Circuit for Garage/Outdoor keeps tripping

Could you be getting water in one of the external outlets?

It's dampness/water that's triping the GFCI....rain, for example. That will happen with outdoor outlets that have stuff plugged into them....it's NOT electrical overload. You are getting the result that GFCI 's are supposed to provide. Your outlets are sealed well, or the face of the outlet (where your lights etc plug in) is directly exposed to rain.

I don't think so. They are pretty well protected. I just think it is too many circuits, etc. running off one little GFCI.

According to Rich :

Assuming the GFCI isn't defective, it's not tripping because it's "running too many outlets". It's tripping because there's a ground fault. Moisture getting into the boxes or connections (ie: in-wall, or AC side of the LV transformers etc) are the most likely causes.

When you can't get the GFCI to stay on, try unplugging the LV transformers one at a time (and any other plugged in devices), and see if removing one of them solves the problem.

Given the intermittency, I suspect _either_ moisture problems or (remotely) a defective GFCI.

One of the outdoor outlets is under an awning and is never exposed to rain. Another is completely sealed and never used. The third is housed in plastic. I suppose you could be right, but with the protection my outlets have, that would mean that outdoor low-voltage lighting is simply not meant to be (except if you don't have the required GFCI on your outdoor outlets).

According to Rich :

We have outdoor LV lighting off a GFCI. The GFCI (and LV transformer) _itself_ are outdoors (outlet in a wooden pool pump shed, transformer "hung" on wall just outside).

In a climate ... well, we have snow on the ground right now if that puts you in the proper context ;-)

We've not had trouble with the circuit. Yeah, the test button works.

There's no such thing as "completely sealed" ...

Try disconnecting the LV transformers and see if the GFCI still trips.

GFCIs do sometimes fail too.

snipped-for-privacy@seerudyrun.com (Rich) wrote in news:2584e2d3.0404041112.86ea882 @posting.google.com:

You didn't say, but is the garage door opener connected to this circuit? Sometimes GFCIs don't like motors. If you disconnect the motor to the door, can the garage door be opened and closed easily?

Dave

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad that the consensus is that it is NOT an overload. There are two garage outlets above the doors that run the garage door openers, and they appear to be on a different circuit (the doors work when I come home even though the outdoor lights are off b/c the circuit has tripped).

The best performance we ever got from the circuit was when it was FREEZING outside a couple months ago. That's when I thought it was probably moisture-related. But then I started looking at how many outlets were connected to this one breaker and I suspected that it was related to that. Guess I was wrong.

Anyway, I swapped in some solar lights that work great, and I'm going to retape and reseal all the wires and connectors to the individual lights and bury them on the other side of the house (connected to the third outdoor outlet driven by the same GFCI circuit). Hopefully that will do the trick. Thanks again!