Have GFCI's gotten more sensitive?

[Matt Meiser]

I replaced a GFCI in my garage over the summer because the face had gotten cracked. It happens to be the one that covers the outdoor outlet on the front of the house. I'd guess its original to when the house was built in 1991. I know I haven't replaced it so its at least 7 years old. Last night I tried to turn on our Christmas lights for the first time but couldn't keep them on--kept tripping the GFCI. I've never had this kind of trouble in past years. Maybe an occasional trip on a rainy night but that's it. Today I used an extension cord and put them on a different GFCI-protected circuit. After an hour and a half they are still on. My plug-in tester says that GFCI is working.

Thanksgiving Day it rained rained hard so I have now doubt there's a little bit of water in plugs or bulb sockets but that would be true of every other year too. And anyway that's not a fault to ground. I don't think anything could be wet enough to conduct to ground unless a pine needle from one of the bushes has poked into a socket.

So have they made GFCI's more sensitive than in the past? Or is it possible that I've got a bad one?

[Dan Hintz]

I installed one in the bathroom two years ago that was bad out of the box. It passed power through the rear contacts (lights and fan), which are also protected by the GFCI, but anything plugged into the socket had zero power. I thought I had made a mistake and rewired it twice before trying a new one... that worked.

[Paul McGaha]

Matt,

You might try the lights plugged into a different GFI receptacle in your house. If the lights work off a different GFI protected source it would seem there is a problem with the one you replaced. If the lights trip the new source also the lights are probably too wet.

To my knowledge the GFI receptacles arent more sensitive than they used to be.

PHM

[Matt Meiser]

The new circuit I have them on is a GFCI protected one as well--sorry about that--I clarified above. I think I'll change it out tomorrow and see what happens. I have another brand new Pass & Seymor one in the junk drawer.

[Larry Fox]

Interesting you should ask this as I was wondering the same thing myself today. I am finishing my basement and have a GFI-protected circuit and have temporary outlets in them. I was priming the walls today and as is my habit when painting with the temporary outlets in, I just run the paint roller right over them. When I did this the GFI tripped. I reset and repeated with another outlet on the circuit - same result.

I don't ever recall experiencing this in the past so I think you might be onto something.

[Henry Ambrose]

Check to see that everything connected to that circuit is correct. I recently had a constantly tripping GFI. I found one receptacle on that protected circuit that had loose connections to its wires. Tightening those connections fixed it immediately.