GFI receptacle problems

[Mitch Rapp]

It’s very common to have multiple bathrooms and outside outlets all chained to a GFCI outlet located wherever the chain from the panel starts.

If your whole circuit is after that first GFCI, then putting a GFCI breaker in the panel for that circuit, and replacing the outlet with a regular one makes it easier to find the GFCI when it trips.

See, a logical place, easily located. Most folks are going to check a breaker before anything else.

Granted, its been 20 years since I was in the industry, so Im sure some things have changed.
But, when I was doing it for a living, my company would do things like wire sunroom rcpt 1-4 normally, put a GFI right beside the back door as #5, and feed the back porch rcpts from it. We would feed the outdoor rcpt on the common wall with the kitchen off the kitchen GFI instead of the upstairs bathroom on the other side of the house.
When something tripped out, the GFI is always close by and easy to find.

 

[noway2]

I was thinking of this thread today. In our barn we have a fridge that my wife bought > 10 years ago for her tie dye dyes and repurposed it for beer and water. Apparently it gave up the ghost and all the contents were warm. Adjust the thermostat and nothing. First thought, is it on a GFCI breaker. It’s an out building, not sure of the code. Look and the parents have stacked a bunch of crap in the corner of te breaker box. Not getting to it. Grabbed a fan and plugged it into same outlet. Worked fine, not a GFCI issue. Fridge went bad, will get replaced.