gfci causing bad breaker?

[mtnwalton]

Need some help; i've searched, but haven't read every response to every thread. if this has been covered, sorry.

We're doing a little bath remodel, new vanity and top etc. There was one outlet by the vanity before, not GFCI. I'm replacing that with Gfci outlet, and adding two other outlets. Everything looked good and I was finishing up until I plugged in my shop vac to cleanup. Maybe a bad idea. gfci tripped, won't reset. I removed it and now the feed wire is dead.

Can a GFCI tripping make a breaker go bad??. Thanks for any help.

 

[Tim The Tool Man]

No. Sounds like you inadvertently loosened a wire during your remodel. Maybe on another outlet from an adjoining room. You might have pulled on wire a bit to hard when you were working on it.

I would pull all the outlets and check the wiring. Also disconnect the slave outlets and see if that narrows the problem down any.

 

[mtnwalton]

I didn't disturb the wires that led to the outlet and didn't touch any wires from other sources. I checked the slave outlets, everything was good until the vac tripped the gfci. I'm stumped

 

[DHS]

Could there be another GFI up stream of that outlet?

 

[mtnwalton]

nope

 

[frankush]

Sometimes when breakers trip, they won't reset. If the breaker won't reset, replace it. Install a new breaker and check to see if you have 120V, without reinstalling the GFI. You will occasionally get a brand new GFI that's bad. GFI's generally won't reset until they have power supplied to them. A breaker that trips immediately, is trying to reset but a fault condition still exists.

 

[RECox286]

If I get this right, the circuit breaker tripped, and now you have no

power to the (no matter which type) receptacle. Sounds like you

inadvertently caused a short in the wiring somewhere while you had

things apart, which became apparent when you "plugged in the

vacuum". Perhaps the neutral or ground wire touched the hot wire

because of the tuck. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot of movement

to do this if you aren't careful how you install the equipment.

If you are trying to reset the c/b, some brands must be turned to

full OFF before they will stay ON. Try that. If the c/b immediately

snaps to TRIP position then you should disassemble the construction

to check and see if you wired everything correctly; feed hot wire to

LINE/gold screw, feed neutral to LINE/silver screw, continuation hot wire

to LOAD/gold screw, continuation neutral to LOAD/silver screw, all grounds

bonded and to the ground screw. Everything tucked so that no bare

wires will touch what they shouldn't. Then set the c/b and see if it

holds. Go to the receptacles and test each one for operation, including

test button on GFI, and reset. Then hopefully everything should work.

Uncle Bob

 

[mtnwalton]

Thanks for the replies. Right now there are no receps; only bare wires. I reset the breaker (after full off as usual) and it feels normal. I may have a breaker that was going bad anyway. I've read since that that can happen. Tomorrow i'll get a new breaker, install and then check the wires again. I just hope to be able to use the GFCI again.

I have also learned NOT to use a gfic for motors, at least not the type i have.

 

[Kevin C]

I would start by putting a meter or a test light on the breaker.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Did you try turning breaker all the way off before resetting it?
If breaker is tripped in center position it needs to be kicked all the way over before resetting it

 

[mtnwalton]

yes i always turn full off then on.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Try disconnecting wire from breaker then reset it,will it stay on now?

 

[Falcon67]

>I have also learned NOT to use a gfic for motors, at least not the type i have.

I have a lot of motors around here including Cheep China that are used with GFCIs and no problems. What kind of motors do you have?

 

[mtnwalton]

problem solved and now I feel really dumb. There was another gfci across the house that was tripped. Not the normal install but I should have thought of it. Thanks to all for your patience and help.