Thanks for clarifying about the 20 amp GFCI for kitchens. Had someone tell me their GFCI kept tripping in the kitchen. When I went to look, there was a 15 amp GFI on a 20 amp breaker with a toaster oven plugged into it! Thanks for sharing! What’s more confusing, why would anyone put a thumbs down on your video?
This guy just saved me some money. The national average to install or replace an electrical outlet is $199. A new one can cost as little as $75 or as much as $485. The project typically ranges from $127 and $272. I paid $27 for the outlet and did it myself. :-) Thank you.
Mr. Shook I just wanted to thank you for passing this information. I was able to install a GFCI that had been installed incorrectly rendering one wall in my kitchen useless for years. I thought it was something that I could not fix alone. Thank you. 😊
Thanks for the information and help! Just troubleshot a tripped kitchen gfci and had to open 4 duplex wall outlets to find rhe problem. In that 4th outlet I checked, upon taking cover off I noticed the exposed copper ground wire touching the neutral exposed side screw. Pushed that back in and away from neutral screw and that was the problem. You got me on that load trail with your gfci help videos. Thank you!!
No electrician wants to help me to change a GFCI in my bathroom, they said it is too small a job. I watched a couple videos on UA-cam, but this was the best and well explained. Thank you, John, I fixed it for myself and saved money too.
Had a party for my kids. Three bounce house blowers were hooked to the same gfi line. The gfi stopped working. Put a new gfi in but did not look to see the new gfi Load was On my way the bottom until I watched your video. Great clued for a weekend warrior. Sometimes a doctorates degree is not enough but with your help I fixed it. Many many thanks!!!!!
Thanks John, I’ve been a DIY guy all my life, this video was a great tool for m e to understand trouble shooting GFCI outlets thanks for your time, Ed (Jack of all trades master of none) PS I’m very thankful people like you are passing your trade tips on for guys like me...
Thank you John very informative, I was a little confused with the line and load. You explained it perfectly. And thanks for the info about the 20 and 15 amps GFCI receptacles.
THANK YOU - I had just installed a brand new circuit with a GFCI outlet and it wouldn't reset. I didn't realize that the line HAD to come in the line side, I honestly thought it was just a recommendation. Duh! Fixed me right up.
I "home owner" just replaced gfci. I just put the wiring the same way as the old gfci that was installed. It did not work. I made sure the white wires on the correct side, same with the black ones and the ground. Still didn't work. Watched this video just to realize the manufacture has the loads up and the lines down!!! I would've never thought of this! Thanks for this educational video.
I did the same thing. I was replacing an ivory colored GFI for a white colored GFI and had wired it to the bottom instead of the top.Could have sworn the yellow warning info tape was at the bottom ;)
@@johnnymacblues3426 having the SAME frustrating problem and YES my Yellow tape was on the bottom (Levitron) I want to switch the top white and black with bottom but will i damage anything i wonder?
As always John..good presentation..I'm like you,,,doing this for over 43 years and I've seen plenty. A lot of electricians will use 15 amp outlets on a 20 amp circuit and I always match the amps with the proper outlet.
I recently watched a video by an electrician who said a 15 amp duplex receptacle on a 20 amp circuit meets NEC. A 15 amp single receptacle on a 20 amp circuit wound not meet nec. I’m not an electrician but in my house I use commercial grade 20 amp receptacles on 20 amp circuits.
Thank you John for this video. Hubby and I replaced this outlet in our kitchen but it didn't work. We have an older home and when you mentioned the Line/Load being reversed on the new outlets, we switched the wires and voila!!
I'm so glad an electrician is coming tomorrow. 🤣 Thank you for sharing your knowledge. We have 4 outlets and a light on one breaker. The 4 outlets stopped working sometime in the last few months. We don't use them. 1 outlet is outside (non GFI as our home was built in the 70s), 1 outlet is in our master bath (GFI), 1 outlet in our second bath (GFI) and the other outlet is in a random room. We don't use any of these outlets regularly as we don't use hair dryers, etc. The working light and exhaust fan is in the second bathroom. We carefully labeled everything when we moved in 3 years ago. All the outlets and light switches were replaced 2 years ago as we went to smart home switches and outlets. The only outlet that wasn't changed was outside. The light and exhaust fan on this breaker work but the outlets on the same breaker don't. My husband carefully checked all the breakers, threw the main, changed the breaker and has looked at the inside of every outlet with the exception of the outside outlet. Everything looked fine. When he installed the new breaker, the second bathroom outlet worked for a split second. It was the first we checked with a plug in lamp. We are guessing that it is the first in the daisy chain of outlets but honestly we don't know this as it was just the first that was checked. We don't have a voltage reader. I feel like I have watched a few hours of UA-cam and am missing something. Usually we can figure this stuff out. But, tomorrow an electrician comes. I'm willing to pay at this point.
