Has anyone heard of having a GFCI outlet in the garage that is connected to the bathrooms ? We were doing some small repairs for a rental property, and when I asked the owner why she had no GFCI outlet in the bathrooms, she told me that there is one in the garage that takes care of it. I am not an electrician, but as her handy people, my hubby and I fix what we can, so an occasional outlet is no big deal. But I thought I’d ask before I head over there. She now says the computer isn’t working, she says the gfci outlet has tripped and wants a new one put in . With it so far from bathrooms how can I find the problem ? If I call an electrician what should I ask of him ?
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The requirements for GFCI changed a lot over the years.
I don't have time to look them up, but IIRC garage and out doors where required first and then bathrooms, but might have been diffeent. This started back in the mid 70's.
It was a long time until they where required in the kitchen.
And I don't have any old code books, but also apparently dedicated circuits where required in bathrooms.
It was not uncommon to run one circuit for the garage, bathroom receptacles, and exterior receptacles and use just one GFCI.
In this case my guess is that the panel is in the garage so that was the first place that the circuit was run. I have heard of other cases where the GFCI was in the bathroom. And even in a half-bath that was never used.
In one case there was a dead face GFCI in a closet.
For the garage and bathroom, assuming that a new circuit won't be run, is rewire the garage receptacel so that the rest of the circuit is feed from the line side and install GFCI receptacles in each bathroom.
"She now says the computer isn't working, she says the gfci outlet has tripped and wants a new one put in ."
Most likely the computer is not on a GFCI, that is is a common receptacle/wiring failure.
But you never know, specially if someone that gotten in an tapped circuits for adding a receptacle.
About how old is the house??
What room is the computer in.
GFCI's can be on outside receptacles, basement/crawlspace, and near wet bars beside the bathrooms and kitchens.
If this is a dining room it might be on the kitchen small appliacne circuits. And they might be protected by a GFCI in the kitchen. Whenever I add GFCI's to existing kitchen receptacles I always use individual ones rather than spending the time trying to figure which is at the first of the circuit and where the refigerator might be on the cirucit.
Another thing is that if this is an older house (pre 60-70) where ungrounded wiring was used it is legal to replace ungrounded receptacels with ground style if they are GFCI or protected by upstream GFCI receptacels or breakers. The receptacles are suppose to be labled No Equipment Ground, but that is rarely down.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
"For the garage and bathroom, assuming that a new circuit won't be run, is rewire the garage receptacle so that the rest of the circuit is feed from the line side and install GFCI receptacles in each bathroom."That is a great solution, I'm adding it to my bag of tricks.I tried to run down a newly dead outlet outside last Christmas season. Outlet went dead soon after the lights went out. Turned out the front porch receptacle was fed from a GFCI outlet in the garage. Learned a good lesson there too.Thanks for the tip.
TFB (Bill)
>>It was not uncommon to run one circuit for the garage, bathroom receptacles, and exterior receptacles and use just one GFCI.<<
That was exactly the set up when we moved into this house.
I guess our's was a little classier - had one GFCI breaker which fed garage, one exterior outlet, and all three bathroom outlets.
This situation was modified as part of the service panel upgrade. Come to think of it, there were a lot of modifications which happened at that point in time.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
It is very common to see GFCI protected outlets run from other locations. One house, I had to go outside to my back patio to reset one of the bathrooms. This was mostly done since the GFCI's were more expensive to supply than wire. Not sure if this is the case today with cooper prices.
Unless your renter is running the computer in the Bath or Garage or extension cord, sounds like someone tapped into the line.
Their is a life expentancy on GFCI (about 8 years) Might start with replacing the one in the garage.
"One house, I had to go outside to my back patio to reset one of the bathrooms. This was mostly done since the GFCI's were more expensive to supply than wire. Not sure if this is the case today with cooper prices."Current codes would not allow that has the bathroom now needs a dedicated circuit.But wet bar (outside of a kitchen), basemenet/crawlspace, garage, and outdoor can all be on the same circuit. But with the cost of GFCI's it would not be done that way today by any "thinking" person.but some of them still might be on the same circuit and it make sense. Such as a garage circuit with an outside receptacle on the garage. Or an outside receptacle right outside the basement receptacle..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
What did you find?
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
The gfci was in the garage, put in a new one, so far so good. The house is about 20 years old, here in Florida they consider that old. I grew up in a 100 year old house in Ohio. guess its all relative. Thanks for the reply, so all you electricians have your own lingo, wish I new what it all meant.