Gfci Problem

I have this cirucit with a GFCI outlet, then two regular outlets off the load.  None of them work.  The GFCI reset button was out, push it in, it pops back out. 



I replaced the GFCI with a new one and it seems to be fine.  (GFCI outlet and load outlets are working).



Is this common?  (I mean that a GFCI would go bad, and display this for behavior?)



Thank you, and if this is a stupid question, you may electronically "dope slap" me!
      

OK, I'm an electrical dummy ...



I have finished basement w/a bathroom. We have an ejector pump off the bathroom that has been plugged into an outlet w/gfi since I've owned the house (10 years). There is also a booster fan for my electric dryer plugged into the outlet (has been the same for 10 years).  The only thing that has ever tripped up that outlet is using a hair buzzer in another outlet within the bathroom (but once you hit the reset its fine).

   

  This morning I realize the ejector pump was not sucking down the water from the drains. I looked at the outlet and realized it needed to be reset. When I reset it, the pump would run for a few seconds and the outlet would trip up again. Tried this a few times. Thought maybe it was an issue w/the outlet altogether. Neighbor suggested maybe it was an issue with the pump. Went thru various scenarios and bottom line is when I plug the pump into other outlets it works totally fine and once I do that and reset the outlet it was on, the booster fan works fine and the outlet does not trip. So, basically this outlet is tripping when the pump is on it but the pump is not tripping other outlets and the outlet works fine as long as the pump is not on it.

   

  What could be causing this? Why would an outlet that housed the two things on it all of a sudden continue to trip when the pump is on it but the pump is fine on its own in another outlet and the outlet is fine on its own w/o the pump?
      

I was cleaning my garage and think I got some water into an outlet. This caused 2 gfi outlets to trip, a regular outlet to stop working, and one side of a double pole circuit breaker to trip. Now the gfi's can't be reset by pressing the button, and the breaker can't be turned back on either. Does the breaker need to be shut off in order to reset the outlets? It's been like this for 3 months now. Please help!
      

Hi all, this is my first post, so...my kitchen was just renovated and the electrical outlets are on the walls and I wanted them in plugmold under the cabinet. Why didn't it happen?  Long story, but I'm doing it myself now.  The electrical receptacles are on 2 separate circuits with a gfci receptacle on each and neither circuit has a receptacle outside the kitchen where I can put the gfci's, so I'm putting gfci breakers in the panel instead. I've run into a different problem on each circuit that'd like some advice on.



Circuit 1: this is a 20 amp circuit.  I have to plug this circuit's neutral wire into the gfci breaker, but I couldn't see which neutral wire matched the hot wire (buried in mess of wires) and I don't have a continuity tester so I just pulled one neutral at a time (tedious) until the circuit failed, but it never failed. So I did this again for every neutral...same result. This circuit shares a few boxes with other circuits so I'm wondering if the neutrals on different circuits are tied together somewhere, and if so I'm pretty sure, but not completely, that that's not going to work with the gfci breaker.  So I didn't install that gfci breaker since I'm not confident it would actually gfci (yep i verbified gfci).  What do you think?



Circuit 2:  this is a 20 amp circuit.  This circuit currently has the refrigerator, gas stove and range hood, and then a gfci in front of 3 electrical receptacles, which already sounds bad since I thought the kitchen receptacles required 2 dedicated circuits. I replaced that breaker with no problem, but it tripped after a few minutes and continued to trip every few minutes. I haven't changed anything else on that circuit yet and it's never tripped before, but now it is, so I put the old breaker back for now. The current gfci receptacle is only protecting the 3 outlets since the appliances are ahead of it. I know you wouldn't normally want the appliances gfci protected, so do you think the refrigerator motor may be a problem?  Do I need the appliances on a separate circuit?  What would you suggest I do?



Thanks, and if you're wondering "why all the effort?", it's partly because I'm meddlesome, partly because I'm bored, and partly because the backsplash tile is to be on showcase, not the electrical receptacles.
      