Thank you for explaining it so well sir. Now I know Line and Load. And to keep the leads coming in and going out on the same side top and bottom. A watch out for do-it-yourselfers replacing an existing CFGI: I bought a new one and though I could just transfer the wires, well the new GFCI had the Load and Line on opposite ends, who'd have thunk! LED was green, but the plug not working. Well thanks to Mr. Shook's video, I just switched them around and success!
Thanks John, I had a receptacle in the garage that wouldn’t work, never thought it might be connected to a GFI in the bathroom, checked the gfi and that’s what it was.
Thanks! Helped me get my outlet working! -- for anyone else who doesn’t have a electricity checker to test which is the load and which is the line...what I did was label each wire...then write out each possible combination...then test each combination one by one...there were 4 combinations in total.
As an electronic technition, I thought I knew everything but we were not taught all the issues in safety issues and installation concerns so thanks for the info.
Thanks for your wisdom. I know I really appreciate it I've had a problem with electrical fir 4 years just chasing my tail. I'm hopeful something you posted will help. Thank you again.
John, Today I replaced the GFI in my daughter's bath. I had pulled off line and load without thinking about it. Thanks so much for your lightbulb tip. This was a lifesaver this afternoon. Thanks so much!
Wow..I was just about to replace my outlet in the kitchen (all the plugs are out), but saw it was a 15 amp that I bought. Thank You for mentioning the outlet should be 20 amp in the kitchen. Back to the store!!
The problem is with the solid 12 wire. It is always a pain to compress that stuff into a box especially with a GFI and its physical size. The 12 wire just does not fit well behind the GFI case. The GFI has little clearance at the back with the box. It's a real pain worth mentioning. It's better to have an oversized box, which is testy itself, if the work is minimal remodel.
Lol! There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who fear electricity, and those who respect it. If you are one the former, it's well worth the lack of stress to leave it to one of the latter
Hey John, what you said made some sense. My house was built in the mid '80's and my garage, outside, and all 3 bathroom receptacles are all on a continuous circuit to a 15 amp breaker in my panel box which has its own GFI (none of the other breakers in my panel have this feature). Now I know that all the existing receptacles on this circuit were protected since the (15 amp) breaker in my panel box has its own GFI. I wanted to replace the bathroom (standard) receptacles because I didn't want the entire circuit tripping if one of the bathroom outlets (on this circuit) tripped. I took your advice and changed all the bathroom outlets to individual 20 amp GFICs. After doing this...I thought that I heard somewhere that you should not use a higher amperage receptacle with a lower amperage breaker? So I did some research and found out on an NEC website it says: The amp rating of the receptacle and circuit do not depend on whether the receptacle is a GFCI or not: If you have a 15 amp circuit, you must have 15 amp receptacles. If you have a 20 amp circuit, you can either have 20 amp receptacles or 15 amp receptacles if there is more than one (e.g. a duplex receptacle). If I’m reading this correctly, you can’t do the “vice-versa”. I don’t think you meant to say that in this video…but you did say that within first 1.5 minutes of the video…that you always use 20 amp GFCIs where there is 15 amps because they are more durable than a 15 amp GFCI. So therefore to be safe, I went out and bought 3 new 15 amp GFCIs and swapped out the 20 amp ones I installed a few days ago. I just feel safer using 15 amp receptacles on a 15 amp circuit to a 15 amp breaker with the wiring (on this circuit) of 14 AWG. I also read that wiring for 20 amp circuits must be 12 AWG. I hope that I am wrong because, John I do like your videos on DIY electrical wiring.
Ken it is not to code but code can be missing points, 15 amp receptacles are only to keep you from plugging in a 20 amp device. a 15 amp receptacle is rated at 16.5 amps, a 20 amp circuit is rated at 18 amps or less. I have seen in the bathroom that a 15 amp hair dryer just melted down a 15 amp receptacle not tripping the breaker. The 15 amp breaker should protect the 15 amp circuit even with a 50 amp receptacle on the other end. JS
Thanks John for your reply. I'm glad that I was wrong I must have been misreading that website. So, I could have left the 20 amp receptacles in place? Even on the 15 amp circuit? It appears that you are saying that's OK. One other question, should I replace that (15 amp) breaker in the panel with the GFI, with a standard breaker without the GFI feature? I was wondering if the breaker would trip if I exceeded the 16.5 amps...say at one of the bathroom receptacles (that would defeat my purpose of putting those GFCIs in the bathrooms). Thanks!
But the wire is for 15amp. If you use a 20amp, which is certainly ok but it doesn’t mean the plug is now 20amp ready bc the existing wire is for 15amp. Am I right? I am no pro. Just wondering about this.
@@iluvbogs Old post, but you are correct (unless they overlooked amps and bought 15 amp GFI's for actual 20 amp circuits). It's entirely the circuit wiring size/gauge that determines amp rating of both breakers & recepticles (GFI's). Wiring gauge for 15 amp circuits is 14 gauge and for 20 amp circuits is 12 gauge. Putting a 20 amp GFI or 20 amp recepticle on a circuit using 14 gauge wiring... first,, won't give you 20 amps... and second,, isn't 'correct', but provided you keep the wiring/circuit protected with a 15 amp breaker, won't do any harm. You'll just end up with a 'heavier duty' 20a GFI outlet that will still only be able to handle 15 amp loads.
