20 amp GFI duplex receptacle question

[Bob]

I installed (3) 20 amp duplex receptacles using 12/2 wg romex on its own 20 amp breaker/circuit in my wood shop with the first one being GFI. The problem I am having is that the GFI always trips when I turn the breaker on. I want to stress that there is NO shorts in any of the connected outlets. The panel is a 100 amp sub panel connected to the main 200 amp panel which is grounded to an outside ground rod and also to the cold water pipe. When I removed the GFI and installed another 20 amp duplex receptacle everything worked OK and the 20 amp panel breaker did not pop. How can I stop the GFI from tripping if I reinstall it? Thanks for your help.

[RJS]

you have one or two problems

1. faulty GFCI
2. a ground fault (look it up)

[newsgroups01REMOVEME]

imho:

I'm surprise the gfci recp even reset with the breaker open. After you close the breaker, and you hear the gfci recep trip, can you reset the gfci recept?

BTW, not being fresh, re-read the gfci repts installation instructions and make sure you are installing the wires correctly. I think if you wire the line and load conductors backwards, gfci recepts will auto trip and fail to reset. And if all else fails a qualified electrician should be a resource for services and information.

Tell us what happened after you try again.

later,

tom @

[Bob]

I had to turn the 20 amp breaker off at the sub panel before I reset the GFI. Every time I reset the GFI and turned the breaker on it would trip, and yes I do have the 2 neutrals connected to the silver screws and the 2 black ones to the gold screws on both recps. I forgot to tell you all in my original post that I installed 2 circuits with GFI's not just one and they both trip when the breaker is turned on, but work OK with ordinary 20 amp duplex recps. I noticed that on my sub panel there is no main 100 amp breaker. The 100 amp breaker is located in the main 200 amp panel. Do you think if I ran a ground wire from the sub panel to the cold water pipe it would solve the problem? Thanks again for your help.

[John Grabowski]

Try disconnecting the "Load" wires from the GFI receptacle and see what happens when you turn on the circuit breaker. If the GFI does not trip, then you have a problem downstream. If it continues to trip, I suggest that you double check how you have the GFI wired. The feed from the circuit breaker should be on the line side.

If it turns out that you have a problem downstream check the following: Make sure that no bare ground wires are touching the neutral screws on the receptacles, make sure that you did not over tighten the wire clamps on the boxes if you used metal, make sure that no staples are squeezing the wire too tightly, and make sure that there is no moisture on any of the conductors.

John Grabowski

[newsgroups01REMOVEME]

I still don't see an issue, if everything is wired correctly, the fact that the gfci's trip when you close the breaker is a non-issue. I mean how often are you going to cycle that breaker?

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this. Then don't do that."

Now you mentioned something about running a ground, isn't this a grounded system? If NOT, then your gfci's should have nothing attached to the ground screw, and should be marked as not having an equipment grounding capiblity. As for your sub, it should be grounded to your main panel(in most cases), do you have a grounded main?

Does the gfci, reset?

imho,

tom @

[No Spam]

As others indicated, make sure the wires from your breaker are connected to the LINE terminals and the wires to your 'downstream' outlets are connected to the LOAD terminals. You could have "mixed and matched."

hth

[HorneTD]

One set of screws is marked line and one set is marked load. The black and white wires that you connect to the line terminals must be the ones that come from the circuit breaker panel's cabinet. Both of the wires that are connected to the load terminals must go to the other receptacles that are to be protected by that particular GFCI. If either or both colors are reversed it would cause the GFCI to trip when you apply power by closing the breaker. It is not just that you have the white wire on the silver terminal and the black wire on the brass terminal. You must have them on the correct line and load terminals.

Once you have rechecked the terminals on the GFCI receptacle and found them correct you will have to disconnect the wiring from the load terminals and apply a good meter or a high impedance continuity checker between the Equipment Grounding Conductor (EGC) and the hot and neutral. There must be no measurable continuity between the EGC and the two current carrying conductors. If you find any measurable level of contact then that contact must be found and cleared.

-- Tom H

[John Grabowski]

Bob, One question. Did you use a three wire to feed both circuits and share the neutral with both?

[Dan]

This situation was leading me in that direction as well. GFCIs do not function on circuits with shared neutral.

Dan

[newsgroups01REMOVEME]

You are both very right, just that it was mentioned he 'wired' them correctly.

later,

tom @

[Waldo]

You might want to check that the bonding screw in the sub-panel has been removed. Since this panel is wired from the main 200 amp panel the bonding screw has to be removed so that there is only one connection between the neutral and ground which is already in the main panel.