Ground Fault Interupter outlets

T

Two Bears

New member
Both of my outlets will no longer reset. I'm running an extension from a multi-outlet on my incoming shore power line for my 110 needs. How much risk am I taking if I replace them with a standard home outlet?

Chuck
 
I think I would bench test them first. If they work on the bench then they are doing there job and there is a fault in the wiring some where. Break the system down and test around things to narrow down where the problem is.
 
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I had the same problem on Lady KC.

From my experience,
I would only replace with a ground fault unit.
The GF units sold at Home Depot will do the job.

I could not determine the difference between the GF units sold in Marine Supply stores......other than more $$$$

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There is absolutely no difference. Marinco GFCIs are now rebranded Leviton home grade outlets. Marinco confirmed this, and the ABYC said there's no distinction. So get $9 ones from the hardware store instead of $30+ ones from a boat store.
 
Every once in awhile I'll stay at a marina where only 15-amp current is available from a GFCI socket, and I always have trouble with the GFCI being tripped. Sometimes I've been able to get it to work by turning everything off in the boat, then turning on the main switch to shore power, and if that doesn't trip the GFCI, turning on one thing at a time. My guess is there's an initial surge when going on to shore power from several appliance on my boat, which overloads the GFCI breaker. Anyone have a better solution, or even a good explanation for this?
 
I had a number of problems with the commercially available $$$$ 15A to 30A pigtail cable sold by you know who (and yellow in color) continually tripping the garage (or marina) GFCI because it had absorbed moisture, worked fine on sunny days !!
Solved that by using the marginally less expensive short adaptor.

That is not the same as Chuck's problem but it shows how easy it is to get enough leakage to trip the GFCI. That is what it is designed to do so be real careful that you have checked out the boat and appliances wiring before you blame the GFCI. Note that there may be circuits wired to the GFCI which are protected. Not just the appliances than plug into the front.

That said, using the store item, it is relatively quick to replace it and see what happens.

M
 
Journey On. is a 25 and obviously you have a 22. However, let's try the following, until someone with more knowledge chimes in.

On Journey On, the 110 outlet circuit is fed by the main 110 breaker and has its own breaker, which is for an overload. The 110 outlet next to the AC panel has a GFI outlet which I have to reset every once in awhile. The other 110 outlet doesn't have a GFI breaker. And by the way, that's true of the house wiring, in that each circuit is protected by a single GFI outlet.

So the first question is why does each (both?) of your outlets have GFI protection? Did someone do a home built wiring scheme? Can the hot and ground AC lines be reversed?

Next, granted that the GFI trips, both of them, is the green wire connected back to the shore power plug? You can run a resistance check with a voltmeter for this, I presume. And does your shore power cord connect to grounded green wire?

Finally, have you tried replacing the outlets? Once in a while, I found a GFI outlet that trips rather easily. And it's the last thing I think of, so I go nuts finding why the power shut off.

Good luck, Boris
 
Grumpy said:
I had a number of problems with the commercially available $$$$ 15A to 30A pigtail cable sold by you know who (and yellow in color) continually tripping the garage (or marina) GFCI because it had absorbed moisture, worked fine on sunny days !!
Solved that by using the marginally less expensive short adaptor.

Just a question for Grumpy, the short adapter - is that one made by Furrion? I was looking at them the other day and wondered if they are better than the yellow ones with the short length of cord?

Regards, Rob
Click to expand...
 
Make and properly seal your own adaptors--problem should be solved (and it will cost less....

Lots of reasons to trip a GFI on a boat. But the obvious can be eliminated.
 
Well, first problem is that I'm far from home on the Eire Canal and when I wrote that I was a bit frustrated.

Boris, you are correct, I don't know why both outlets are GFI, probably to keep it simple for installers. Later, I realized in the dark I was pushing the test button, instead of the "reset" button. Then, I realized that all power to the boat was off, so I went to the power pedestal on the dock and found the GFI there also had tripped. So, when I went back and carefully reset my two outlets everything worked. Oh, yes, the "Outlet" switch on the main panel also shuts itself off now and then. Trying to find a pattern on that, so far no clue.

I have enjoyed everyone's comments. I need to find a way to "de-senstize" things when I get home.

Chuck
 
As a electrician I installed seperate GFCI,s for each outlet when possible.
You can feed through a GFCI to protect other outlets, or you can feed unprotected, and install a seperate GFCI at the each outlet.
My main reason for this is to avoid nusience tripping.
Have done many service calls where a GFCI has tripped somewhere and left a bunch of outlets dead.
I think that it is worth the extra money to keep it simple.
Jerry
 
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