John .. great video. Most house wiring is #14 wire (including the kitchen) and If I am not mistaken there would no point in installing a 20 amp gfci in the kitchen unless you are replacing the wire with #12 wire. You never mentioned this in your video..
Looking forward to performing my own service this afternoon. 5 outlets have stopped working starting with the GFI. I’m hoping once the interrupt is replaced they will function as expected. 🤞
Great help. 15 vs. 20 My problem was I couldn’t get the new gfci to reset. The old one I removed had the charge and line in different places so when i just put the top wires from the old to the top slots in the new it would not work.
After 20+ years in the medical field as an RN I decided to diversify, do something different and took some courses towards being an electrician which I've been for 3 years now. I just wish there was more of tendency to teach like this and like there was in medicine. You would see something, do that something, and quickly learn to teach it to others so they could do the same. I appreciate the videos but wonder why teaching doesn't happen more often as there's no shortage of things to learn and the need for the learned.
I replaced my old GFCI with new. I had to switch the top 2 wires to the bottom and the 2 bottom wires to the top in order for it to work. Thought I would share. It took me awhile to figure this out.
This helped a lot for me to help understand how they work, what line / load meant, and how to step through troubleshooting. Would you believe that on the load side someone had bent the solid black wire enough that it was broken but still sporadically touching? Thx again for your help !
Love your vids. I'm a Pipefitter, and my Basic Electricity instructor back in apprenticeship school was a Plumber (rest his dear soul). Not saying it wasn't a good class, it just wasn't really thourough enough for us to learn how to fix everything. If it wasn't for you guys making these videos, I might be forced to trust someone who didn't know what in the cornbread hell they were doing...someone like the idiot who did most of the electrical work on my home that's been done since the '60s. Horrors!!!
Great GFCI Information! My new combination Arc Fault/GFCI breaker frequently trips while running the dishwasher. The appliance technician said I should replace the breaker - it’s probably tripping on startup. However, I believe moisture may be causing the trip because it’s more common on rainy or high humidity days. Another moisture contributing factor is when the dishwasher trips off before the water has drained. It will not restart and trips the breaker every time the start button is pressed. I drained the water and placed a fan in the DW until it was dry - it started and worked fine. The DW is plugged into a receptacle under the kitchen sink. Does atmospheric moisture which may settle on the machine components or wiring in the receptacle be enough to cause the GFCI tripping. Will spraying a silicone coating on the receptacle wiring help? Is their a diagnostic method to determine if moisture is affecting the circuit? Thank you , Dom
Hi John, thank you for your informative video. My question is why my GFCI outlet is not working; it has a solid red LED on. When I plugged a GFCI tester, nothing light up. The Circuit Line is hot when I tested it with a non-contact AC Voltage Detector. I even disconnected the Load line from the outlet. I greatly appreciated for any pieces of advice.
I heard him say while talking about the wires on back of the gfi and he said you might have one or more load circuits but....he also said right after that you might have one or two source circuits which is wrong. I think he said that by mistake. If there was two sources that would put two brrakers in parallel and could start a wiring fire under load. So you should never have but one source anywhere in the house unless you are talking about 220 or maybe by mistake saying one source has two wires. Ground and hot.
Ok..im sorry that i may have mislead you in my first comment. I think what he meant is that you might have 2 souces meaning that power is coming in and another circuit might be hooked to the source going to something else which would look like 2 sources. I will say that to explain electrical in layman's terms to someone is very hard and he does a very good job of going slow and explaining it good. My thanks go to him.
Hey John, Thanks for the videos! I'm stumped with a GFCI problem. The GCFI receptacle in my garage stopped working and will not reset. I've checked the main breaker and ever replaced the GCFI receptacle. (made sure the line and load wire were hooked up correctly. Still will not reset. I've found and replaced every receptacle I can find on that line. My master bath recessed lights are also on that line. If I wire past the GCFI receptacle in the garage (connect the hot load and line wires) everything works fine. I obviously can't leave it like that. Any idea where to look or what to check next? Thanks for any help/info.
Try all outside receptacle and others in the garage, remove loads to get a direction of where to go from there. unplug all plugs to start, good luck JS
My GFIC tripped today for the first time in years. The only things on it are some outlets and an outdoor light. My Washing machine is plugged into one outlet. It is the outdoor light that is tripping it. When I turn the light switch off the GIFC doesn’t turn off. I checked everything from the light switch to the light bulb. All connections are good and there is no moisture. What now?
I have read online that it’s not a good idea to use a 20 amp gfci if that circuit calls for a 15 amp. Can you explain this in more detail? I installed a 15 amp because that’s what was previously installed. However, this was in my garage. Should I have installed a 20 amp instead? I’m just wondering if it would have been safe. Thank you for your videos.
