GFCI without ground

jasoncw

My Dad has an old house (built in the 50's I believe), and it still has the old 2 wire setup. My question is, will a GFCI work properly without a ground hooked to it? TIA

Jason

Speedy Petey

Absolutely.

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Sometimes I feel like if I answer any more questions it is like someone trying to climb over a fence to jump off a bridge and me giving them a boost.

frenchelectrican

Yep it will work but just remind you that if you install the GFCI repectale and running on 2 wire UNgrounded circuit make sure you marked the affected repectales as " no equiment grounding conductors " something like that most GFCI repectales they do have sticker in the box.

i save quite few of them and used on ungrounded circuits [ i keep that to last resort if cant rewire that circuit then i used that sticker to fornwarn it ]

Merci, Marc

CowboyAndy

Replacing a 2 prong recep with a GFCI device is the only acceptable means of changing from 2 prong to 3 prong without having an equiptment ground. Depending on how many outlets there are a GFCI breaker might make sense. Before my living room was rewired, we wanted 3 prong for convience, but all the outlets were wired seperatly from jboxes in the basement, so we would have to put a GFCI recep at every location.

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chris75

Why not put a gfi at the first j-box in the basement?

I_think_I_conduit

I would like to know the answer to that also.

I_think_I_conduit

Oh, I see...that was a rhetorical question.

Come to think of it, I REALLY appreciate that advice. I have been thru hell replacing some 2 prong outlets with gfcis...first the cost and also the gfis barely want to fit back into the old boxes.

Finding a feed to just 2 outlets would become an efficient job compared to replacing every receptacle...And you may get lucky and hit a whole room, or even two.

Plus I just realized that if you replace 2-prong receptacles with GFCIs at every outlet box, you still have the chance of a shock if the hot wire scrapes the metal box especially with the larger GFCI pressing the (most likely older braided or knob and tube) wiring into the box. But by replacing just one gfci at a junction box in the basement, you also cut down (eliminate?) that shock hazard throughout the whole run, right?.

thanks very much for that pointer.

But would I need to worry about the GFCI load being rated for 20amps?
What if my wiring is only 14 gauge?

uh-oh...

Oh well, I don't know...that's why I am here.

CowboyAndy

If your wiring is 14AWG then it should be fused at 15AMPS. There would be no need to worry about 20AMP protection. You cannot use a 20AMP rated GFI, rather you need to use a 15AMP rated. As long as it doesn't have the t-shaped prong, then you are okay.

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I_think_I_conduit

thanks again.