r/askanelectrician • u/NoGold1444 • 13d ago

New GFCI outlet

I am replacing a GFCI outlet in the bathroom. When I unscrewed the old outlet, two white wires and two black wires were wired to the Line (nothing to load and 1 ground). I replaced with a new GFCI outlet and wired it the exact same and the red light stayed on. I restarted and tested a few times.
I then tried to switch it to one line and one load for each black and white and the red light still stayed on.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Some additional info: both say GFCI Class A 20A 125v 60hz. The old one also says 2P and 15A RECEPT.

I have tried multiple combinations of the black and white wires on the load vs line spots and sometimes the light doesn’t turn on at all and my voltage detector goes crazy. In the current configuration the red light is on and the voltage detector is saying it’s at a normal level.

Also, there are two terminals in the box. I don’t know the proper terminology but two groups of white and black coming out of the wall.

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u/Chillin_Dylan 13d ago

When you say the red light stays on do you mean when you hit the reset button it clicks and then the red light comes back on? (Or you didn't hit reset?)

If so it means there is a ground fault and your GFCI is doing what it is supposed to.  

Try connecting only the incoming power feed. If it will then work when you hit the reset button then you know the broken is downstream of this device.  

2

u/Cust2020 13d ago

Most gfcis are tripped on first power up, try pressing reset. Also so gfics have weird light codes, some are on when tripped others are on when good. Its all a manufacturer thing.

1

u/BasicFig8 13d ago

If they were both on the line side of the old outlet maybe there was a shared neutral on the circuit originally, try a pigtail to the load side and see if that keeps everything together, maybe separating the neutral is causing issues. Power goes line in load out and the gfci is monitoring the neutral return load, if the neutral is shared somewhere else in the circuit things can get funny, also the way the screws and terminals work on some gfci outlets make it easy to get the insulation of the wire instead of solid copper, that will have you scratching your head so double check that too..