Say you’re inspecting a 6000 sq. ft. home, you go to test the exterior GFCI out back and it responds, but you don’t hear a sound. The main panel has no tripped breakers, so you know it’s controlled by another GFCI outlet inside the home because none of the exterior outlets have reset buttons.
Well the family is moving and there’s stuff everywhere, in boxes and out and all piled against the walls. How long do you spend searching for the thing so you can reset it and… what, test the other exterior GFCI’s only to find that hey! Must be a different outlet controls this one. Start searching all over again.
Usually the controlling outlet location bears some kind of logical relation to the location of the one you tested, but not always.
Yes the same thing happened to me once reported it to the home owner and went on with my inspection .
I also wrote it up the same way in my report.
Roy Cooke
As an electrician, when I get calls for non functional outdoor recs that I’m pretty sure are not working due to a tripped GFCI someplace, I put a telephone “toner” on that outdoor receptacle. It takes maybe a 2 minute walk around the house with the probe (receiver) portion of the tool to pin down where the GFCI is to reset it. I’m sure that’s not part of your inspection tool kit, and likely may never be, but I thought it would be interesting to relate how I go about finding them.
Yeah, they’re generally behind a stack of crap that hasn’t been moved in the last 10 years. Fun, fun.
Lots of threads on this before. Some do not even use the tester button, only the actual GFCI test button.
If the house is vacant I don’t worry about a GFCI covered up with sheetrock and test everything.
If the house is occupied, just trip the actual GFCI’s and leave them off while finding the outlets that are off. Then reset and go back to make sure the dead outlets came back on and have the correct polarity etc…
I’ve had several situations where I had everyone (my client, both Realtors, kids, contractors, etc) looking for the reset until it was finally located.
I recall one house where I did everything I could to locate a GFCI reset and failed to locate it. I simply told the Listing agent to notify the Sellers of the situation.
I can also recall an HI story in the past where the HI failed to reset the GFCI in a garage. The Sellers stated that they had their freezer connected to that tripped GFCI and lost all their frozen foods due to the freezer losing it’s power. The inspector lost in this situation and had to pay for the costs of the frozen meats and other food items.
Of course (upon settlement) the Sellers reported that they had the most expensive meats you can buy when they probably only had three packages of hamburg and some frozen veggies.
Always attempt to reset the GFCI. If it becomes impossible to locate it, make sure the Sellers are fully aware of the situation.
No special time or attention. Keep going forward with the inspection as usual. Most of the time it shows up (98% of the time). If it doesn’t show up - report it and go to the next house.
Wosrt thing that can happen is tripping a GFCI that the freezer is hooked up to. They always want you to be responsible. Had one once that was behind a built in wall unit in the garage and not accessibe. I told the seller he was SOL and had to remove the wall unit to turn the power back on. You know, we can only do our jobs to a point. When people do stupid things (like build a wall unit and cover an outlet) they need to deal with it, not us (of course he blamed me and said he has neve had a problem with it before). I responed with - you are very fortunate. Better if trip while we are here than to trip while you are away and loose all your meat.
Wosrt thing that can happen is tripping a GFCI that the freezer is hooked up to. They always want you to be responsible. Had one once that was behind a built in wall unit in the garage and not accessibe. I told the seller he was SOL and had to remove the wall unit to turn the power back on. You know, we can only do our jobs to a point. When people do stupid things (like build a wall unit and cover an outlet) they need to deal with it, not us (of course he blamed me and said he has neve had a problem with it before). I responed with - you are very fortunate. Better if trip while we are here than to trip while you are away and loose all your meat.
Dave that was probably me… the garage was stacked 8 feet high with crap… the least of which was a kayak on top… I never even knew there was a freezer under it… actually it only cost me $100…
lessoned learned… I always find them now… but if I could not… I would make sure I notified the owners…
I agree…the important thing here is you tested the unit…so now you need to TEST the other locations what logic should dictate should have a GFCI.
