Warning: that GFCI outlet in the garage took me 45 min to figure out

Got a call to replace a dead GFCI in a garage yesterday. Popped the new one in, hit reset, nothing. Checked power at the box, fine. Spent 30 min tracing wires and finally realized the previous guy had the line and load swapped. I've done this for 5 years and still walked right into that trap. Anyone else tripped up by backwards wiring on a swap?

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2 Comments

evan1513mo ago

Make sure you check the breaker first though. 45 minutes seems like a lot for just a swapped line and load. I mean, I've been doing this longer than you and honestly I can tell in thirty seconds if the wires are backwards just by the way the GFCI acts when you hit test. It's not that deep. Maybe it's just me but I feel like you were overthinking it or had something else going on. Sure it's a common mistake but you pop the old one off, look at where the wires are on the old one, and just match it on the new one. Idk, seems like a waste of time to me.

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riverp373mo ago

Yeah, but sometimes the old one's already installed wrong and you have to start from scratch.

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