So I have a GFCI outlet in my garage that keeps tripping. It first happened 2 days ago. When I hit the reset button, everything turned back on and worked fine for a while. It tripped again yesterday, and same thing. I reset it and everything was good. Today when I first noticed it tripped, I reset it and it stayed on for about 5 minutes before it tripped again. Now every time I reset it, it lasts for less than a minute before tripping again. During the 30 minutes or so that I was just playing with it, there was about a minute where hitting the reset button would not do anything and it would just immediately pop back out but then went back to staying on for ~ 30 seconds before tripping again. Any clue on what could be causing this? The outlet is on a wall inside my garage but the other side of the wall is the exterior of the house. There are a few other normal(no reset button) outlets in the garage that are connected to this GFCI as one of them had a refrigerator plugged in it and this and anything else plugged into any of them will not work when the main GFCI is tripped. Also, the lights in one room of my basement are also connected to it as well. I disconnected the fridge and plugged it into an extension cord that I then plugged into a different outlet inside the house and it worked no problem so I know it's not the fridge. There are also no circuit breakers that are popped and I still turned all of them off and back on again and the problem still persists. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and it now is worse than the last 2 days which coincides with the fact that today, we probably had the most rain. Excuse me for my lack of electrical knowledge but I'm not sure if that circuit is connected anywhere else, or if it has a connection to an outdoor outlet. All I know is that when it is tripped, one single room of my basement lights won't work and all the outlets in the garage won't work however the lights in the garage are still on and it seems like all other outlets and lights in the house are still working fine even when it's tripped. Could water be getting in somehow since it is on the interior side of a wall that also faces the exterior of the house or could it just be a coincidence that it happened during rainy days and there is something else wrong with the GFCI? Any help is much appreciated!
GFCI Outlet in Garage Keeps Tripping (2025 Update)
Jun 18, 2019
Last reply: 8 months ago
13 Replies
Could be moisture. Rain, condensation. Could be any one of the plugs causing it. Check the grounds for good contact.
Refrigerators should not be on a GFCI for the reason you are experiencing. Would suck to have it trip while you are on vacation.
Use a trouble light or small lamp to trace the circuit. Plug it in at different spots, then flip the gfci off and on to see if the light goes off and on with it. The problem could still be the fridge. A gfci is more sensitive than a regular circuit breaker.
I'd start by finding out if there is an outside receptacle on it. Very common for a garage GFCI to also be used for a receptacle outside. That could have water in it. Or it could have an extension cord in it that's left laying out or powering something. If all the receptacles and anything else on it seem OK, then next replace the GFCI.
or an outside post lamp fed by an underground wire.
m
She said she already eliminated the fridge. Trader is right an out side box is likely on that circuit but that is where my previous advice is most important.Keep your wires away from the inside of the box as much as possible, keep them off the bottom of ther box and your wire nuts pointing up so they won't fill with moisture. Ants in the boxes will get you every time.
Others have given you good advice. Most likely you have leakage via moisture.
Another thing to consider is that the GFCI outlet may have failed. Do you have another you could swap with it?
Fred
+1
On 6/19/2019 12:41 AM, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...
..."make sure all wire nuts are pointed up."
Hadn't ever thought of that one -- makes some sense if there is really heavy condensation problem or the box actually does take on water, though. Altho in SW KS unless it's outside in a downpour, such issues are pretty-much a non-issue, I could see in those swampy places to live like Houston.
I had a GFCI in my kitchen (also on an exterior wall) with that problem. The electrical box was full of dead ants.
[snip]
If you would use paragraphs, it would make your post 10x as readable. That is their purpose.
So I didn't read your post but I'm going to suggest that the the outlet or the breaker, whichever it is, might be bad. I had a GFI breaker that came with the house and was 4 years old and was already tripping for no reason. Replaced it and 30 years later the new one is still good.
Warning the grammar police have arrived on the scene 😂🚨
How do you know that the new one isn't bad and hasn't been tripping when it was supposed to?
On Sat, 12 Jun 2021 16:01:07 -0700 (PDT), Marilyn Manson posted for all of us to digest...
Mickey (sic) has a lot of posters in his killfile. He only replies to his 'crew' so don't feel slighted. His mind is made up and don't confuse him with facts.
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