Now the exterior receptacles should NOT be on with the bathroom receptacles however it was a practice done prior to 1999 NEC sometimes and sad to say still today if the AHJ can’t find it…
You go about your inspection…inform the RIGHT person that you can’t locate it…and make them aware of it…also remember guys any GFCI you trip and CAN"T find…don’t worry…i think your CLIENT would also want to know where that reset it and if you can’t find it chances are they can’t either…in your report state this and refer to them asking the seller where this is located if they know.
Ironically…get used to it because in the years to come the exceptions for example that let you NOT put a fridge on a GFCI in the garage will be HISTORY…even more GFCI’s will need to be tested.
We’re not their cradle to grave insurance policy.
We’re not adopting and raising them, just inspecting the house.
We’re not the seller NOR are we a warranty company.
We’re the initial cursory screening process - not the final word.
$hit happens - it works one minute & breaks down the next.
Its not my house - its yours, take care of it.
Sellers, Realtors and many buyers would have you paying for anything that quits working or breaks during an inspection or shortly afterwards.
Buyer moved into a house we did an inspection on 2 months ago. Two days later the floor drain backs up. Wants us to be responsible & pay to fix it.
Sorry Guy - last fall same thing happened to me. Last night its OK, today the drains backed up. I paid to fix mine - you take care of yours.
I feel the worst thing for our profession is to baby these people. It sits up all kinds of unreasonable expectations.
I once tested a garage outlet and heard the GFCI trip. I’d seen a reset on another outlet in the garage and assumed it would be that one. It wasn’t.
That reset also controlled the half bath & upstairs bath and O/S outlets. This happened at the end of the inspection. The seller had just came home and when we explained that we couldn’t find the GFCI reset he told us it was behind the garage storage shelf unit.
The sellers kid had an old car he was working on stored in the garage (without its wheels and the kid is away at school). There was a floor to ceiling solid storage shelf in the garage with a solid wood back on it. The car was wedged up against the storage shelf. The 2nd garage reset was behind there. You couldn’t get to it. The seller was ballistic. I had another job to go to, so couldn’t stay to help him move everything. He was pissed.
I don’t blame him for being pissed - but it was his problem not mine. On top of that the buyer backed away from the house.
Yep…your job is to test…their job is to make it available to test it. I would prefer to TEST and worry about not finding the reset than not testing at all because I can tell you this…all the recent documentation I have received on the fact that in some states GFCI’s that are older failed 60% of the time when tested…Florida is BAD for this because of the MOV in the GFCI being damaged from lightning and surges…and couple that with the fact some GFCI’s will go defective in the CLOSED position meaning it still works as a receptacle without GFCI protection and gives the false sense of actual PROTECTION…just not worth NOT testing them.
Solution for the person who says…what about the meat in the fridge…guess what in a few years those fridges will have to be on GFCI…regardless…so here is a solution…BUY a cheap extention cord and if you trip a GFCI you cant find and it trips a fridge…plug it into the cord and to a working plug for a TEMP FIX…then tell the agent and owner…cheaper to give a $10.00 extention cord away IF that ever happens versus paying for the LIFE that could be lost…ya think…
Two years ago, I got a call from the seller, a week after the inspection, who claimed there was $15,000 of special medication in the garage refrigerator, which was on the GFCI protected circuit. He wanted me to pay for it. I question his motive by asking: 1. when did you notice the frig was not working, 2. what did you do to trouble shoot, and 3. why did it take a week to contact me, and 4. how come there’s no warning notice posted in the house??? His stuttering answers were; 1. about one week. 2. looked around in the panel with a friend and could not find anything tripped off. ( not even the GFCI outlet) 3. he only takes his med. every 2-3 days. 4. didn’t think he needed it.
I told him 1. I check t-stats and GFCI’s before I leave. 2. there were two days of severe t-storms which could have set-off the GFCI. 3. His agent, who knows me well, and did not know about the meds either, and told me he was a flake anyhow.
I told him to pound butter, salt and pavement.
