Shopsmith Forums

I have always been able to fix any plumbing or electrical problem and have never needed to call one to come to my house. . .perhaps until now but I want to keep the record going if I can.

The GFCI receptacle in my garage kicked off during a hail/rain storm. There are four outlets connected, two outside which are covered receptacle and two inside (one is the GFCI). The GFCI would not reset so I replaced it with one I had in my Electrical box that I knew worked and that one would not reset.

During the hail storm there was damage to the 12v Malibu lights, which probably then got wet and that caused the GFCI to trip. I unplugged 12v power supply before doing anything. I have 120 v going to the GFCI so the problem is down-line and probably from where the 12v power supply was plugged in.

How to I check this out and determine the cause and how to fix it? My knowledge of electrical circuits is minimal. I know about gozintas and gozoutas (it goes inta here and goes outa there) and that's about it.

First, disconnect the Malibu lights and then re-set your GFCI. If everything works the Malibu lights are your problem. If the GFI won't re-set, then disconnect the one of your external outlet (duplexes). MAKE SURE THE WIRES ARE FREE BEFORE TRYING YOUR GFCI AGAIN. If still not working continue on with disconnecting both of your external outlets..

As a final straw, re-replace your GFCI again.

Remember, you are seeking to determine why there is an unsafe level of "ground current". In a normal situation, there is no ground current thus a minimal hazard.

If you take power off of the contributing circuit there will be no ground fault current and the GFCI will not trip but you have really not fixed anything. As soon as you put power back on that circuit, a hazard condition returns.

I have a kitchen circuit in the house and a circuit in the RV that are totally unpredictable. In the kitchen, if there has been a lot of rain, the GFCI trips. If I just wait until "tomorrow", everything seems to return to normal (something that was wet is now dry).

In the RV, I will find that I have no power in any of the AC convenience outlets but all the AC lights and appliances work. Reset the GFCI and everything returns to normal and may stay that way for weeks or months before acting up again. This indicates to me that the AC service to the trailer is OKAY but that within the trailer there is a fault in the circuit for the convenience outlets. The other circuit(s) are not protected by the GFCI.

Wouldn't you know that the RV manufacturer has not and will not provide a detailed wiring diagram for the coach.

All I can say is "BE CAREFUL".

You said that you had an electrical storm before the problem started. I had a similar problem when I did two way radio service work at a remote site that had a GFI that would not reset. Turns out that the lightning strike arced over in a couple of the convenience outlets and that arcing caused a carbon track in a crack in one of the outlets which would trip the GFCI. My suggestion would be to "shotgun" the fix and replace ALL of the convenience outlets on the circuit and check if the problem goes away. If it does not then there is a current leak to the ground through another conducting path such as an arc over in the romex cable
Try these and let us know how you make out
Bill V
If there are only two protected outlets under control of the GFCI remove the outlets and separate the wires and re-apply power to the circuit. If the breaker trips with the outlets removed then the wiring is probably at fault.

Open up the outdoor boxes, and pull out the receptacles. Get a hair dryer and dry the inside of the box(wires especially) and the receptacles throughly.

Reapply power to the GFCI. If all tis well remove power, reinsert the receptacles, weather proof the box and call it done.
If all is not well disconnect the receptacles one at a time and repeat power on. Repeat until the 'bad' receptacles is 'discovered'. ALWAYS remember to remove power when 'in de box etc.).


Or do the shot gun thing! Add weatherproofing. That includes between the cover and the 'waLL'.