GFCI replacement, what is the correct method?

Question

How to replace an old receptacle with a newer one. I have a electrical outlet by my sink which is not GFCI (not code when the house was built). I went and bought a couple (one for the kitchen and one for the laundry room). When I removed the old receptacle I noticed there were four wires. The red and black were both on the same side and the white on the other, and the bare wire being the ground in its appropriate spot. The instructions for the new outlet only made reference to black and white wires, whether using 2 black wires or only one. I scratched my head for the longest time trying to figure things out, but no luck. I have tried wiring it up exactly the way it was, but when I try to turn the breaker on, it trips the entire house. HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!! I have been searching on the web for the past couple of hours but am not finding the answer, or any answer for that matter.

Answer 1

As you are facing the back of your gfci either the top two screws will be marked "line" or "load." The source coming from your panel needs to go on the line side while any other receptacles down line will go on the load.



That said, what woodtick was referring too was the old receptacle. There should be a small brass tab that ties the two brass screws together and the same on the silver screws. If this tab has been removed on the brass side, then the red wire is a different circuit. The only way you would trip the entire house as you say, is a very direct short circuit. Either what woodtick says is true, or the new device is too big for the old box and the wire is shorting out against the box.



Here is what I would try.

1) First just hook up the black wire and two neutrals on the line side. Leave the receptacle hang out and turn the breaker on. Does it trip?

2) If not, see if any of the other receptacles or lights are off. If they are not, then the red wire is probably controlled by a switch or separate breaker. Wire nut the wire, and roll it into the back of the box.

3) If there are other outlets off, then the red wire needs to go on the load side of the gfci.



Bottom line is, it worked before you changed the outlet. It's either the wiring configuration or the wires shorting out against the box. Be sure and wrap the outlet with electrical tape over the screw terminals to ensure you don't short against the box.



Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Read this:http://books.google.com/books?id=60k0Q9tpmKYC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=gfci+receptacle+multiwire+branch+circuit&source=web&ots=vHo4YGWwke&sig=FkiBwaXMCOgHHx2W9h3msBFj0xQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result



This might help. The poster above is right about not being able to hook up a GFCI receptacle on a split circuit. A split circuit is where you have two 120v hot leads and one neutral going to the same receptacle. So, in other words it is the same voltage (240) you would have going to your oven except that one hot lead is powering the top receptacle and the other hot lead is powering the bottom receptacle.



So you hooked up one hot lead to your new GFCI and the other hot lead was just sitting in the box "live" without a connection. Also you have to consider that the red hot lead that is disconnected may have been used to power more receptacles downstream. These will not work now.



One solution would be to use a standard split circuit receptacle and rewire it as it originally was. Then replace the breaker with a two-pole 120/240-v common trip dual-function with both GFCI and AFCI features in one breaker.



This would make every receptacle on the circuit both GFCI and AFCI (arc fault) protected.



This would be the easiest thing to do and you would be up to code. Make sure you get a common trip breaker. Very important.

Answer 3

Was the tab between the 2 brass screws broken? If so, that receptacle was fed by 2 different circuits with a shared neutral and ground. You cannot properly connect a GFCI with this configuration. You will need to determine where the red is feeding from and disconnect it at that point. Connect the black to brass, white to silver (both on the line side of the GFCI), and copper to green. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

First turn off the breaker in panel. On the gfi you will have screws marked line and load. Remove one wire at a time noting if it is line or load. Line is in, load is out. Many times load is not used If there only 2 or three wires this is the case. Gold screw gets colored wire, silver gets white wire. Green one gets green wire, or bare wire, sometimes it could be white, if your house has conduit there will be no green wire, the conduit is the ground. It's easy if you connect too new, as you disconnect old. rodan71 is right except, if you have conduit the screw that holds gfi in is the ground, and gfis do not work whithout the ground.

Answer 5

1) you need a multimeter before you go any further! You have a serious wiring mistake that is tripping a very large breaker (100 amps or more)!!!!!

2) with all circuits on, and the wires safely exposed, set multimeter to AC volts, at 250 volt range, measure voltage to ground on each wire. I don't care what color they are...there is some strange games played with wire here, and someone had some 220 v wire left over, betcha! Only one of these wires will be hot if any wiring was done right, and since the thing worked before, the wiring is done right. The hot wire lable "Black." now, measure the "black" wire to the white wire..it should read 115 or so volts, same as the black wire should have read to ground. IF so, then the White IS white. (gound). Now, if the "red" wire did not become " black" in measuring above, test its voltage to ground...it should read '0' IF there is voltage on that line, there is something wrong here! Whatever line is "hot", the other colored line is the feed through to the rest of that circuit and without being hooked up to the 'Hot" wire, cannot have a voltage reading.

NOW, throw the breaker to that box...make sure there is NO voltage on the "black" wire, the white wire, the "colored" wire. NO VOLTAGE means NO VOLTAGE ! Switch multimeter to Ohms reading, measure white to ground...should be 0 Ohms. Measure "Black" to ground, should be infinant ohms. Measure "colored" wire to ground...assuming nothing is plugged in, no lights on that circuit are switched on, should read 0 ohms.



Hook Ground wire to "Ground" of plug unit. Hook White wire to White hook up. Hook "black" to black Hook up. Hook "Colored" to feed on the plug (other outlets).. Center and screw back in place ...observe that nothing is touching nothing on sides of box to ground out plug.

Turn on that circuit...nothing should happen. Push reset on the plug..it should click in place. Plug something into plug, it should work. If it works, unplug and push "Test." If the circuit goes dead (plug something back in, it should not work, then all is good. Push reset till it clicks and you should have protected plug, and the rest of the circuit should be protected...IF it pops, then another plug somewhere has a problem OR a problem is plugged into the plug! Unplug all on that circuit, reset, and one at a time, plug back in until you find the culprit.

Good luck. Goldwing.

Answer 6

You need to get an Electrician to check this problem out for you.