Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I reset?

Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I reset?

It was working fine until I installed holiday lights.

This tripping was going on for few days. Then today, I tried to remove the connection of holiday lights and tried to reset the GFCI to see if our driveway lamp turns on.

Again it tripped....

Any idea why this is happening?

Thx

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

There is probably water in the outlet where you had the lights plugged in. You may want to try blowing a little warm air into the outlet with a hairdryer. Also check your circuit breakers to make sure nothing is tripped there.

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Chances are the circuit is overloaded. By chance do you have a refrigerator plugged into that circuit? Try reducing the electrical load on the circuit and re-set. If that doesn't work, and you have already followed Maureen's suggestion, it could be a faulty GFI, which can be replaced fairly easily.

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Concur with previous two posts. Water in an outlet (common problem as people are putting up xmas lights) or overloaded circut would be the first things I'd check for.

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Thanks for all your inputs.

I also thought it could be over load, so I unplugged all the holiday lights and still it trips.
And I don't have any refrigerator connected.

I will try all the other recommendations tonight and see if it fixes the problem.

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Just throwing it out there, but it might be worth checking if you still can't find the problem, but the lamp post in my front yard is wired throught the GFCI in the garage. Maybe some water got in the wiring in there?

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Yesterday morning while going to work, I just reset the GFCI (still our holiday lights are unplugged). Since the lamp post is controlled by the sensor, light just turned on and went off quickly and GFCI didn't trip.

Evening, it turned on and stayed on whole night without tripping. Still our holiday lights are all unplugged.

I think the problem is either I have too much load (5 strings of multi color lights, probably each is around 15-20 ft) or the outlet on the driveway used to plug the holiday lights has some water in it.

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Even a long extension cord can add to the load on the circuit. Not sure if you are using one, but you might want to try a shorter extension cord if possible.

There must be something pretty big on that circuit if it is load. I am surprised 5 strings of lights are causing the load issue. Could the strings be damaged, water getting into the string(s) and causing the trip?

 

Re: Help me please !!!! Why does my garage GFCI trips within few seconds after I rese

Try a new extension cord - it may have a short in it.