I have 2 electrical questions

[okietool]

#1 In my gd's garage there is a receptacle that's the ground fault type.
When it trips it takes everything on that circuit with it.
It doesn't trip the breaker, but nothing else on that circuit seems to work.
I don't think that's normal is it?

#2 There is no water withing at least 15' of the ground fault receptacle, why would a ground fault receptacle be necessary? Or even desirable?

 

[Aries]

I'm not an electrician so I can't try to explain why, but it sounds normal. The one in one of our bathrooms tripped the other day, and took power to all the receptacles in the adjacent bedroom out until I reset it, so apparently they are on the same circuit.

Hard to say why there is one there without seeing it or knowing the history of the house... was there maybe a washer/dryer there at one time? How far above the floor is it? Is it on an outside or inside wall?

 

[okietool]

I'm not an electrician so I can't try to explain why, but it sounds normal. The one in one of our bathrooms tripped the other day, and took power to all the receptacles in the adjacent bedroom out until I reset it, so apparently they are on the same circuit.

Hard to say why there is one there without seeing it or knowing the history of the house... was there maybe a washer/dryer there at one time? How far above the floor is it? Is it on an outside or inside wall?

I don't think there was a washer/dryer there, there's no plumbing. It's about 4' above the floor. It is on the inside of an outside garage wall.

 

[Aries]

The only reasons I can think of are code may require it on an outside wall or if there is water running to a hydrant on that wall. Or someone put it there because they needed to replace a receptacle, and that was all they had?

I think there are a couple of electricians around, so hopefully they'll chime in shortly.

 

[okietool]

The only reasons I can think of are code may require it on an outside wall or if there is water running to a hydrant on that wall. Or someone put it there because they needed to replace a receptacle, and that was all they had?

I think there are a couple of electricians around, so hopefully they'll chime in shortly.

No hydrant (I thought about that also, but that's the garage wall so it might be tough to keep it thawed out)

 

[perfor8]

I'm not an electrician so you should completely ignore this:

GFCI receptacles can be wired to protect all other receptacles on that circuit. So, yes, normal.

Why? At grade level (ground), potentially wet, no floor coverings to insulate person from ground, NEC says so, etc.

I remove the GFCI protection for the freezer... too much grass fed beef in there to go to waste if the GFCI trips.

 

[okierider]

GFCI's are junk and go out a lot. If there is no water close there is no need. replace with a standard plug and save your GD a lot of pain (or you for that matter lol).

 

[dlbleak]

It was an easy way to get around code and still be legal. My gfi is in the garage but also protects the hall bath and all outside recepticals. It was tripping all the time. I finally put two and two together and realized it was tripping when we watered the yard or it rained. I caulked around the receptical by the front porch. Problem solved.
Sounds stupid but it protected the hall bath.

 

[Catt57]

The garage was wired with a GFI because it has the potential to be exposed to the elements. (Think garage door being left open or a heavy rain flooding in.) Last I knew of, this was done according to most city codes.

 

[BReeves]

I'm not an electrician and this is probably bad advice but if it were mine I would pull that puppy out and replace it with a standard receptacle.