What makes a gfci outlet trip

It can break at those stress points. Conductive dust or debris — Accumulated dust or debris can also cause enough leakage to trip if the dust or debris is wet or conductive. This is the most common problem for outside outlets. Moisture can also get inside the wiring of an appliance. Make sure to protect the outlet with a hermetic or waterproof cover. Once the outlet is completely dry, reset the GFCI.

Unplug everything from the outlet and see if the GFCI stops tripping. Plug everything back in one at a time to see which appliance is causing the breaker to trip. Check that appliance or have it checked by a professional for wear or damage. You can test the leakage with a good quality leakage current tester. If you detect leakage then the appliance should be repaired. GFCI outlets can handle 15 or 20 amps. This is fine for the most common uses.

If there are too many things plugged in and drawing too much current the breaker will trip to protect from overheating. In this case, the outlet is doing its job. Lots of things can overload the circuit including permanently installed electric motors, fluorescent lighting, lines with lots of splices, and even electrical lines with longer than feet can keep the GFCI tripping. Another possibility is a defective appliance drawing too much current.

This can be caused by bad connections or corrosion, or the appliance wearing out. In this case, the appliance needs to be repaired. If the appliance is not bad, then you might need a dedicated circuit just for that appliance in order to limit the amount of current going through the GFCI.

All electrical components degrade over time and GFCI outlets are no different. Many recommend replacing them every 10 years. Many things can cause circuit overload including defective appliances, rusted wires, permanently installed electric motors, and others. Since water is an excellent conductor of electricity, it can cause your outlet to trip off. If your receptacle is wet, the current can flow through it to the ground or any conductor around.

If your GFCI outlet continues to trip, there may be an electrical fault resulting from poor wiring. If, after trying the above methods, the GFCI still trips, change the receptacle, it has gone bad. You can buy a new outlet here Amazon. You can also contact us at mariaelectrical. Because the circuit that is being protected by the GFCI can span multiple rooms and have multiple appliances running on the same circuit, it can be difficult to determine the cause of a tripped GFCI, especially when nothing is plugged into it or it seems to trip at random times.

The next section will explain each of these causes in more detail and show you how to fix the problem. Until the ground fault is fixed, the GFCI will continue to trip. Plug in one appliance at a time until the GFCI trips. You can double check this by unplugging all the appliances that were on before the GFCI tripped, except for the last one you plugged in.

If the problem GFCI is an outdoor receptacle or an indoor outlet that was exposed to water in some way, moisture inside the receptacle box could be causing the GFCI to trip.

A wet GFCI will trip regardless of what is plugged into it and may continue to trip even if there is no visible moisture inside the box. Trapped moisture inside the box will cause the GFCI to trip until it dries up.

Reset the GFCI outlet. You may have to wait several hours for the moisture inside the receptacle to dry. Removing the outside plug covers and using a hair dryer set on low to blow warm air into the box can help speed up this process. When choosing a protective covering, make sure that the label lists the following:. Note: Always make sure your weatherproof covering is closed over outdoor receptacles whether there are appliances plugged in or not.

Since a single circuit can span multiple rooms, there are likely multiple outlets wired into it and a problem in any one of them can cause the GFCI to trip. The other possible explanation is that the GFCI itself is faulty. A GFCI uses sensitive circuitry to detect ground faults and over time, this circuitry can become worn out.