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GFI Plug Troubleshooting GFI Plug Troubleshooting
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Old 03-27-2008, 12:09 PM   #1
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GFI Plug Troubleshooting

Hello,

Looking for some insight into a GFI issue. I have a cicuit with a few lights and receptacles with a GFI being the second to last device on the circuit.

The green power light comes on, however the GFI will not reset, and therefore there is power in the box but no power within the plug.

I bypassed the GFI to the downstream plug and the downstream plug worked fine, therefore Hot / Neutral are correct, all lights and outlets function properly and the main breaker does not trip.

I hooked up the Ground / Hot / Neutral to the "Line" side of GFI and left the downstream plug out of the picture. Still no Power or Reset, but a green light ...

Anybody have ideas of potential problems that could be occuring, I am on my second GFI plug, doubting that both are faulty,.... I have read that the GFI is not relying on the ground wire to function properly, can I eliminate that from my search ?

Thanks

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Old 03-27-2008, 12:42 PM   #2
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GFI Plug Troubleshooting

Make sure you are pressing the reset button far enough in to reset the device. Some units require more pressure than others.

Make sure the hot/neutral are not reversed prior to the GFCI. Just because lights and receptacle work, does not mean the wiring is correct.

Double check for proper wiring (hot to brass screw side, neutral to silver screw side, both on the line side of the device).

Make sure there is no contact between the neutral and the ground wires.
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Old 08-22-2008, 02:21 PM   #3
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GFI Plug Troubleshooting

I doubt both are bad. Commonly, this problem is caused by not hooking the conductors up properly. The power coming IN to the device goes into the connections marked LINE and the power going out to the next device is from those marked LOAD. Think of throwing a fishing line into the water and pulling a load of fish out. Line in; load out.
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Old 08-22-2008, 02:29 PM   #4
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GFI Plug Troubleshooting

the light on the GFCI can be confusing, some brands the light turns on when it has power, and some brands the light comes on when it has tripped.
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Old 08-22-2008, 06:28 PM   #5
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GFI Plug Troubleshooting

Verify that there isn't another GFCI already on the circuit. They usually don't play nicely together. Plug an extention cord into another known correctly wired circuit. You can test the ext cord with a voltmeter...narrow slot [hot] to wide slot [neutral] should be 120V, narrow to ground-120V, wide to ground-0V. Then check your wire feeding the GFCI...black to ground of ext cord-120V, white to ground-0V, ground wire (of GFI feed) to wide slot-0V. If this checks out and no other GFI before it, it should work.
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