We built our house about six years ago.  Today, we find the fridge in the garage was not working.  I saw that the GFCI had been tripped.  I tried to reset it, but to no avail.  It will stay set for about 30 seconds and trip again.  Is this an indicator that the outlet is faulty?  We have had a fair amount of rain for the past day, but this problem hasn't happened since we moved in.  Any advice?

Blake

typically fridges and gfi dont get along, some times they do sometimes they wont

now for you problem, i would say you got water in an out side outlet. the garage and outsides are normally wired together. best way to fix it would be to go pull the out side covers off of the outlets to see if they are wet. if they are you can do a few things, one take a can or computer duster or your compressor if you have one and blow the water out. or just pull the outlet out and dry it by shaking, towels or what ever. then when you put the cover back on caulk the top and side to the house but dont do the bottom. you need to let the water have a way out when it gets in.

yes the gfi might be bad it happens, but get some one to add another out let that is not on a gfi, if the gfi is right at the fridge it will be real easy 15 min job

btw if you house has brick front check the front one first because the cover never seals well to the brick with out caulk

There's a guy on this forum that can help you.
Too bad he doesn't fix friDges.

Unplug everything from all of that circuit. Refrigerator, toaster whatever. Plug each one back in one by one and run them. If one of them trip it then typically you have a bad appliance. Usually it is a old Refrigerator. Is the one in the garage old?
On the other hand you can test the GFCI with a handy little unit called a GFCI tester. At Home Depot or Lowe's they have them for about 7.00. Or if you have an electrician friend they can check the circuit/GFCI out for you.
They are know to go out. I change them out fairly regularly.
Good luck.

Ahhhhh!  Outside Christmas Lights.  That got 'er done.  Thanks.

Blake

if you plug in a lot of lights out side get what is called in an use cover. they keep the outlet dry even when some thing is plugged in. they cost about 15 to 20 bucks at HD. the in use covers are now code for a good reason, but make sure you seal it to the house

Damn...just thought of something.

Having a house built and put an extra outlet in the garage where we wanted to put an outside freezer.  It just hit me that it will be a GFCI outlet since it's in the garage.  Is there an easy way to change out the outlet to a non GFCI one?

Quoted: Damn...just thought of something. Having a house built and put an extra outlet in the garage where we wanted to put an outside freezer.  It just hit me that it will be a GFCI outlet since it's in the garage.  Is there an easy way to change out the outlet to a non GFCI one?

     Sure , just buy a conventional outlet and coverplate and wire it as youwould normaly .
If this outlet is not the " end of the line " , then put the GFCI in the next box downline to protect the rest of the circuit .  Does that make sense ?

Quoted: Damn...just thought of something. Having a house built and put an extra outlet in the garage where we wanted to put an outside freezer.  It just hit me that it will be a GFCI outlet since it's in the garage.  Is there an easy way to change out the outlet to a non GFCI one?

if you speced it for a freezer they should put in a single outlet not a normal duplex, you can legally have a single outlet in a garage for a dedicated use like a freezer or compressor etc that is not gfi protected.

the problem is normally when they wire houses they either put the gfi at the electric panel or in the garage, if it is in the garage it is real easy to add a non gfi rec next to it. if the gfi is in the basement, change the way its wired so it protects is self then change each other outlet on the circuit to a gfi that is wired to only protect its self ( not the only way but with out see the order they wired the outlets i cant say another ). much better in the long run that way any way, if an outlet does not work you just reset that outlet

Quoted: Damn...just thought of something. Having a house built and put an extra outlet in the garage where we wanted to put an outside freezer.  It just hit me that it will be a GFCI outlet since it's in the garage.  Is there an easy way to change out the outlet to a non GFCI one?

The usual Code interpretation is for "Convenience" or utility outlets (the regular duplex ones) that you might plug a corded tool into.

Most inspectors will allow a single receptacle for a dedicated device (i.e. fridge, sump pump) to be set up without a GFCI, even though their location might normally require one.



Spec it out as a dedicated fridge outlet - if possible on it's own circuit. You should be fine.

You can also change from a duplex GFCI to a single receptacle - just make sure that the GFCI doesn't protect additional outlets "downstream" (easy to tell - if there are wirtes attached to the terminals labeled "LOAD", there are other things being protected)