garage outlet
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Charles (in GA)
Well-known member
Does it pop the breaker without anything plugged into it? or only when you plug something into the receptacle?
What "breaker" is it popping? the circuit breaker in your CB panel in the house? or the button on the GFCI you installed in the garage?
Charles
What "breaker" is it popping? the circuit breaker in your CB panel in the house? or the button on the GFCI you installed in the garage?
Charles
kb2tha
Well-known member
Have you recently done any nailing in the walls of the garage? Installing shelves, drywall, etc. This could be a problem if you pierced a wire.
no it was like that when i moved in,,new house
cowboyjosh
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how long ago have you moved into the new house? Reason I ask, its a warranty issue, and anytime a breaker is tripping its usually considered a critical issue; builder and electricians like myself don't like it when breakers are tripping for any reason, especially if there is nothing plugged in or there is no load on the circuit. This isn't considered a electrical emergency per se (for example a main breaker tripping would constitute a emergency), but at my shop, if we wired the house, we'd be out the next business day for sure to check it out.
Gary S
Well-known member
If it trips with nothing plugged in, you most likely have a shorted wire between the breaker box and the receptacle. The breaker is doing exactly what it was designed to do. It is keeping you from burning the building down.
Now would be a perfect time to run some serious wire to the garage and put in a nice 100A panel and move into the modern world.
You say your garage has 1 receptacle? Mine has about 30 receptacles. Which one would you like?
Now would be a perfect time to run some serious wire to the garage and put in a nice 100A panel and move into the modern world.
You say your garage has 1 receptacle? Mine has about 30 receptacles. Which one would you like?
well its new to me,,,it was built in 2003 and was a foreclosure
ya it has 1 on the wall and one up top for garage door opener,,,the breaker is in the garage also...ya it would be nice to have some bigger amped breakers in there,,i gotta run a damn extension chord to the washer for my welder...how much does it usually cost to add some higher amp breakers and a few more outlets,,,or is this something i can do?
Bigpigdave
Well-known member
Is the garage door opener on the same circuit? If so, it may be the cause of your problem. If you can't trouble-shoot a blown breaker, you should probably hire an electrician to run electrical. It is something you can do yourself if you have a bit of experience. Good luck!
JMHO, Dave
spongerich
Well-known member
It sounds like you don't have any experience with electrical stuff so you probably don't want to jump right in to a major wiring project.
What you *can* do is the grunt work... buying materials, running wires and conduit, mounting boxes for the receptacles and generally getting everything ready. Then have an electrician come in, check your work and make the final hookups.
A couple of things I learned when I did my barn.
Plan for twice as many receptacles as you think you need.
Put in extra junction boxes, especially around work areas, makes it easier to add to the system.
Use oversized boxes wherever possible. If you need a single outlet, put in a double box. That way you can add one later or splice in for another run and have plenty of room. "Real" electricians have the skill to make all of the pigtails and connections exactly the right length and manage to stuff everything back in the box... I always manage to find myself spending half an hour making everything fit.
You'd be much better off just letting a professional handle it all. I tried working with customers like this a few times early on in my career, and it's nothing but a hassle. Nowadays, I wouldn't even consider it for liability reasons alone. Most times you'll end up paying the guy to undo some of what you've done, negating at least some of the savings.
cowboyjosh
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alright, house isn't under warranty; I was going to say if the house was just built in 2010 and you just closed and took possession, I'd be a warranty issue.
As it stands now, you obviously have a short somewhere. I have a few ideas but Im heading out now, I'll post later.
cowboyjosh
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I agree, I usually charge more if the customer wants to help. Allot of guys won't even assist customers unless they do the whole job. The few times I helped customers making final connections, etc; I ended find all sorts of things done wrong and end up re-doing their f up's, and when I told the customers they wanted me to teach them the right way to do things, of course I told them to go to trade school. Most electricians won't sign their name to any wiring they didn't install.
David79z28
Well-known member
What's the old saying, "I charge $35 an hour, $70 if you want to watch, $140 if you want to help".
I am not an electrician and have learned that it isn't worth the fustration, trouble, danger, risk, of doing it myself. I sleep better at night when I have someone that knows what they are doing fix things....
chuggins143
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Odds are pretty good that you have other outlets wired to the GFCI outlet... I'd look at other outlets possibly outside and see if any of them are dead too and may be damaged. I've run into this on newer homes here in Tucson. The single GFCI outlet will have several outside outlets attached to it. ...or one outside will have some inside attached to it. Very annoying!
C
C
cowboyjosh
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might test to see what wires are the LINE from the breaker to the GFCI, disconnect those wires and turn the breaker on, if the breaker doesn't trip its a problem with the GFCI wired wrong or something else down stream. If you have the wires (hot, neutral, and ground) from the panel disconnected from the device and the breaker trips, its a dead short in that Romex run. Your looking at allot of busy work to try to troubleshoot this circuit. For the money, I'd call someone with a license and have them fix this issue and kind of give your house (especially since it was a foreclosure) a once over on the electrical system. You'll sleep better knowing your house isn't a electrical house of horrors and a firetrap.
i think it is because its two set of wires that go to the box,\\1 comes in and ties in with the outlet and then one goes out tied in with outlet
Odds are pretty good that you have other outlets wired to the GFCI outlet... I'd look at other outlets possibly outside and see if any of them are dead too and may be damaged. I've run into this on newer homes here in Tucson. The single GFCI outlet will have several outside outlets attached to it. ...or one outside will have some inside attached to it. Very annoying!
