Cross post from home improvement. Any body have any thoughts on fixing below issues... Thank you,



I have 3 ceiling fans on my back porch all wired to the same wall switch. If the GFCI trips one of those fans basically dies and I have to replace it. It is the same location every time.

Example:
Power washing back porch... get some water in patio outlet... GFCI trips... When I reset the GFCI one particular fan is dead and I have to replace it...

Any thoughts on root cause and resolution?

Thank you,

So you have 120V at the fan and the fan is DOA?

No need to cross post. Home improvement was the appropriate forum.

My first guess would be something isn't wired right at the box that fan is mounted to or at wherever its power connection comes into the gfci. But why is the fan tied in to the GFCI anyway? I would just tie it to the power (and not the GFCI load terminal) so it isn't impacted by GFCI trips.

And lastly, you should not be getting water into the outlet so that it trips. Sounds like you need a more water resistant outlet cover or to seal that thing up better.

My guess is that you had a loose wire short out.

thank you for the feeback...

Is the fan the first downstream device from the GFI? While you can run another romex and pigtail in on the line side of the GFI box, this would be tricky unless you have the access to run new wire. You would essentially be making a branch circuit in front of the GFI.

Replace the GFCI with a regular plug.