[impala679]

Hi all. I've been a member for a while but mostly to just browse. But I have an issue that has me at a dead end. My home is 15 years old. We have done no renovations since we moved in 3 years ago that involved the electrical system. I have a 15A circuit that goes from my breaker box to a GFCI in my 2nd bathroom. There is goes through the wall into my master bath and powers (2) standard outlets. After that, it drops down to the half bath on the first floor and terminates at the standard outlet in that bathroom. Last year I had an issue where the GFCI kept tripping and I found a bad outlet in my master bath. I replaced the GFCI and all 3 outlets at that time. Tuesday my wife said the GFCI outlet in the bathroom tripped so she reset it and it was fine. Yesterday it tripped again and when we went to reset it this time, it continued to trip anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds after being reset; even with nothing plugged into any outlets on that circuit. At no point has the breaker tripped at the box either. I took each outlet out of the wall and checked for loose wiring. All good there and no signs of moisture. I replaced the GFCI (again) and that didn't fix it. I went to each outlet and took (2) circuit testers, one for each receptacle in the outlet, and tested each outlet one at a time. All outlets are indicating they are correctly wired and working when I reset the GFCI (and before it tripped again). I then went and took the outlets out of the series, one by one, and connected the wires back together (with wire nuts) to see if that solved the issue when I reset the GFCI. It didn't. I went to my breaker panel and checked to make sure I didn't have a loose wire somewhere and everything is good and secure; again no signs of moisture. I'm out of options here. Could it be I have a bad breaker? There's nothing plugged in anywhere to draw current. I really appreciate anyone's help in where to go from here.

 

[jbfan]

Disconnect the load at the gfci, then retest. If it hold, reconnect and go to the first receptacle and disconnect the remaining receptacles. Continue until you find the culprit.

 

[FrodoOne]

I then went and took the outlets out of the series, one by one, and connected the wires back together (with wire nuts) to see if that solved the issue when I reset the GFCI. It didn't. I went to my breaker panel and checked to make sure I didn't have a loose wire somewhere and everything is good and secure; again no signs of moisture. I'm out of options here. Could it be I have a bad breaker? There's nothing plugged in anywhere to draw current. I really appreciate anyone's help in where to go from here.

You stated the above.

However, it is not clear that you first disconnected ALL outlets and wiring down-stream of the GFCI outlet which is tripping (tested) and then re-connected first stage wiring (tested), first outlet (tested), second stage wiring (tested), second outlet (tested) etc., resetting the GFCI after each step. (Of course, you would also have tripped the Breaker before you worked on the wiring and then reset it at each stage.)

If you did not do the above stage by stage you cannot know which item may be at fault - starting with the GFCI ONLY being in circuit.

While you wrote "Could it be I have a bad breaker?", I presume that you mean "a bad GFCI"! The only way that you can determine that is to have it as the only item connected to the incoming Line, Neutral and Earth, with nothing connected down-stream.

Since GFCI outlets are not particularly expensive, it might be a good idea (possibly to save you time) if you first replace the not-so-old existing GFCI with a new one. If the new one does exhibit the same problem, you will then KNOW that the fault IS in the down-stream wiring or in one of the down-stream outlets.

(jbfan got in while I was posting, said much the same thing and was briefer!)

 

[rjniles]

Are you sure that there are not other outlets on the circuit. Like an outside receptacle.

 

[BayouRunner]

I'm not an electrician and don't claim to be but I have seen this a few times. It was an outside receptacle that I wasn't aware was on the circuit. One time it was rainwater getting in and the other was a bad connecton at the receptacle

 

[J. V.]

I had a call once for a bathroom receptacle.
Turns out, it was fed from a GFCI receptacle that was outside. Reset it and left.

 

[impala679]

The GFCI I used was brand new. And the one I replaced with it was less than a year old. I think I didn't say that right. Sorry for the confusion. Yesterday I removed one outlet at a time from the circuit and it kept tripping the GFCI. So today I took ALL the outlets off the circuit except the GFCI. I wire nutted the loose wires together to complete the circuit and it worked. It didn't trip after 10 minutes. So I cut the power and added outlets back on one at a time. The (2) in my master bath worked again so that left me with the one in the half bath downstairs. As soon as I put that back on the circuit, it tripped. I took the old GFCI I removed yesterday and put that in it's place and it worked. I have to run out to the store to get a new standard outlet because there's no real reason to keep a second GFCI on that circuit but for the mean time it will do the job.

THANK YOU ALL for your input!!

 

[joed]

You should not have a second GFCI down stream on the LOAD side of the first GFCI.
If you want the GFCI to be in the second bathroom then do not feed that bathroom from the LOAD side of the first GFCI. Feed it from the LINE side.

 

[impala679]

You should not have a second GFCI down stream on the LOAD side of the first GFCI.
If you want the GFCI to be in the second bathroom then do not feed that bathroom from the LOAD side of the first GFCI. Feed it from the LINE side.

I don't necessarily want it. It was just all I had lying around at the time to confirm that was the bad outlet. I didn't want to take another outlet from the house so I just put that one in there until I can get over to the store later today.