C
u are correct,,the outlet on my front porh doesnt work nor does the one on the back porch,,i have tried replacing these also but didnt work,,,they put interior outlets outside with no cover
well i just tried to plug something in to the outlet and it does not work...it did not trip the breaker nor the GFCI,,,but the light on the outlet is green...its a new GFCI also...i guess ill get my buddy over to look at it,,,just thought maybe u guys could point me in the right direction.....thanks for ur help
cowboyjosh
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Yeah, while its a simple circuit; there are at at least a handful of things I'd look at and check while troubleshooting this, so will your buddy. Sometimes you need another set of eyes, nothing replaces being there to physically look at the problem; sorry I / we couldn't help more.
MrMark
Well-known member
Your picture doesn't show up well enough to help.
If you post an accurate drawing, someone will be able to instantly fix this for you.
If you post an accurate drawing, someone will be able to instantly fix this for you.
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
I wish people would put locations in their profile
Do you have any snow packed around the outlets outside, or has it rained recently? See...if you had a location of Florida, I wouldn't have had to ask about snow. 
Anyways...if you have interior outlets outside and you don't have at least weatherproof covers over them, then I would say that is where you need to start looking. Chances are the outlets are corroded and/or you may have spiderwebs in there. Bugs love small places to hide and an outlet that is in th eopen is no exception. This alone would cause your GFCI to popswaterbenny
Well-known member
Have any outside Christmas lights plugged in or decorations? I'm just an apprentice, but I have already seen on more than one occasion Christmas decorations tripping a gfci in other rooms. Example is basement gfci also powers outside outlets. Ben
Steevo
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Does the ground really by-pass the GFCI receptacle like your diagram shows?
darkk
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Best advise yet, get a professional to find and fix the problem. Then you will sleep safer and better...
yes, it does
Steevo
Well-known member
That will not work properly. A GFCI needs all three wires connected to it, with white and black from the panel going to the "LINE" side connections (it will be marked that way) ground to the ground screw, and all downstream receptacles black and white come off of the opposite set of connections, with the ground crimp-bonded to the end of the ground wire on the GFCI.
The lack of ground on the GFCI is probably what trips it.
The lack of ground on the GFCI is probably what trips it.
smilezrcool
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I live in Texas also, howdy. Is the picture you posted accurate? I noticed that you have the line side on the right side of the receptacle . On a GFCI the line side should be on top and any donwstream outlet wires would be on the bottom. Your line side black wire on the right top and the line side white wire on the top left. The wire that is feeding the downstream outlets would be black load wire bottom right and the white load wire bottom left. Your bare groud wires would be tied together with a short pigtail wire connecting to the ground terminal on the GFCI. Have your just recently replaced the GFCI receptacle? Why or when did you start having problems? You said the house was built in 2003?
so ur saying that the bundle wire with 4 wires coming outta of it should be on top,,meaning 1 white on top and 1 black on the opposite side on top and then the set of wires with 2 coming out ,1 white on bottom and 1 black on the bottom ...yes i replaced the GFCI because it didnt work when i moved into the house..thanks dude
ok i just read ur post again,,i now understand it,,i pretty much just repeated what u said,,,i will try that,,,thanks for ur help
Steevo
Well-known member
The "line" side (top connections) should not have a "bundle" of wires, but just the two that originate from the breaker panel. This is the "power feed' for the receptacle.
The ground wire from that same set of wires should be firmly clamped under the green ground screw on the GFCI. The "bundle of wires" must be the lines to the two additional downstream outlets, with a pair of white wires, a pair of black wires and a pair of ground wires.
You will need to take the two short wires, one white and one black, and connect them to the other two screws on the GFCI, keeping white and black oriented the same as the "line" wires are. Then wire-nut these two short wires to the matching pair of wires from the "bundle". White to white and black to black. The two ground wires from the downstream bundle need to be crimped to the ground wire that goes to the GFCI screw.
The ground wire from that same set of wires should be firmly clamped under the green ground screw on the GFCI. The "bundle of wires" must be the lines to the two additional downstream outlets, with a pair of white wires, a pair of black wires and a pair of ground wires.
You will need to take the two short wires, one white and one black, and connect them to the other two screws on the GFCI, keeping white and black oriented the same as the "line" wires are. Then wire-nut these two short wires to the matching pair of wires from the "bundle". White to white and black to black. The two ground wires from the downstream bundle need to be crimped to the ground wire that goes to the GFCI screw.
ok thanks man,,,makes since now,,i will try this out,,u may have saved me a lot of money,,,
smilezrcool
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You may be right about the bundle of wires and there orientation. He needs to figure out which wires are the line side from the breaker box. I have seen it done several ways. The bundle of wires may not both be from the breaker box. Example one set of wires from breaker box then the other set of wires may go to a light switch or another outlet that they did not want to have GFCI protected. I am not sure what else is not working if it is several outlets they may have went from GFCI receptacle to outlet to another outlet and maybe they did not bring both runs to the GFCI receptacle. I agree he must figure out what wires go where and then he may be able to decide what needs GFCI protection and what does not. Do you think that maybe the GFCI receptacle went bad for what ever reason and when he replaced it he somehow mixed up the wire configuration?
when i bought the house is was not working,,,so i replaced it and wired it up exacly how it came out,,,but imma try these guys ideas and see if that helps,,i only have two plugs in my garage so this one will help out with building my cars and bikes instead of running extension chords,,and that *****!!! thanks everyone for ur ideas and help
smilezrcool
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Have you been able to try the ideas suggested?