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Old 11-16-2019, 05:18 PM   #21
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Name: Henry
Trailer: BigFoot
Tennessee
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Thanks I will check the outlets for spiders. I have sealed and covered outlets on the house and have never had a problem with spiders, but I will check anyway, both house and trailer. I never had a problem with squirrels eating my auto wires until this year. Had jeep stored in barn and the wires under the hood were chewed up. Have lived here 35 years and this is the first time. So who knows maybe spiders are next up to bat...
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Old 11-16-2019, 05:22 PM   #22
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Thanks I will check the outlets for spiders. I have sealed and covered outlets on the house and have never had a problem with spiders, but I will check anyway, both house and trailer. I never had a problem with squirrels eating my auto wires until this year. Had jeep stored in barn and the wires under the hood were chewed up. Have lived here 35 years and this is the first time. So who knows maybe spiders are next up to bat...
Good luck. The spiders seemed to enter from the box side, not the cover side. Many boxes have lots of openings in the back.
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Old 11-16-2019, 05:33 PM   #23
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Unhappy

Did not think of spiders entering from behind... Darn, just when I think it is safe to go outside...
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Old 11-16-2019, 06:09 PM   #24
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Did not think of spiders entering from behind... Darn, just when I think it is safe to go outside...
Actually, as uncomfortable as it might make some feel, it is not unusual for spiders to enter your trailer (at least small ones) riding on your clothing. More than once I've had wind driven airborne spiders end up on my shirt.
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Old 11-16-2019, 08:36 PM   #25
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I have seen enough GFCI failures to carry a spare one I like and got at a good price with me.
Use a meter to check the AC voltage at the black (gold) and white (silver) terminals on the device sides to be sure the thing has full voltage. If it has ~120 volts but it won't reset, it is probably bad, although I have also seen one brand with tiny little buttons that took a screwdriver to push the reset button deeply enough to actually reset it. I replaced the damn things with the brand with large black and red buttons and that particular problem was dealt with.
The quality of electrical devices has been dropping since China got involved. It's not unusual to have a new device disintegrate in your hands as you remove a cover or torque the terminals.
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Old 11-17-2019, 01:18 PM   #26
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I have seen enough GFCI failures to carry a spare one I like and got at a good price with me.
Use a meter to check the AC voltage at the black (gold) and white (silver) terminals on the device sides to be sure the thing has full voltage. If it has ~120 volts but it won't reset, it is probably bad, although I have also seen one brand with tiny little buttons that took a screwdriver to push the reset button deeply enough to actually reset it. I replaced the damn things with the brand with large black and red buttons and that particular problem was dealt with.
The quality of electrical devices has been dropping since China got involved. It's not unusual to have a new device disintegrate in your hands as you remove a cover or torque the terminals.
Ah, but the purveyors on this side of the water saved money on the supply side, and sold more.
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Old 11-17-2019, 02:01 PM   #27
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I have a leviton gfci with a red light. if tripped the light is out. Has red and black buttons.
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Old 11-17-2019, 03:53 PM   #28
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The quality of electrical devices has been dropping since China got involved. It's not unusual to have a new device disintegrate in your hands as you remove a cover or torque the terminals.
I wonder who actually designed the devices, had them made by the lowest bidder, exactly as designed, and then marketed them to you? Is the manufacturer responsible for the poor design? Or do you mean that the designer received something not built to his specs, but then marketed it to you anyway?

Either way, isn't the problem more with the company that designed and sold them, rather then with a particular country that happens to be where the manufacturing plant is located?
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Old 11-17-2019, 04:22 PM   #29
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Consumers demand cheap prices resulting in cheap products !!
Back in my working days we could buy photocells from China for 1/2 of the US made ones cost . The failure rate of the Chinese product was over 30% so we went back to ones made in the US because in the long run they were less expensive
Watch customers in a Lowes or HD or Menards and all they look for is the cheapest price , quality be dammed .’
Blaming the suppliers or retailers for stocking a product that customers are willing to buy seems like faulty reasoning IMHO
Walmart has taken that theory to its ultimate end !!
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Old 11-17-2019, 04:26 PM   #30
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Well said Raspy.
Also, discussion of sub-performance of any product or by any company lasts forever on the internet and is repeated by people who have had no personal experience.
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Old 11-18-2019, 02:03 PM   #31
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If you can reset the outlet when it is removed from the box it doesn't seem like it needs replacement. With the outlet out of the box, plug all your stuff in and see if it trips.


One more thing to check on your outlet installation. I have seen poor wire dressing inside the box where the ground wire has contacted the neutral wire (and in one case the hot wire). This will cause your GFCI , or circuit breaker, to trip. I put electrical tape around the outlet so it covers the screws before I push it into the box. 'Belt and suspenders'



I recently had a GFCI in my garage with downstream outlets which were not being used that would not reset. I removed the outlet and disconnected the down stream loads and it would still not reset. A new outlet solved the problem.
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Old 11-18-2019, 02:44 PM   #32
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Name: Henry
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Thanks CarlD for the tip. I did not uninstall the OEM GFCI because I was finally able to reset. Just to show the high quality of workmanship of the BF trailer, the GFCI was bound with tape from the factory, as you suggested.
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