Our shower exhaust fan is tripping the GFCI when turned on. When I disconnect the FAN (there is a molex plug in the fan) the GFCI does not trip when the switch is turned on or off.
Looking for troubleshooting suggestions?
I was thinking about diving into the switch box and looking for loose connections and neutrals. Replacing the GFCI outlet, which incidentally, is all the way in the garage and also does our outdoor outlets, it's strange the way it was wired. Especially since there already is a GFCI outlet in the bathroom for the outlets.
Finally, I was going to clean out the fan. It's filled with dust and I'm thinking maybe some of the "wet" dust might be causing a bit of leakage to the ground?
It seems to happen more in the cold months where there is more condensation which leads me to think its more a problem with the FAN than an issue with the switch box or a weak GFCI itself.
I just don't want to replace the fan only to find out it was something else.
Also — the Fan is actually on ceiling 10' feet above the shower and outside of the sunken in the shower area. So technically it likely does even need to be GFCI protected. I'd need an 8' ladder to touch it while in the shower.
Best Answer
First try to stop the nuisance tripping by cleaning out the dust from the fan motor and connection block.
You don't need to have the ceiling fan GFCI protected. You said you have a GFCI receptacle in bathroom so that satisfies the requirement.
You could change the connections of the wires to the GFCI receptacle in the garage so you don't use the load terminals. If this means that some outside receptacles are no longer GFCI protected, then you would have to replace the existing receptacles with GFCI ones.