Wiring Double GFCI?

[Josh]

I'm replacing the single 20A kitchen countertop duplex outlet with a double box and two 20A GFCIs (both side by side in the double box) fed by a single dedicated 20A circuit breaker.

Do I simply jumper Load to Load and Line to Line, or should I have the Load on the first GFCI feed the Line on the second GFCI with nothing attached to the Load on the second one? The circuit terminates at that box.

I've read that the second outlet doesn't particularly need to be a GFCI, but I want them both to be GFCI anyway. Humor me!

[Metspitzer]

You can wire it either way. If you do the in and out, you won't need wirenuts in the box, but tripping the upstream outlet will kill the other one.

[stan]

Hard to understand what is trying to be achieved.????

1) If the two outlets are to work independently presumably one would feed both (live and neutral) from the common supply, from the single pole breaker. Into the line terminals. But have nothing wired to the load side at all?. 1a) However if each is to protect other non GFCI outlets 'downstream' those would be presumably be wired to the load terminals for each run, from each GFCI? 2) What one would not do is to common the load terminals (i.e connect a load to 'both' GFCI???? What would be the point??? 3) If the intention is to feed two live leads form a double pole breaker, with one live wire to each GFCI; it won't IMO work because there will automatically be unbalance in the common neutral; the moment something is plugged into the 'other' GFCI circuit. But as said WHAT IS the objective????

[Colbyt]

I won't ask why or debate it with you..

If you want two GFI in the same box on the same circuit that are independent of each other you feed the second one from the input side of the first one. There are four holes there for wire. I did not say line or load because I always have to look at the instructions as I don't do one of these but every few years.

If you want it so that the first one also kills the second one when tripped you will use both the load and line terminals on the first one and only the input terminals on the second one.

Always test your gfi installs to make sure they are working properly when finished.

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, Really they should be fed by separate circuit independent of each other. Our kitchen is wired that way.

[gfretwell]

Connect power in to the LINE side of both receptacles. The usually allow 2 wires per terminal on the new ones so you can jumper them together. I agree with the others who say you really only need one GFCI and feed the regular outlet from the Load side

[JIMMIE]

Sounds to me like you want line to line and dont connect the load side to anything. That is the way my outdoor outlets are connected NOW. Before they were daisy chained through each other and it caused me a bit of grief.

Jimmie

Jimmie

[RBM]

Makes perfect sense, they're side by side and you want them to look alike. Use a deep box as they take a lot of space, and wire them as gfretwell describes, although I prefer to pigtail the wiring under a wire nut rather than having two conductors per clamp.

[Doug Miller]

Humor you? Why? That's nuts.

Use a standard outlet for the second one. Wire it to the load side of the GFCI outlet. Done. They're both GFCI-protected.

[Sev]

This is incorrect, isn't it? Comments?

[RBM]

This is incorrect, isn't it? Comments?

He's feeding two gfci receptacles from one dedicated 20 amp circuit

[Sev]

Understood. I was asking for comment on the hypothetical.

[Doug Miller]

It's unclear *which* you believe is incorrect, the wiring method, or the description of why it won't work.

Answer: both. The wiring method is indeed incorrect. The description of why it won't work is also incorrect, but needs only the addition of three words at the end -- "and powered on" -- to make it correct.

[Sev]

Really? With opposite phases (implied by "double pole breaker") I thought this was ok.

[RBM]

Understood. I was asking for comment on the hypothetical.

If you are asking if he can feed two GFCI outlets with an Edison (multiwire branch circuit) fed from a double pole breaker, the answer is yes

[Josh]

Use a deep box as they take a lot of space, and wire them as gfretwell describes, although I prefer to pigtail the wiring under a wire nut rather than having two conductors per clamp.

OK, RBM....you're right about what I'm trying to accomplish. I just want the ability to occasionally plug more than two items in at that location at the same time without having to use a power strip or other outlet modifying/expanding contraption. And I *DO* want them to look the same, hence the double 20A GFCIs.

But you guys have got me thinking.....those fancy rectangular outlets which LOOK like GFCIs but don't have the breaker inside might be acceptable for the second slot. I suppose they come in 20A versions as well as 15A? They cost half what a GFCI costs. Maybe.......

Anyway, thanks for the advice. The consensus seems to be: wire the power in to the LINE connector of both receptacles, and nothing to the LOAD of either one.

[RBM]

Or if you choose to use a non gfci "Decora" style receptacle, just feed it off the load of the gfci

[Josh]

off the load of the gfci

The Decora....right. I think that's what I'll do, assuming they come in 20A versions. The GFCI and the Decora look close enough alike to give the outlet a symetrical look. A regular duplex beside a GFCI just wouldn't have looked right, IMHO.

[RBM]

Neither the gfci or the standard "Decora" style outlet need to be 20 amp even though the circuit is 20 amp. In any case, Decora outlets do come in 20 amp, if that's what you want to use

[Metspitzer]

If you are using more than one recpt, which you are, they can be 15A. Or at least you could 10 years ago when I was doing electrical work.