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Electrical Question - garage outlets

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CarolinaCy

Well-Known Member
Apr 18, 2008
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Background info - my garage (new construction) has 3 receptacles, 2 are in the ceiling for openers, and the other is a GFI on the wall. The 2 ceiling outlets are wired to the GFI.

So I was installing a couple of garage door openers recently, and everthing went fine with the first one. On the second one, as soon as I plugged in the opener, it tripped the GFI outlet. So I unplugged the first opener, reset the GFI, then plugged in opener 2 and it tripped again.

So then I unplugged everything, reset the GFI, and tried to plug in the battery charger for my cordless drill (no battery in the charger) and it tripped. What gives? Is there a short in the ceiling outlet or something? The builder will fix it if something is wrong, but I don't know how soon they can get to it. If it's something simple I'm missing, please let me know.

Thoughts?
 
gfci may not be working correctly. is it a 20a or a 15a? does it only trip with the same outlet in the ceiling?
 
CarolinaCy said:
Background info - my garage (new construction) has 3 receptacles, 2 are in the ceiling for openers, and the other is a GFI on the wall. The 2 ceiling outlets are wired to the GFI.

So I was installing a couple of garage door openers recently, and everthing went fine with the first one. On the second one, as soon as I plugged in the opener, it tripped the GFI outlet. So I unplugged the first opener, reset the GFI, then plugged in opener 2 and it tripped again.

So then I unplugged everything, reset the GFI, and tried to plug in the battery charger for my cordless drill (no battery in the charger) and it tripped. What gives? Is there a short in the ceiling outlet or something? The builder will fix it if something is wrong, but I don't know how soon they can get to it. If it's something simple I'm missing, please let me know.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

(skip to second paragraph if you don't want a long, dumb story)

I had a similar issue in my kitchen. A couple of the outlets weren't working. I had hit the GFI reset before and they'd work again but kinda forgot about that. Called an electrician and he came and tested the outlets then hit the GFI and they started working so he assumed it was just that. Of course, the electrician is a friend and he told all my other friends that I called an electrician to reset my GFI:) Anyway, after he left I tried to plug something in to one of the outlets and it wasn't working again. I took that outlet out and found a loose wire that was causing a short. Fixed it and all is good now except my pride.

So, check for a short in the two ceiling outlets.
 
ss said:
gfci may not be working correctly. is it a 20a or a 15a? does it only trip with the same outlet in the ceiling?
Click to expand...

It appears to be working correctly, only the 2nd ceiling outlet causes it to trip. It just starting tripping when I got to the second opener in the second outlet.
 
CarolinaCy said:
It appears to be working correctly, only the 2nd ceiling outlet causes it to trip. It just starting tripping when I got to the second opener in the second outlet.
Click to expand...
It's really cheap to replace 2nd outlet in ceiling if you find no wiring issues in that box. Try that, and if GFI still trips, I'd replace GFI
 
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