I currently have a shower light and fan wired downstream from a GFCI receptacle. I am pretty sure they are wired into the load side of the GFCI. I will make sure again after work today. My problem right now is the light and fan does not trip when the TEST button is pushed. Only the receptacle will trip.





What did I do wrong?
      

A word of thanks and a followup on my question.

I had to try three GFCI recepticles before I got one that wouldn't trip!

More then likely these two that would trip must have been more sensitive and may work in a different circuit.

Interestingly, changing the outlet was the first thing I did. Didn't think two would do the same thing.

Another experience I can add to my notebook.
      

This is a bit beyond a DIY job, but some of you know that I just opened a new laundromat.  In doing so I took 10 dryers we had in storage for 2 years and installed them at the new location.  They are gas, but of course the controls are electric.  The fan motor is 240/208-120v.  The timer is 120v.  All the relays in the timers are 120, no transformers.  When we hooked everything up after two days of operation the customers complained that the time on the controls did not match their watch.  To our dismay the timers were counting down at twice the normal rate, ie. buy 6 minutes you only get 3 minutes.   This is crazy because all ten worked fine at the old location and now they are all counting down double time. 



I tinkered with the ground wire and even removed the ground to see if it would change.  Nothing.  I switched 120v hot phases and it solved the problem.  I rewired back to original and the problem returned.  I was stunned.  I then opened the sub panel and traded the two hot feeder wires from the main with each other to make the opposite phase and the problem on all ten dryers went away. 



We wired the building 120/208Y, 4 wire + ground.    Our old location was 240v delta 4 wire + ground.    Why would it do this?  I am really surprised this happened. I need to call the timer manufacturer because their engineer was stumped, also and had no idea why the timers were doing this.



What did we miss?



David
      

We just got a used hot tub.  It ran fine where we purchased it but since we got it home, it has not run.  We installed a new breaker for the hot tub and an GFCI outlet outside.  The hot tub inself has a GFCI installed on it.  If we plug it into the GFCI outlet it runs for a few seconds and either trips the circuit inside or the hot tub.  Is it necessary to have a GFCI outlet outisde if the hot tub has one?  We are thinking that this may be our problem..redundancy.  Can we install a regular outlet outside instead of the GFCI outlet?  When we plug it into a regular outlet it runs.  We want to make sure that this is safe before proceeding.
      

Going through a crazy heat wave here in SoCal, and one of my tenants called to tell me that the electricity isn't on in some of his rooms. He turned on his portable AC unit that he has been using all summer and something may have happened.



Downstairs:The dining room light switch, downstairs light switch do not work. All outlets around them do work though, which is odd cause I would have thought they'd be on the same circuit.



Upstairs: The side bathroom light switch does not work, but outlets all work. In the master bedroom (where the AC unit is located), the master bathroom light switch does not work, nor does the master bedroom light switch. All of the outlets do not work either. I used my outlet tester and it gave me the hot/ground reversed lights. I think this means that the white/black wires are reversed on the outlets (has not changed recently).



I went over, checked all of the breakers. Switched them to off, then back on, did not fix the issue. All breakers stay in the on position without tripping, so no shorts?



Checked all GFCI's, hit test, then reset, did not solve the problem.



We unplugged everything from all outlets, and retried, but it didn't work.



I checked continuity between the main power lines, and the output of the circuit breakers, and all were fine. I did NOT check the voltages though, and will do so in the morning when I stop by again.



Is there anything else I should check?
      

I am installing a new shed and redirecting an existing electrical line from an old shed to the new shed.  There is a GFI receptical (non-outlet type) in a weather-proof metal box attached to the house that is fed by a dedicated line from the circuit breaker box.



I never paid much attention to why the lighting in the old shed never worked until I decided on getting a new shed.  This weekend I went out with my multimeter to test the line and load sides of the GFI recepticle and measured only about 12 volts on both sides. (I did test the multimeter on some inside outlets and measured 120 volts).



I tried many times to reset the GFI without success.



Is the GFI bad?  Is it normal for a bad GFI to measure such low voltage on both the line and load sides?



Thanks for your help.