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pboxman · Jul 18, 2008, 06:36 PM

I have just installed a new Siemens single pole 20A GCFC to wire my basement workshop. The receptacles are wired correctly and checked with a special tester. I run my bench grinder and it does not trip.. I plug in my radio (it's OFF) and the GCFI trips, I hook up a light and it trips... I hook up a battery charger and it trips. I am tearing my hair out. I have torn the receptacle box apart... redone all the connector... same thing. This thing is totally useless. HELP!!

Pete:mad:

pboxman · Jul 18, 2008, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by pboxman

I have just installed a new Siemens single pole 20A GCFC to wire my basement workshop. The receptacles are wired correctly and checked with a special tester. I run my bench grinder and it does not trip.. I plug in my radio (it's OFF) and the GCFI trips, I hook up a light and it trips...I hook up a battery charger and it trips. I am tearing my hair out. I have torn the receptacle box apart...redone all the connector...same thing. This thing is totally useless. HELP!!!

Pete:mad:

Sorry I keep misspelling GFCI...

Missouri Bound · Jul 18, 2008, 06:49 PM

Have you tried the radio, light or the battery charger in the outlet that doesn't trip with the grinder in it? I take it only the grinder is a grounded, three prong plug, is that correct? Have you tried the grinder in all the outlets? I don't think that your lamp, charger and radio failed all at once. But It is possible that the gfci itself has a problem. If you have checked all of your connections, and all is well... consider trying another gfci.

Stratmando · Jul 18, 2008, 07:21 PM

Maybe try just the GFI/GFCI where power starts and have nothing on the load side. Try your listed tools. If they all work, the GFI is OK. All of the loads must draw equal power from hot and neutral, any difference, it will trip.

hkstroud · Jul 18, 2008, 07:26 PM

Is it a GFCI breaker or a GFI outlet. What was the special tester you used.

pboxman · Jul 19, 2008, 04:52 AM

Missouri Bound... and Stratmando, This morning everything trips it... the bench grinder (3 prong), the shop vac (3 prong plug), and the previous two prong devices. I believe that at this point, the GFCI is defective. :confused: Is this common?

hkstroud, it is a Siemens single pole GFCI breaker. The test I have is a little outlet tester made by Ideal... Lowes sells them. It has LED lights that indicate ground, neutral and hot are all correctly wired.

Stratmando · Jul 19, 2008, 05:03 AM

They can be bad out of the box. I would carefully wire a receptacle at panel box to test. If Neutral and ground some how tied together. Then the neutral would draw less(unbalanced load)it will trip. Those testers won't show ground and neutral reversed.
While at the panel see if that circuit shares a neutral with another circuit, if it does, that may be the problem. Turn other breaker off, then test again.

pboxman · Jul 19, 2008, 06:06 AM

I had a flash of brilliance... I incorrectly wired the GFCI... I wired the neutral back to the neutral bus bar as opposed to into the GFCI... just an amateur mistake. I checked the GFCI material but no mention to make sure the neutral was wired back to the GFCI. This fixed the problem. Thanks to all who replied.

Stratmando · Jul 19, 2008, 07:42 AM

Good Deal. I bet that won't happen again.

tom858 · Mar 31, 2013, 09:44 PM

Great Info. I searched all over the net, read my electrical book and found nothing. Your quick couple sentences was exactly my problem. Even the direction on the GFCI breaker was not clear but your were. They need to put that in all GFCI breaker instructions. I was putting neutrel on the breaker and the pig tail on the neutral bar with the white wire also. Put the white from the source to the breaker and the pig tail to the neutral bar. Perfect, it solved my problem!