I’m wiring my shop (which is the basement) and for the outlets instead of a GFCI outlets (or one to protect everything down stream) I am putting in a 20amp Cutler Hammer (made by Eaton) GFCI Breaker.
I wired the breaker up and installed per the instructions (and every other way I could think of too, LOL) but when everything is hooked up the breaker will not turn on. It stays in the “tripped” postion which is switch in the middle. I have tried to push it to off then on to see if it resets, but it doesnt.
I switched it out with a new 15amp GFCI breaker, which is for other outlets in the basement and that one works fine. I am thinking that I am one of the un-luckey few that got a bad breaker out of the box. Before I run to HD to exchange it for a new one, is there anything I am missing? I did the test where you unhook a wire at a time to see if you can get it to stay on but it failed that too.
ANy idea’s?
Thanks
J-
Replies
Verify that you ran the white pigtail from the breaker to the neutral bus and that the white wire from THAT circuit connects to the 2nd terminal on the breaker.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yep thats exactly how I had it run both on the 20amp GFI that didnt work and on the 15 amp that did.
Thanks
J-
Well, If that's the case, I think you know the problem????
I'm a building contractor by trade and I can't remember the last time we had a whole project completed without a dud breaker or switch or something, somewhere in the job. So it's really not that uncommon.
Edited 4/19/2008 5:42 pm ET by BoJangles
thanks for info guys, it was the actual breaker that was defective. New 20amp GFCI fixed it. Here it the funny part (well not really funny). Got back from HD from exhanging the busted 20amp breaker, put it in and another 15amp GFCI and they both worked. Threw in the final 15amp GFCI breaker and it was broken too, had the same problem as the first 20amp one.
Back to HD for a new one and the new one is fine! Never would have though that 2 out of the original 3 that I got would have been busted ! Oh well they all work now.
Bad thing with the packaging of the GFCI breakers is that you can not check the switch like you can with a regular "loose" stocked breaker. On both of them if I could have thrown the switch I would have been able to tell they were not right.
Thanks
J-