[bp8va]

One of the outlets connected to the bathroom GFCI got wet and stopped working.

Checked the other outlet in the same bathroom and it was not working either. This other outlet is right next to a GFCI. So suspected a tripped GFCI.

Tried resetting the GFCI but power would not come back.

Dried the outlet on the other side of the sink that had gotten slightly wet. Tried to reset the GFCI again and still no power.

Bought a new GFCI. The old GFCI did not have an outlet on the GFCI itself. The new GFCI does have an outlet on the GFCI itself. Connected the new GFCI to the wires that were powering the old GFCI.

There is power to the new GFCI with the main circuit breaker on. But NONE of the other 4 outlets gets power.

The load wires from the GFCI do not have continuity with ANY of the other outlets. This is what is strange and I need help with. The main outlet next to the GFCI which should get power from GFCI has 9 wires going to it but none of these wires have continuity with any of the GFCI wires. Please see the picture of the wires of this outlet for clarity but I will outline them here again.

The wires to the main outlet that should be powered by the GFCI have continuity as follows:
One white and one black have continuity with the basement bathroom outlet. (2 wire total)
One white and one black have continuity with the guest bathroom outlet. (2 wire total)
One white and one black have continuity with the outlet on the other side of the sink. (2 wire total)
One white and one black come out of this outlet and are held by the twist on wire connectors to the other black and white wires. (2 wire total)
One wire is bare and is earth or ground (1 wire total)

So that accounts for all 9 wires in this outlet and then how is it being controlled by the GFCI if none of its wires have continuity with any of the wires in the GFCI??

Please let me of your thoughts and if you have any questions to better understand the situation and try to help.

Thank you.

 

[Oldmaster]

Male sure the feed is correct and on the line side of the GFCI. Bring all the remaining blacks together and pig tail to correct treminal on load side of GFCI. Do the same with the whites. Should work.

 

[bp8va]

Thanks for your post.

The reason I took the wires apart is because after putting the new GFCI there was no power at the other outlets that were suppose to get power from the GFCI. So those wires that you see loose in the picture were actually all connected together.

One thing that I forgot to mention in the original post is that in the main circuit breaker box in the garage, bathroom GFCI is labeled as circuit breaker number 12, but what actually took power off the GFCI was circuit breaker #10 which was labeled Whirlpool. The house has a fridge which is made by Whirlpool but that is working fine.

 

[bp8va]

I put the lose wires together and back into the outlet. Hopeing that when everything is back somewhat magically (since I can't come up with an explanation about no continuity between the outlet and GFCI) powers up.

Another peculiar thing about the new vs the old GFCI is the position of the ground with respect to Line and Load. Please see the picture.

 

[seharper]

You're looking at the wrong GFCI, is why.

You don't understand what is going on in this wiring, and that means, you should not be changing things.

"Changing the deadfront to a GFCI recep" is "changing things" Change it back!

Now, you correctly determined that your 3 cables in the rightmost plain outlet go to 3 other outlets, all in bathrooms. None of them are source/supply. That means supply comes into one of those 3 other outlets. That means the GFCI that actually feeds this outlet is either at one of those 3 outlets, or in yet a fourth location. My bet would be yet another bathroom outlet in yet another location, or the breaker itself. Which I know you know how to find that, because you turned off power before doing any of this. RIGHT?

And by the way, you surely noticed that these bathroom recepts are on a different circuit from the deadfront GFCI.



See, bathroom recep rules are as follows: You must follow one of these two.

- EITHER: A circuit can serve bathroom receptacles in any number of bathrooms, but ONLY bathroom receptacles. That is obviously the choice that was made here.

- OR: a circuit can serve bathroom receptacles in ONE bathroom, and hardwired loads (lights fan etc.) in That Same bathroom... but can serve no loads in any other room. Obviously that is not the case here.


So what's the deal with the deadfront? I bet that serves loads somewhere else like a kitchen. If it had any sockets, the above rules would apply, and it can't satisfy either one. So it can't have sockets. That would be stupid if this was new construction, but it's not: it's a renovation. The renovator could not find a way to bypass that location altogether, so they put a deadfront there.

 

[seharper]

By the way, every outlet that has GFCI protection coming from another location needs to have a sticker that says "GFCI Protected". In particular, you'll want to put those on the day before a home-buyer sends an inspector. Because the inspector will write you up for every single one of those that lacks a sticker. But what he'll write is "No GFCI at that location" and will tell you to install a GFCI recep at that location. $400 worth of unnecessary GFCI receps later...

 

[bp8va]

Thank you for your reply seharper. You were right, the tripped GFCI was the one in the upstairs bathroom.

There were several clues that should have got me into the right path, but they did not and the reason is that one of these GFCI had gone bad before in the garage and I thought they were all "junk" that go bad at the firs time they get tripped. This was at the back of my mind and I was disregarding all clues because of this. Add to that the fact that there was a GFCI right in the same bathroom and the same sink, obviously made me think that it must be the one that got tripped.

I did not know about the 2 rules of the GFCIs. But even if I did probably would have disregarded that also. Now I know better.

The clues that should have gotten me to think that it is probably another GFCI somewhere else in the house were the followings:

First the GFCI that was in the same bathroom had NOT tripped, but I disregarded this due to the "These GFCIs are ALL Junk" thinking that I had.

Second the breaker in the breaker box in the garage that was labeled GFCI was number 12, but what was taking the power off the GFCI that was in the same bathroom was breaker number 10. This puzzled me but again I put it down to the carelessness of the electrical contractors that built the house. Also there has been occasional outlets that have not worked for unknown reason and I put that down to also shabby workmanship of the electrical contractors. So need to think more positively about these hardworking people next time and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Third there was NO continuity between any of the wires of the GFCI in the bathroom and any of the wires going to the outlet next to it. This was a total puzzle and this could not be explained at all, and that is when I decided to get help by posting here.

Thanks for all who read and tried to help.

 

[bp8va]

That is great information about labeling the GFCIs before a home inspection. Thank you for that.

Can you direct me to a link where such labels can be purchased or if I can just make them any information on how to make them? Thanks.

 

[jbfan]

That is great information about labeling the GFCIs before a home inspection. Thank you for that.

Can you direct me to a link where such labels can be purchased or if I can just make them any information on how to make them? Thanks.

The labels may have been inside the box with the new GFCI

 

[seharper]

Home Depot sells the stickers a-la-carte, I'm pretty sure I've seen them. You can also make your own stickers, I prefer a P-touch labelmaker with white tape on white cover plates. Looks much more classy. I also get to Say "GFCI Protected, Reset Located at _____".

And yeah, *everybody* gets nailed by assumptions about GFCIs. #1 is "Ground faults only happen to other people, therefore any ground fault trip must be a defective GFCI"