I have a GFCI outlet in my garage (that as it turns out is connected to what seems like half the house) and it used to trip all the dang time. I replaced it and it worked well for a year but it jut tripped about a week ago and I cant reset it. I press in the reset button but it stays in for about a second and then pops back out. I unplugged everything that I believe is hooked up to it and it still does it...

Any advice???

Any reason why you need a GFCI at that location?

good question... we used to have an extra fridge hooked up to it in the garage but we dont anymore. are there certain items that you have to plug into a GCFI?

most codes require a GFCI for any plug 'readily accesible' in the garage. Older houses would daisy chain other outlets off of the GFCI.

GFCI's are however not required for >120v. But always check code to confirm if your city has unique requirements.

thanksandgigem,

I had the same issue when I bought my current house (built in '95). The masterbath, outside front door outlet, garage outlet and 2 others are all on one circuit. It would trip all the time when the wife would use the hairdryer or I would plug something into front GFCI. This was a major pain because the sprinkler system was plugged into the garage GFCI. Anyway, I ended up replacing the front door GFCI, but it still trips occasionally which is a pain during the summer.

I wish there was a way to break up this chain.. seems like entirely too much on one circuit.

Shouldn't be too difficult, Driver8, but you would need to call an electrician to put a new circuit in your box. From there you could do it yourself with probably a single J-box in the attic ...

Is your house older? Older homes will often have this setup with multiple things on one GFCI. Some things will cause them to trip as a nuisance. Some times they wear out.

There is an easy way around the problem that still provides the protection (I do think GFCIs are a good protection device to have.) You can wire a GFCI outlet so that it protects either the whole circuit or so that it protects just the outlet it is installed at. When you look at the back of the GFCI you will see two sets of screws, one labeled Load and one labeled Line.

The hot wire coming in to the box always goes to the Line screws. If you attached the wire to the next outlet to the Load screws, the GFCI will protect outlets downstream (this is how yours sounds to be installed and the typical way.) If you attach the downstream wire to the Line terminal (there is a place to do this) then you will always have power downstream, but the GFCI outlet itself will be protected and trip off if required without interrupting power downstream. If you set it up this way you need to install a GFCI outlet (wired to the same way) at each of the outlets requiring the protection - bathrooms, garage, exterior, kitchen etc (anywhere around water sources) to maintain proper protection. Note: you have to wire it this way, if you install additional GFCI's but wire them the other way, the first one will still tend to trip and you end up with a confusing mess.

In older homes where the circuits were not specifically designed for GFCIs it is common for there to be things on the circuits that cause nuisance trips. This method solves the problem and is easy to do. Just costs a little more for materials.

Kevin Weiss
AbsoluteInspections.net

Thanks Kevin. I'm going to try that this weekend and see if it cuts down on the interruptions.

You need to get an electrician out to trace out that circuit. A GFCI outlet won't just trip for no reason, especially a new one. Maybe the neutral was shared with another circuit?