I have a bunch of outlets labelled GFCI protected including one in a bathroom. This outlet used to work but then one day the GFCI protection must have tripped. Unfortunately, the outlet itself doesn't have the reset switch built-in so I imagine there must be a master GFCI switch somewhere. I thought it would be the circuit breaker box but it doesn't seem to be there. Where could it be???
If there's no GFCI breaker in the box, then one of the other outlets must be the one with the GFCI breaker, and the rest of the outlets are fed from that.
So look for an outlet with a couple of extra buttons on it (one to Test, the other to Reset). One of the buttons could be (not necessarily) a different color from the rest of the outlet (I think I've seen red and yellow), and there could be an indicator light to show that it's tripped and needs to be reset.
MB
On 09/10/04 04:03 pm Email Invalid put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
Look in the garage, kitchen, bathroom, basement, or outside of the house. Most likely will be one of those places. Look behind stuff, it may be hidden from plain view by your stuff.
An outlet can be GFCI protected three ways. It can be a GFCI outlet, it can be hooked up to a GFCI breaker, or it can be hooked up to another GFCI outlet on the same circuit. The latter is usually the case when you see one of those stickers. Check all outlets in your kitchen and bathroom for extra buttons and reset it.
Since the dead outlet is in a bathroom, don't bother looking in the kitchen for the actual GFCI outlet, it won't be there. Look in your other bathrooms, or the garage outlet, or an outdoor outlet mounted to the house.
Why not - why won't it be there?
It won't be there because kitchen receptacles have to be on 20a circuits, and those circuits cannot be shared with other receptacles in rooms other than dining rooms, pantrys, or breakfast nooks/rooms.
Therefore, a GFCI outlet in a kitchen cannot be the master GFCI for the bathrooms.
OK?
Don't take anything for granted if the house wasn't built in the past few years. A prevoius owner may have done some creative wiring that isn't up to code.
Actually, I'm thinking it was built between 72-mid 90's. Regardless, Kitchen circuits haven't been intermingled with bathrooms or other non-food/eating rooms since the 60's.
Yes, some previous homeowner could have taken liberties s/he shouldn't have, but in that case ALL bets are off.
According to HA HA Budys Here :
aren't _supposed_ to be intermingled...
Exactly.
I had already tried the GFCI switch in the kitchen but as you point out it only works for the GFCI outlets around the kitchen and is unconnected to the bathrooms.
So I had to look elsewhere and after looking everywhere, I finally found the GFCI master switch for all the bathrooms. I have a 2-1/2 story house with 3 bathrooms (2 full, one half) on all floors and it turns out that the GFCI switch is located in the small, hardly used, half-bathroom. It was difficult to find and also not intuitive that all the bathrooms located on all three levels are controlled by one GFCI. The key was to look at all the bathrooms as suggested even ones far away from the outlet not working.
Thanks for all the help from everyone.
Now, it's worth wondering why that outlet tripped. Is that bathroom humid? Did someone bathe the dog in there and let him shake himself dry? Maybe that outlet is getting old.
If you're looking for another job in your job jar, you might consider re-wiring the circuit so each bathroom has its own GFCI outlet, rather than being daisy-chained through the first one.
Chip C
"Re-wiring" is not what is necessary. Rather, if the boxes are large enough for individual GFI receptacles, then only "reconnecting" the wires in the present GFI box and adding the GFIs elswhere is necessary. Ok, so we can call this re-wiring if you wish, but the point is that it may be a fairly simple thing to do. --Phil
Quite right, "re-connecting" is a better phrase for it. And good point that the existing boxes might be tight for GFCIs, plus the pigtail connections that will be needed.
Chip C
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