On a 15 amp circuit, the 15 amp breaker will protect the circuit, the wire, and the receptacle from overload so why in God's name would put a 15 amp receptacle on it's end so it can just to burn up as well? I have seen over 100 go south in my 62 years as an Electrician. John
John, Great video. I installed a new GFCI. As suggested in the instructions I tested with only the line connected and it would reset and provide power. "All" I did next was connect the load wires which as yet aren't connected to a load. The GFCI won't reset now. What could cause this?
@@JohnShook Thank you John. I believe I've narrowed down the problem to "wire mashup" - when I removed the outdoor cover and let the GFCI breath free it was OK. Have to cleanup behind it I suppose.
Thanks for the information. If you have two black wires connected, you stated that there something else downstream that was connected, but not to the load. Does that mean that whatever is downstream on the "line" is connected in series or in parallel? I have this situation and can't figure where this is going. Could it be a switch? Thanks
@@JohnShook I found an outlet that was connected, but mislabeled on the breaker box. It was also another GFCI. Seems redundant. Am I correct to assume that since it was not working until I replaced the initial faulty outlet, that it is connected in series? Sorry for the nascent question. Thanks for helping me out. You do your fellow man a great service. Wish you good health.
You've got a new subscriber. I have a question for you though. I found an outside outlet in a home with no GFCI receptacles or breakers. Having an inch of knowledge I thought "I need GFCI for this" so I purchased a weather resistant GFCI receptacle and wired it up but could not get it working. I later found another GFCI in a tool box that was much older. I wired that one up the same way and it worked. Is there something I could have missed with a newer one or did I just get unlucky with a dead on arrival receptacle?
Sadly if purchased at a big box or large hardware type store, many consumers will return a bad GFI or other electrical item. The stores simply put it back on the shelf and never test to see if it is operational. When purchasing new items, I try to determine if the box had been opened previously before I buy it. Then I check to determine if the product in that box is the product I expect to be in that box. Buying a $3.50 receptacle and when you get it home it may be a $1.50 receptacle.
As long as your not changing the breaker. The circuit breaker protects the wire and the circuit, GFCI. The GFCI is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt (only ) protecting you from a ground fault. so I will say no. JS.
My GFI has a built in light at the bottom corner. A tiny light. It's green when all's well. What does it mean when red? Or mine was flashing red, what does that mean? Thanks
Line is a live circuit one black or red and one neutral (white) that feeds the GFCI line side, gold is hot, silver is neutral. The load is a continuation circuit protected by the GFCI that feeds other receptacles. TKS JS.
Yes, but the power service is still only 15 amps, The 15 amp breaker (in the panel) will protect the circuit, the 20 amp gfci holds up to hair driers and other loads better then 15, But this is not to code. JS
Thanks for clarifying about the 20 amp GFCI for kitchens. Had someone tell me their GFCI kept tripping in the kitchen. When I went to look, there was a 15 amp GFI on a 20 amp breaker with a toaster oven plugged into it! Thanks for sharing! What’s more confusing, why would anyone put a thumbs down on your video?
This guy just saved me some money. The national average to install or replace an electrical outlet is $199. A new one can cost as little as $75 or as much as $485. The project typically ranges from $127 and $272. I paid $27 for the outlet and did it myself. :-) Thank you.
Hello John, Thanks for your advice. The home builder used 15amp GFCI receptacles in my Kitchen.
I'm going to replace them with 20amp receptacles👍
These veteran men in the trade 50 plus years are a true source of quick knowledge and wisdom and I appreciate it. Thanks
Mr. Shook I just wanted to thank you for passing this information. I was able to install a GFCI that had been installed incorrectly rendering one wall in my kitchen useless for years. I thought it was something that I could not fix alone. Thank you. 😊
Thanks for the information and help! Just troubleshot a tripped kitchen gfci and had to open 4 duplex wall outlets to find rhe problem. In that 4th outlet I checked, upon taking cover off I noticed the exposed copper ground wire touching the neutral exposed side screw. Pushed that back in and away from neutral screw and that was the problem. You got me on that load trail with your gfci help videos. Thank you!!
No electrician wants to help me to change a GFCI in my bathroom, they said it is too small a job. I watched a couple videos on UA-cam, but this was the best and well explained. Thank you, John, I fixed it for myself and saved money too.
You explain things very well!! You obviously are veryknowledgeable! Thank you !!!
Had a party for my kids. Three bounce house blowers were hooked to the same gfi line. The gfi stopped working. Put a new gfi in but did not look to see the new gfi Load was On my way the bottom until I watched your video. Great clued for a weekend warrior. Sometimes a doctorates degree is not enough but with your help I fixed it. Many many thanks!!!!!
Thanks John, I’ve been a DIY guy all my life, this video was a great tool for m
e to understand trouble shooting GFCI outlets thanks for your time, Ed (Jack of all trades master of none) PS I’m very thankful people like you are passing your trade tips on for guys like me...
Thank you John very informative, I was a little confused with the line and load. You explained it perfectly. And thanks for the info about the 20 and 15 amps GFCI receptacles.
