Altho in SW KS unless it's outside in a downpour, such issues
are pretty-much a non-issue, I could see in those swampy places to live
like Houston.


Motor junction boxes on irrigation systems. Crews are supposed to
do that.


micky June 21st 19 02:22 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 19 Jun 2019 02:14:01 GMT, Ryanallen11
m wrote:



So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2


If you would use paragraphs, it would make your post 10x as readable.
That is their purpose.

So I didn't read your post but I'm going to suggest that the the outlet
or the breaker, whichever it is, might be bad. I had a GFI breaker that
came with the house and was 4 years old and was already tripping for no
reason. Replaced it and 30 years later the new one is still good.


CRNG[_2_] June 22nd 19 08:00 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Thu, 20 Jun 2019 20:22:29 -0400, micky
wrote in

In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 19 Jun 2019 02:14:01 GMT, Ryanallen11
om wrote:



So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2


If you would use paragraphs, it would make your post 10x as readable.
That is their purpose.

So I didn't read your post but I'm going to suggest that the the outlet
or the breaker, whichever it is, might be bad. I had a GFI breaker that
came with the house and was 4 years old and was already tripping for no
reason. Replaced it and 30 years later the new one is still good.


+1
--
Web based forums are like subscribing to 10 different newspapers
and having to visit 10 different news stands to pickup each one.
Email list-server groups and USENET are like having all of those
newspapers delivered to your door every morning.

Mark[_56_] June 22nd 19 05:21 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 9:14:06 PM UTC-5, Ryanallen11 wrote:
So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2
days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked
fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it and
everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it and it
stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I reset
it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30
minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute where
hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just immediately
pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before tripping
again. Any clue on what could be causing this?
The outlet is on a wall inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the
exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button) outlets
in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a
refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any of them
will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one room of
my basement are also connected to it as well.
I disconnected the fridge and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no problem so I
know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are popped
and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still
persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is worse than
the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably had the
most rain.
Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not sure if that circuit
is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet.
All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement lights
won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the lights in
the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights in the
house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be getting in
somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the
exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened
during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any help is
much appreciated!

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...g-1194081-.htm


When you say " I disconnected the fridge and plugged it into an extension cord that I then
plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no problem so I
know it's not the fridge. " Are you saying the frig worked fine but did the gfi still trip ? If the gfi stopped tripping then it is the frig.

PoPo June 12th 21 06:04 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
Warning the grammar police have arrived on the scene 😂🚨

--
For full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...g-1194081-.htm


Marilyn Manson June 13th 21 01:01 AM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 
On Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 8:22:37 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 19 Jun 2019 02:14:01 GMT, Ryanallen11
wrote:



So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2

If you would use paragraphs, it would make your post 10x as readable.
That is their purpose.

So I didn't read your post but I'm going to suggest that the the outlet
or the breaker, whichever it is, might be bad. I had a GFI breaker that
came with the house and was 4 years old and was already tripping for no
reason. Replaced it and 30 years later the new one is still good.


How do you know that the new one isn't bad and hasn't been tripping when it
was supposed to?

Tekkie© June 15th 21 11:02 PM

GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping
 

On Sat, 12 Jun 2021 16:01:07 -0700 (PDT), Marilyn Manson posted for all of us
to digest...


On Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 8:22:37 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 19 Jun 2019 02:14:01 GMT, Ryanallen11
wrote:



So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2

If you would use paragraphs, it would make your post 10x as readable.
That is their purpose.

So I didn't read your post but I'm going to suggest that the the outlet
or the breaker, whichever it is, might be bad. I had a GFI breaker that
came with the house and was 4 years old and was already tripping for no
reason. Replaced it and 30 years later the new one is still good.


How do you know that the new one isn't bad and hasn't been tripping when it
was supposed to?


Mickey (sic) has a lot of posters in his killfile. He only replies to his
'crew' so don't feel slighted. His mind is made up and don't confuse him with
facts.

--
Tekkie


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