Philip_G

electricians around? need some help.

My fishtank (saltwater..) was right in front of an outlet.. and stupid me spilled some salt water in it. It blew the breaker luckily, and everything was cool as long as I only used the top outlet, the bottom would blow the breaker.

I'm in the process of moving, and accidently plugged something into the bottom outlet, that blew the breaker again, and from then on it would keep blowing.

So, I figured I damaged the outlet. I replaced the outlet with a GFCI (like I should have in the first place..)
now, any time I hit the reset button on the GFCI outlet, it trips instantly. Regardless of anything being plugged into it. But the rest of the circuit works fine. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but the load side of that outlet goes to the range hood, something they're sure to notice isn't working.

Any ideas as to what might be causing my problem? Besides my own stupidity. The breaker is on, everything is OK, but the GFCI trips whenever it's reset. I thought maybe I had the line/load sides reversed, so I switched them. The outlet is grounded.. Hopefully I didn't do serious damage to something

Troy Madlem

I'm afraid I can't help with your problem but if you don't find your answer here I suggest you trying posting over here: http://www.selfhelpforums.com/index.php

They guy that runs the site is a licensed electrician and he quickly (sometimes within a few hours) posts responses to most any electrical question. With a few pointers from the site I was able to replace my main service panel and install a non-rated service panel out in my detached workshop.

Good luck with your problem.

Jon_Are

Philip -

I'm not an electrician, but here are my thoughts:

If only one outlet on a duplex trips a breaker, the outlet must be defective or mis-wired (or else the appliance you are plugging into it is funky).

It is odd, though, that both your original outlet and your (replacement) GFCI both trip the bottom outlet but not the top.

I would suggest referring to the installation instructions, assuming you still have them, and see if you've wired it correctly.

There is another great repair forum (doityourelf.com) onto which I posted your question . I figured you wouldn't mind. There are a lot of knowledgeable guys hanging out there and they've helped me a lot in the past.

Good luck,

Jon

Philip_G

strange. I connected the load side in with the line on the outlet, and everything works. the range hood doesn't need to be GFCI protected, so screw it. everything works.. good enough for me

thanks for the help!

PaulDi

If your switchboard has a link between the neutral and earth bus bars then you will need to remove it in order for the GFCI to work properly.