THANK YOU - I had just installed a brand new circuit with a GFCI outlet and it wouldn't reset. I didn't realize that the line HAD to come in the line side, I honestly thought it was just a recommendation. Duh! Fixed me right up.
Mr. Shook, much appreciated!! You really made my day by breaking it all down to the basics! May God Bless You my new friend!!!
I had my Line and Load reversed and you helped me troubleshoot. Thank you from San Diego, CA.
Great info you just helped me with a bathroom gfci installation. Always appreciate a person who has been in the business for years. Thanks John.
I "home owner" just replaced gfci. I just put the wiring the same way as the old gfci that was installed. It did not work.
I made sure the white wires on the correct side, same with the black ones and the ground. Still didn't work.
Watched this video just to realize the manufacture has the loads up and the lines down!!! I would've never thought of this! Thanks for this educational video.
I did the same thing. I was replacing an ivory colored GFI for a white colored GFI and had wired it to the bottom instead of the top.Could have sworn the yellow warning info tape was at the bottom ;)
@@johnnymacblues3426 having the SAME frustrating problem and YES my Yellow tape was on the bottom (Levitron) I want to switch the top white and black with bottom but will i damage anything i wonder?
@@scottbackholm I did it wired backwards and it simply didn't work... no other issue or damage. I switched the wires and everything worked just fine.
Thanks John. 16 years on the job and still learning
As always John..good presentation..I'm like you,,,doing this for over 43 years and I've seen plenty. A lot of electricians will use 15 amp outlets on a 20 amp circuit and I always match the amps with the proper outlet.
I recently watched a video by an electrician who said a 15 amp duplex receptacle on a 20 amp circuit meets NEC. A 15 amp single receptacle on a 20 amp circuit wound not meet nec.
I’m not an electrician but in my house I use commercial grade 20 amp receptacles on 20 amp circuits.
Thank you John for this video. Hubby and I replaced this outlet in our kitchen but it didn't work. We have an older home and when you mentioned the Line/Load being reversed on the new outlets, we switched the wires and voila!!
Thank you, John. Enjoyed your presentations.
Blessed to make your acquaintance.
Great way of explaining how to wire and troubleshoot GFI's.
Thank you.
I'm so glad an electrician is coming tomorrow. 🤣 Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
We have 4 outlets and a light on one breaker. The 4 outlets stopped working sometime in the last few months. We don't use them. 1 outlet is outside (non GFI as our home was built in the 70s), 1 outlet is in our master bath (GFI), 1 outlet in our second bath (GFI) and the other outlet is in a random room. We don't use any of these outlets regularly as we don't use hair dryers, etc. The working light and exhaust fan is in the second bathroom. We carefully labeled everything when we moved in 3 years ago. All the outlets and light switches were replaced 2 years ago as we went to smart home switches and outlets. The only outlet that wasn't changed was outside.
The light and exhaust fan on this breaker work but the outlets on the same breaker don't. My husband carefully checked all the breakers, threw the main, changed the breaker and has looked at the inside of every outlet with the exception of the outside outlet. Everything looked fine.
When he installed the new breaker, the second bathroom outlet worked for a split second. It was the first we checked with a plug in lamp. We are guessing that it is the first in the daisy chain of outlets but honestly we don't know this as it was just the first that was checked.
We don't have a voltage reader. I feel like I have watched a few hours of UA-cam and am missing something. Usually we can figure this stuff out. But, tomorrow an electrician comes. I'm willing to pay at this point.
Thank you so much for this explanation. So clear and to the point. Best one I've found after so much digging.
Thank you for explaining it so well sir. Now I know Line and Load. And to keep the leads coming in and going out on the same side top and bottom. A watch out for do-it-yourselfers replacing an existing CFGI: I bought a new one and though I could just transfer the wires, well the new GFCI had the Load and Line on opposite ends, who'd have thunk! LED was green, but the plug not working. Well thanks to Mr. Shook's video, I just switched them around and success!
Thanks John, I had a receptacle in the garage that wouldn’t work, never thought it might be connected to a GFI in the bathroom, checked the gfi and that’s what it was.
Thanks! Helped me get my outlet working! -- for anyone else who doesn’t have a electricity checker to test which is the load and which is the line...what I did was label each wire...then write out each possible combination...then test each combination one by one...there were 4 combinations in total.
As an electronic technition, I thought I knew everything but we were not taught all the issues in safety issues and installation concerns so thanks for the info.
Thanks John. I appreciate your taking the time and sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for your wisdom. I know I really appreciate it I've had a problem with electrical fir 4 years just chasing my tail. I'm hopeful something you posted will help. Thank you again.
John, Today I replaced the GFI in my daughter's bath. I had pulled off line and load without thinking about it. Thanks so much for your lightbulb tip.
This was a lifesaver this afternoon. Thanks so much!
I did the very same thing.
Wow..I was just about to replace my outlet in the kitchen (all the plugs are out), but saw it was a 15 amp that I bought. Thank You for mentioning the outlet should be 20 amp in the kitchen. Back to the store!!
