GFCI 10-pack something is wrong

jackwashere

Before I declare this one a loss I want to get a second or third opinion. At Lowe's/Home Depot GFCI outlets cost $9 and $14 for 15A and 20A (package of 3). On craigslist I see an ad: $5 and $6 for 15A and 20A. It's a small hole-in-the-wall electronics warehouse type of store. OK so I decide to visit the place to buy quantity one 20A and quantity two 15A outlets. The guy says he'll sell me a whole box of the 15A's for $4.50 each. That's 1/2 price Lowes/Home Depot! I fell for it. On the ranch after struggling for some time I realize the outlets don't work. I hook them up just like the diagram says. Take the yellow sticker off. Black wire to brass screw. White wire to silver screw. Ground to green screw. Use probe to check the black wire is live/hot and white/ground complete a circuit. Press reset after connecting the wires several times. Try as I may I can't get the receptacle to work. I figure it might be a bad apple. So I try another then another from the box. Nothing. Then I try the 20A. Works the first time. It would appear that the entire 10-pack of 15A GFCI receptacles that the hole-in-the-wall sold me are bad. Is there anything I could be doing wrong when I install these or is it just a bad batch and I got shafted?

Techy

99% of GFI's i deal with you would have wired backwards, the yellow sticker is usually covering the 'Load' terminals, you want to connect to the 'Line' terminals.

joecaption

Why do you need that many.
The in coming power needed to go to the line side, any outlets down stream go on the load side.
You only need to have one GFI to protect all the outlets down line on the same circut.

rjniles

If you wired to the terminals under the yellow tape, you connected to the load side. Move them to the line terminals. Most of the bargain GFCIs I see on ebay are older models that do not meet current code.

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frenchelectrican

The other thing you have to be carefull is you have to know which one is line supply and load supply if you ever get one of them crossed it will not work.

Second thing if you ever have MWBC ( multi wire branch circuit ) you have to be extra carefull with them you can not share the netural on full protection on downstream of GFCI's so therefore you will have to set them up as single point each loaction which it will add more cost otherwise a two pole GFCI breaker will slove the issue.

However with two pole GFCI breaker not all the breaker panels will take them so you have to check the listing to make sure they can take it.

You will need basic tester ( Neon test light will work very well on this one ) turn the circuit off and find which pair of NM or UF cable come in the box you should able indentify it then keep them in pairs if more than one in the junction box and keep the conductor seperated and turn the breaker on and test each one to see which one is line supply and the other is load then turn the breaker off and do the rest of hook up.

Merci,
Marc

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The answer will be based on NEC ( National Electrical code ) or CEC ( Cananda Electrical code ) or ECF ( Electrique Code France )

jackwashere

OK OK I may have gotten the names wrong. But I have to say I don't feel silly because the wording is counter-intuitive in my opinion. Load means something that does the heavy lifting or "carries the load" as they say. Line means secondary or "down the line" as they say or after the fact.

I did some more reading on the internet and it appears you might have figured out my error. Will try to reverse the connections and see if that works.

Thanx.

jbfan

In electrical every thing that is the line is the point closest to the incoming power.
Load is everything after is point.

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