Any electricians out here?

[Pappymn]

Stepped into my garage last night and it smelled like burnt something. Not a smell I had smelled before, and it wasn't there earlier in the day.

After looking around for a while for the source. I sniffed out my wall GFI outlet. It had popped earlier in the day for no apparent reason. This outlet is prone to tripping periodically.

Finding this kind of shook me up thinking about what could have happened had I ignored the smell and went to bed.

On Easter, God was looking out for my family.

[Tailgating is my game]

Wow Pappy God was watching over you. I guess it did its job

We have one that keeps going out with out K-9 fence. Must be nearby lightning strikes. Third time we have replaced it in six years

[TMB]

I have taken electricians courses and seen something like this.   

1.  It can be due to loose connection at the GIF set screw.  This will cause the load to overheat because of bad contact
2.  You have or are over loading the GIF right to the point of tripping cause excessive heat (go back to #1)
3.  Unlikely, but you may of had a circuit hit by lightning which caused it to heat and overload that prong

In any case, thank the Good Lord it didn't cause a fire     

[hikerman]

I have taken electricians courses and seen something like this.   

1.  It can be due to loose connection at the GIF set screw.  This will cause the load to overheat because of bad contact
2.  You have or are over loading the GIF right to the point of tripping cause excessive heat (go back to #1)
3.  Unlikely, but you may of had a circuit hit by lightning which caused it to heat and overload that prong

In any case, thank the Good Lord it didn't cause a fire     

Amen!
We had something similar happen this Winter. Called an electrician buddy, he found one of the leads to the box in garage oddly had gotten loose and was touching the metal box.

[DWard51]

It seems to have been localized at the screw terminal. My money is on either a loose screw connection or heavy oxidation on the bare wire end around the screw. 

I have to ask, but do you have aluminum wiring in the house?  There was a period in the 70's and early 80's where that was allowed but the stuff is notorious for expanding and contracting and loosening up connections.  Also  you *MUST* use a al/cu rated outlet or GFCI if you have aluminum wiring.  Not all of them are.

[Pappymn]

It seems to have been localized at the screw terminal. My money is on either a loose screw connection or heavy oxidation on the bare wire end around the screw. 

I have to ask, but do you have aluminum wiring in the house?  There was a period in the 70's and early 80's where that was allowed but the stuff is notorious for expanding and contracting and loosening up connections.  Also  you *MUST* use a al/cu rated outlet or GFCI if you have aluminum wiring.  Not all of them are.

Nope. House is 13 years old. So pretty new wiring

[mikeharold]

I'm a general contractor and hold an electrical license as well. To me it does look as though it was a loose connection and would be my first and gut instinct. GFI's do go bad from time to time as well and will start tripping for no apparent reason or refuse to reset, I've seen it and replaced many that simple failed. Was anything directly plugged into that outlet? I still think it was a loose connection and yes, you seem to have been rather lucky that it didn't do any further damage. Glad you found it in time and it became a non issue.

[Pappymn]

I'm a general contractor and hold an electrical license as well. To me it does look as though it was a loose connection and would be my first and gut instinct. GFI's do go bad from time to time as well and will start tripping for no apparent reason or refuse to reset, I've seen it and replaced many that simple failed. Was anything directly plugged into that outlet? I still think it was a loose connection and yes, you seem to have been rather lucky that it didn't do any further damage. Glad you found it in time and it became a non issue.

Thanks for the input. Just a cordless phone was plugged in directly

[mikeharold]

Phone isn't exactly a high draw device so pretty sure that's not the culprit! Another thing I might suggest, though is a bit of a pain, would be to check your other outlets at this point for loose connections. It's been my experience that if someone does a lousy job in one spot, it's usually consistent though out their work.  May just be isolated, but never hurts to look now that you have discovered one issue. Better safe as they say!

[smokeasaurus]

Phone isn't exactly a high draw device so pretty sure that's not the culprit! Another thing I might suggest, though is a bit of a pain, would be to check your other outlets at this point for loose connections. It's been my experience that if someone does a lousy job in one spot, it's usually consistent though out their work.  May just be isolated, but never hurts to look now that you have discovered one issue. Better safe as they say!

Sound advice. We had a local electrician check all of our outlets in our cabin when we lived in the mountains. Better safe than sorry.........

Before we bought our current mobile we were relieved to find out the aluminum wire was replaced with copper. Aluminum would actually vibrate and loosen up un-properly tightened connections and start fires.............

[DWard51]

If you are going to check outlets, I would also suggest getting an outlet tester from the local Home Depot, Lowes, or hardware store.  Should be less than $10 for a decent one.  Easy to use, just plug it in an outlet and look at the lights that come on. I found about 15% of the outlets and switches were wired wrong in my last house.  This is a quick check for outlets to see if they were wired correctly, but you will still need to pull the covers and check the screws with a screwdriver to make sure they are secure to prevent what happened to the GFCI.   MAKE SURE TO KILL THE POWER AT THE BREAKER BEFORE PULLING AN OUTLET OR SWITCH.

Looks like this (this is the Klein Tools model at HD, for $6.95)

[skidog]

This has nothing to do with your electrical issue but since you said your house is only 13 years old there's a chance I may have staked your house. If you don't mind sharing, who built your house and what subdivision you in?

[Pappymn]

This has nothing to do with your electrical issue but since you said your house is only 13 years old there's a chance I may have staked your house. If you don't mind sharing, who built your house and what subdivision you in?

Chase homes. Stonemill Farms, Woodbury

[HighOnSmoke]

God was definitely looking out for you Pappy! Lots of good advice from members!

[skidog]

This has nothing to do with your electrical issue but since you said your house is only 13 years old there's a chance I may have staked your house. If you don't mind sharing, who built your house and what subdivision you in?

Chase homes. Stonemill Farms, Woodbury

Ah, the never ending Stonemill Farms!   Don't know what I was thinking, I was working in the office still in 2004. But I think we were doing Chase work back then. I know in 2007 when I went back outside we were doing all of the Chase work. But if you have a survey from Hedlund Engineering that's where I worked.