Thank You John you are my hero, you answered my question without a bunch of nonsense talke
The problem is with the solid 12 wire. It is always a pain to compress that stuff into a box especially with a GFI and its physical size. The 12 wire just does not fit well behind the GFI case. The GFI has little clearance at the back with the box. It's a real pain worth mentioning. It's better to have an oversized box, which is testy itself, if the work is minimal remodel.
Thanks John. Straightforward. You made my repair easy!
You've convinced me that I have to pay for help. Thanks for that.
Ha ha ha ...
Lol! There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who fear electricity, and those who respect it. If you are one the former, it's well worth the lack of stress to leave it to one of the latter
Hey John, what you said made some sense. My house was built in the mid '80's and my garage, outside, and all 3 bathroom receptacles are all on a continuous circuit to a 15 amp breaker in my panel box which has its own GFI (none of the other breakers in my panel have this feature). Now I know that all the existing receptacles on this circuit were protected since the (15 amp) breaker in my panel box has its own GFI. I wanted to replace the bathroom (standard) receptacles because I didn't want the entire circuit tripping if one of the bathroom outlets (on this circuit) tripped. I took your advice and changed all the bathroom outlets to individual 20 amp GFICs. After doing this...I thought that I heard somewhere that you should not use a higher amperage receptacle with a lower amperage breaker? So I did some research and found out on an NEC website it says: The amp rating of the receptacle and circuit do not depend on whether the receptacle is a GFCI or not: If you have a 15 amp circuit, you must have 15 amp receptacles. If you have a 20 amp circuit, you can either have 20 amp receptacles or 15 amp receptacles if there is more than one (e.g. a duplex receptacle). If I’m reading this correctly, you can’t do the “vice-versa”. I don’t think you meant to say that in this video…but you did say that within first 1.5 minutes of the video…that you always use 20 amp GFCIs where there is 15 amps because they are more durable than a 15 amp GFCI. So therefore to be safe, I went out and bought 3 new 15 amp GFCIs and swapped out the 20 amp ones I installed a few days ago. I just feel safer using 15 amp receptacles on a 15 amp circuit to a 15 amp breaker with the wiring (on this circuit) of 14 AWG. I also read that wiring for 20 amp circuits must be 12 AWG. I hope that I am wrong because, John I do like your videos on DIY electrical wiring.
Ken it is not to code but code can be missing points, 15 amp receptacles are only to keep you from plugging in a 20 amp device. a 15 amp receptacle is rated at 16.5 amps, a 20 amp circuit is rated at 18 amps or less. I have seen in the bathroom that a 15 amp hair dryer just melted down a 15 amp receptacle not tripping the breaker. The 15 amp breaker should protect the 15 amp circuit even with a 50 amp receptacle on the other end. JS
Thanks John for your reply. I'm glad that I was wrong I must have been misreading that website. So, I could have left the 20 amp receptacles in place? Even on the 15 amp circuit? It appears that you are saying that's OK. One other question, should I replace that (15 amp) breaker in the panel with the GFI, with a standard breaker without the GFI feature? I was wondering if the breaker would trip if I exceeded the 16.5 amps...say at one of the bathroom receptacles (that would defeat my purpose of putting those GFCIs in the bathrooms). Thanks!
And I literally just bought 3 15 Amp GFI's for my kitchen! I'll be taking them back for the 20 Amp.
Thank you!
Same here bud, they're going back tomorrow!
But the wire is for 15amp. If you use a 20amp, which is certainly ok but it doesn’t mean the plug is now 20amp ready bc the existing wire is for 15amp. Am I right? I am no pro. Just wondering about this.
@@iluvbogs Old post, but you are correct (unless they overlooked amps and bought 15 amp GFI's for actual 20 amp circuits).
It's entirely the circuit wiring size/gauge that determines amp rating of both breakers & recepticles (GFI's).
Wiring gauge for 15 amp circuits is 14 gauge and for 20 amp circuits is 12 gauge. Putting a 20 amp GFI or 20 amp recepticle on a circuit using 14 gauge wiring... first,, won't give you 20 amps... and second,, isn't 'correct', but provided you keep the wiring/circuit protected with a 15 amp breaker, won't do any harm. You'll just end up with a 'heavier duty' 20a GFI outlet that will still only be able to handle 15 amp loads.
Thanks John. Really appreciate your videos
John .. great video. Most house wiring is #14 wire (including the kitchen) and If I am not mistaken there would no point in installing a 20 amp gfci in the kitchen unless you are replacing the wire with #12 wire. You never mentioned this in your video..
Thanks for the heads up. 20 amps in the kitchen.
Looking forward to performing my own service this afternoon. 5 outlets have stopped working starting with the GFI. I’m hoping once the interrupt is replaced they will function as expected. 🤞
Thank you very much. Your information at minute 2:00 was text books info.... 👌 I was able to swap the load and line wires and worked !! GBY.
Thank you!! Between this vid and the other GFCI trouble shoot, I am feeling pretty confidant.
Thank you!! All day looking, Christmas lights moisture!!!
