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How to wire a GFCI to a di-pole 15A kitchen circuit (14/3) ?

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27K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  AllanJ  
T
#1 ·
I'm bringing my house up to code and installing a GFCI in the outlet beside our sink, and found that the outlet was fed by another outlet on the counter. Both outlets are on a di-pole 15A breaker. The first outlet is fed by 14/3 as well as the 2nd outlet.

Does it make sense to install the GFCI at the first outlet farther from the sink? If so:

1 - How do I correctly wire a GFCI outlet to 14/3 and also provide 14/3 to the line outlet?
2 - does this require a special GFCI with two hot terminals for the load?
3 - or is it okay to connect 2 hot wires to one load terminal on the GFCI?

Should I install the GFCI in the last outlet in the circuit next to the sink? If so:

1 - same question as above. Is it okay to connect 2 hot wires from 14/3 to 1 hot terminal on a GFCI?

Previous 1st outlet, had 4 hot wires feeding from the 2 14/3's, with 2 looped and 2 inserted. Was this acceptable?

Thanks!
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Thanks Joed. Is it still grandfathered in if I update the outlet?

What do you think of AllanJ's suggestion to alternate red and black hot wires? Still doesn't make sense to me.

So the purpose of the di-pole breaker is to feed a separate circuit to the top and bottom outlet in a single gang socket? Why..?

I may have overlooked the old outlet before discarding, I'm guessing the joiner tab should be removed to isolate top from bottom, or red hot from black hot? Sounds like I'd get 240V otherwise.

Thanks everyone!

joed said:
Sounds like a standard split wired kitchen counter circuit in Canada. You are not REQUIRED to bring this up to current code and install a GFCI. It is grandfathered and can remain as is.

If you want to make this receptacle GFCI protected then the only way to do it a very expensive double pole GFCI breaker. The alternative is to pull new #12 cable and make this circuit a 20 amp circuit. A 20 amp circuit does not need to be split wired and you can install a regular 20 amp T slot GFCI receptacle on it.
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