The first GFCI has not worked in years. Today a hair dryer quit, and the remaining 3 GFCIs are not working. Replaced the first one and it seemed to be working properly. Went to the last in the series; it had power as did the one in front of it. Everything seemed OK. When plugged in, the hair dryer just quit. The old GFCI did not pop, but power was lost to all the GFCIs. We can't get power to the units even though we have power to the first unit.
All but the last have 5 wires, including ground. The last has 3 wires. All wires are attached to the Line side only, nothing on the load side. The outlets are 22 years old, except the new one installed today. Hope to replace them all.
The wiring of the GFCIs is puzzling. I don't know how the first one was wired, as I replaced it in a hurry and failed to note what went where, but they were on the Line side. After the first unit, the next one has the incoming line in going to the holes closer to the center. The wires out are furthest from the center. In the third unit the incoming wires cross. One goes to a hole closer to the center of the outlet, and the other wire goes to the hole furthest from center. Obviously, the wires leaving are in what is left over. In the third outlet, the incoming wires are in the holes closest to center. In the last unit, the two wires are going to the holes closets to center.
Power is present and the first unit has voltage on both incoming and exiting wires. The GFCI is popped. Measuring the other units, there is power until we reset the first unit; then, power is lost to all but the first unit. We can't get past this point.
What are we doing wrong?
Best Answer
This configuration is a bit odd. The reason why a GFCI outlet has a line and load side is that a single GFCI outlet can offer GFCI protection to any downstream outlets (load).
If I were in your situation, I would install a new GFCI outlet in the first location, and then new standard outlets (your region might require tamper-resistant outlets) in all the downstream locations. This should make troubleshooting simpler, plus you only have 1 GFCI to deal with.
Alternatively, if you do wish to install a GFCI in each location, they should not be wired to the previous outlets load side, rather they should be wired in parallel like standard outlets (either a pig-tail or using the second screw on the same side of the outlet).
If after correcting the installation it is still tripping, then you have a current leak somewhere. A GFCI compares the current on hot and the current on neutral, and if the two are different by a certain threshold, the breaker trips. It could be a device plugged in somewhere else on the circuit, a nicked wire, etc. Start by unplugging everything on the breaker. Plug something into the GFCI outlet - it shouldn't trip, if it does, it's a wiring problem or the outlet itself is bad (if you just replaced it, this shouldn't be the case). One-by-one, start plugging in other devices upstream and downstream of the outlet. When/if it trips, you have found your problematic device or outlet.