Great help. 15 vs. 20
My problem was I couldn’t get the new gfci to reset. The old one I removed had the charge and line in different places so when i just put the top wires from the old to the top slots in the new it would not work.
After 20+ years in the medical field as an RN I decided to diversify, do something different and took some courses towards being an electrician which I've been for 3 years now. I just wish there was more of tendency to teach like this and like there was in medicine. You would see something, do that something, and quickly learn to teach it to others so they could do the same. I appreciate the videos but wonder why teaching doesn't happen more often as there's no shortage of things to learn and the need for the learned.
Thank you very good video, very understandable , it helped me wire my campers kitchen.
I replaced my old GFCI with new. I had to switch the top 2 wires to the bottom and the 2 bottom wires to the top in order for it to work. Thought I would share. It took me awhile to figure this out.
This helped a lot for me to help understand how they work, what line / load meant, and how to step through troubleshooting. Would you believe that on the load side someone had bent the solid black wire enough that it was broken but still sporadically touching? Thx again for your help !
You have saved the day! Thank you sir
20 amp gfci great idea. no one else mentioned that! thanks!
Thanks, I replaced a GFCI putting my wires back exactly as I took them off, but did not realize the new GFCI had the Line & Load flipped.
Same here!
Thomas Shaw this is what I will be keeping an eye out for today, thanks!
Love your vids. I'm a Pipefitter, and my Basic Electricity instructor back in apprenticeship school was a Plumber (rest his dear soul). Not saying it wasn't a good class, it just wasn't really thourough enough for us to learn how to fix everything. If it wasn't for you guys making these videos, I might be forced to trust someone who didn't know what in the cornbread hell they were doing...someone like the idiot who did most of the electrical work on my home that's been done since the '60s. Horrors!!!
Thanks for the vid John. Eased my confusion on load vs line. Thanks
Thank you for this explanation. Thank you.
Very well explained ... Thanks John.
Thank you for videos, I have been trying to find some one detailed as your videos.
Big thanks for the video. Helped out much.
Great GFCI Information! My new combination Arc Fault/GFCI breaker frequently trips while running the dishwasher. The appliance technician said I should replace the breaker - it’s probably tripping on startup. However, I believe moisture may be causing the trip because it’s more common on rainy or high humidity days. Another moisture contributing factor is when the dishwasher trips off before the water has drained. It will not restart and trips the breaker every time the start button is pressed. I drained the water and placed a fan in the DW until it was dry - it started and worked fine. The DW is plugged into a receptacle under the kitchen sink. Does atmospheric moisture which may settle on the machine components or wiring in the receptacle be enough to cause the GFCI tripping. Will spraying a silicone coating on the receptacle wiring help? Is their a diagnostic method to determine if moisture is affecting the circuit? Thank you , Dom
Great idea using 20 amp. I could smell the 15 amp burning before it went dead
Thanks John for your Video. Appreciate your experience and knowledge. Dodson Farm
Thank you for the great video.
Wow, I think you and I worked at the same place in Wickliffe Ohio. CC&E
Thank you! Very helpful video.
Very good information 👍
thank you, was able to get mine working again!
Garage typically is 20 amp to for power tools as well as bathrooms for hair dryers.
Very helpful; thank you.
Thank you, John.
Very helpful. Answered all the questions I had. Thanks!
Hi John, thank you for your informative video. My question is why my GFCI outlet is not working; it has a solid red LED on. When I plugged a GFCI tester, nothing light up. The Circuit Line is hot when I tested it with a non-contact AC Voltage Detector. I even disconnected the Load line from the outlet. I greatly appreciated for any pieces of advice.
Check Hot to Neutral and hot to Ground. If neutral to hot is dead, then you have a bad neutral. JS
I heard him say while talking about the wires on back of the gfi and he said you might have one or more load circuits but....he also said right after that you might have one or two source circuits which is wrong. I think he said that by mistake.
If there was two sources that would put two brrakers in parallel and could start a wiring fire under load. So you should never have but one source anywhere in the house unless you are talking about 220 or maybe by mistake saying one source has two wires. Ground and hot.
Ok..im sorry that i may have mislead you in my first comment. I think what he meant is that you might have 2 souces meaning that power is coming in and another circuit might be hooked to the source going to something else which would look like 2 sources. I will say that to explain electrical in layman's terms to someone is very hard and he does a very good job of going slow and explaining it good. My thanks go to him.
The source wire not circuits, just continues to feed another receptacle or gfci
“Line”, I Believe He Said, Not “Source”...
#GotContinuation?
Tanks too you video I help me in my proyects tanks again
Thank you for the info.
Good info sir ! Keep it up
Hey John, Thanks for the videos! I'm stumped with a GFCI problem. The GCFI receptacle in my garage stopped working and will not reset. I've checked the main breaker and ever replaced the GCFI receptacle. (made sure the line and load wire were hooked up correctly. Still will not reset. I've found and replaced every receptacle I can find on that line. My master bath recessed lights are also on that line. If I wire past the GCFI receptacle in the garage (connect the hot load and line wires) everything works fine. I obviously can't leave it like that. Any idea where to look or what to check next? Thanks for any help/info.
