Gfci Stays Trip

CAJUN_MAN

I have a dedicated 120 volt circuit that is on a 20 amp breaker ran to a receptacle box on a outside wall. When I tested the voltage from black to white before I installed the gfci, it read 121 volts. I turn off the breaker and wire the gfci and turn the breaker back on, the gfci is tripped and the light is on. It won't let me reset it. I have tried 3 gfci's and they all do the same. The main 20 amp breaker never tripped and if I unwire the gfci and measure the voltage it's 121 volts, so I am confused. The gfci shows tripped, but yet it doesn't tripped the 20 amp. Any ideas?

HouseHelper

Make sure you have the GFCI wired correctly. If it is wired incorrectly, it will not reset. The incoming power must be connected to the LINE side connections.

CAJUN_MAN

I did verify that it was connected to the line side and it stays tripped.

Stubbie

Is this a new addition to the house?

By that I mean did you install a new box and cable and gfci or were you experiencing a problem with an existing gfci and the new ones are also tripping?

The breaker will not trip if you have a fault on the neutral wire to ground

So if this is a new install then you have a fault you accidently created and did not notice.

If I was going to guess you have a metal box and you have tightened the clamp for the cable too tight and it pierced the insulation of the white wire and it is contacting ground. Either to the box or the ground wire. this will only trip the gfci if the load is plugged into it.

Are you saying it trips the minute you turn on the breaker with nothing plugged in?

CAJUN_MAN

This is a new separate outdoor kitchen that is being built. The metal box is mounted flush in a exterior brick wall, and yes the gfci trips as soon as you hook up the gfi and turn on the 20 amp breaker for the circuit. It does not however tripp the 20 amp breaker, only the gfi. I have tried also with the gfi wired and out of the box, not mounted also and it does the same thing.

CAJUN_MAN

Ok, I think I understand what you are saying. If the neutral wire is nicked and is touching the metal of the box or brick then the box becomes a ground and thus tripst the gfi. I guess I could check the continuity test between the neutral and the box to see if it is open or shorted.[/quote]

Ok, I just pulled the metal box out and put in a plastic box and also put a regular recepticle and it works and doesn't trip the 20 amp breaker. Now I am really confused!!

Stubbie

Cajun

In your case any fault that comes before the wires enter the gfci will not trip it. If the gfci is on a dedicated branch circuit and that gfci is all that is on that circuit.... then if nothing is plugged into that gfci and it trips when you power up the circuit breaker then it almost has to be miswired.

Your circuit breaker will not trip unless you have a sort to ground with the hot wire or a short to neutral with the hot wire in your situation. A fault that trips a gfci will generally be a very small leakage of current in the milliamps range this will not trip a circuit breaker.

The situation I described earlier would only apply to a cable wired to the load terminals of a gfci that was protecting a down stream regular receptacle.

Please look again at the way you have your gfci wired.

Installing a regular receptacle and plastic box only proves that something was wrong with the way the gfci is wired.

There was tape over the load terminals of the new gfci's correct?

Was your gfci wired like this one in the image. The line terminals are across from each other not diagonal or any other way.