Try all outside receptacle and others in the garage, remove loads to get a direction of where to go from there. unplug all plugs to start, good luck JS
@@JohnShook It's bad luck to say "good luck", lol
These came in handy today
I like the 20 amp receptacle outlets because they have triple blade contacts
Indeed. I had the line and load reversed just like Daniel N did a month ago. Score one big DUH for the amateur electrician.
Thanks my friend.
Hi,
Very grateful. My newly installed has the green light but no power is coming out of it, why please?
Thanks
Please review both GFCI videos for the answers.
Good stuff! Thank you so much!
My GFIC tripped today for the first time in
years. The only things on it are some outlets and an outdoor light. My Washing
machine is plugged into one outlet. It is the outdoor light that is tripping
it. When I turn the light switch off the GIFC doesn’t turn off. I checked
everything from the light switch to the light bulb. All connections are good
and there is no moisture. What now?
👍Thank you 💞
I have read online that it’s not a good idea to use a 20 amp gfci if that circuit calls for a 15 amp. Can you explain this in more detail? I installed a 15 amp because that’s what was previously installed. However, this was in my garage. Should I have installed a 20 amp instead? I’m just wondering if it would have been safe. Thank you for your videos.
On a 15 amp circuit, the 15 amp breaker will protect the circuit, the wire, and the receptacle from overload so why in God's name would put a 15 amp receptacle on it's end so it can just to burn up as well? I have seen over 100 go south in my 62 years as an Electrician. John
John, Great video. I installed a new GFCI. As suggested in the instructions I tested with only the line connected and it would reset and provide power. "All" I did next was connect the load wires which as yet aren't connected to a load. The GFCI won't reset now. What could cause this?
Look at my other video on " why it trips"
@@JohnShook Thank you John. I believe I've narrowed down the problem to "wire mashup" - when I removed the outdoor cover and let the GFCI breath free it was OK. Have to cleanup behind it I suppose.
you're the best!
Hi John I have gfi working but the other 3 outlets coming from this gfi doesn’t work.. any advice thanks, btw I like this video
Please review both GFCI videos for the answers.
Thanks for the information. If you have two black wires connected, you stated that there something else downstream that was connected, but not to the load. Does that mean that whatever is downstream on the "line" is connected in series or in parallel? I have this situation and can't figure where this is going. Could it be a switch? Thanks
If it is not a load then it could be a continuation Circuit down the line, Feeding a Receptacle.
@@JohnShook I found an outlet that was connected, but mislabeled on the breaker box. It was also another GFCI. Seems redundant. Am I correct to assume that since it was not working until I replaced the initial faulty outlet, that it is connected in series? Sorry for the nascent question. Thanks for helping me out. You do your fellow man a great service. Wish you good health.
Are you supposed to use a 20 amp receptacle on load side of gfi? I never have, I’ve always used 15 amp. Just curious.
Excellent!
Thanks
Thank you.
You've got a new subscriber. I have a question for you though. I found an outside outlet in a home with no GFCI receptacles or breakers. Having an inch of knowledge I thought "I need GFCI for this" so I purchased a weather resistant GFCI receptacle and wired it up but could not get it working. I later found another GFCI in a tool box that was much older. I wired that one up the same way and it worked. Is there something I could have missed with a newer one or did I just get unlucky with a dead on arrival receptacle?
Sadly if purchased at a big box or large hardware type store, many consumers will return a bad GFI or other electrical item. The stores simply put it back on the shelf and never test to see if it is operational. When purchasing new items, I try to determine if the box had been opened previously before I buy it. Then I check to determine if the product in that box is the product I expect to be in that box. Buying a $3.50 receptacle and when you get it home it may be a $1.50 receptacle.
What happens if a GFI receptacle has a loose Neutral wire?
Can you give an example of when you would have 2 lines?
When your line comes from the panel, then continues on to another GFCI, (Two Lines). JS
Thank you!
John: If I change 15 amps GFCI receptacle in the kitchen do I need to change all the #14 wire to #12?
As long as your not changing the breaker. The circuit breaker protects the wire and the circuit, GFCI. The GFCI is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt (only ) protecting you from a ground fault. so I will say no. JS.
My GFI has a built in light at the bottom corner. A tiny light. It's green when all's well. What does it mean when red? Or mine was flashing red, what does that mean? Thanks
Question, what is a line and what is a load?
Line is a live circuit one black or red and one neutral (white) that feeds the GFCI line side, gold is hot, silver is neutral. The load is a continuation circuit protected by the GFCI that feeds other receptacles. TKS JS.
Thank you John for answering my question.
@@JohnShook Thanks John.
Can I put a 20amp GFCI in my bathroom with 15amp lines? Others say no, need 15 GFCI on 15 amp lines.
Yes, but the power service is still only 15 amps, The 15 amp breaker (in the panel) will protect the circuit, the 20 amp gfci holds up to hair driers and other loads better then 15, But this is not to code. JS