wildjuanpablo

Good afternoon!

First of all, let me explain the GFCI circuit in question. In my garage, I have a GFCI outlet, which is tied to the exterior outlet on my front porch. I recently had an electrician come in and tie a non-GFCI outlet to the GFCI outlet in my garage so I could have my outdoor refrigerator plugged into it and will stay on at all times.

Last night, I was in the process of putting Christmas lights out. I had 4 strands of C-9 lights (non-LED) plugged into the outlet on my front porch. With four strands (and my fridge), the GFCI pops. When I unplug one of the strands, it works fine and does not pop. I still have many more lights to plug in and this has never been an issue until after the fridge was tied into this circuit.

Is there anything I can do to help this? Would a new GFCI outlet in my garage help (maybe this one is wearing out)?

I am also toying around with the idea of adding a GFCI circuit to my circuit breaker panel and then installing a brand new GFCI outlet. That way, the only thing on this circuit would be Christmas lights.

Your opinions and advice are much appreciated!!

Thank you in advance!

kok328

Outlets in a garage MUST be GFCI or GFCI protected. I assume the new outlet added by the electrician is GFCI protected from the existing GFCI outlet.
A dedicated circuit would not be a bad idea but, a GFCI outlet does not take the place or serve the same purpose of a circuit breaker.

joecaption

It sounds like your thinking of having a GFI breaker (very expencive) and adding a new line running to just one GFI outlet. It will do 0 good to have 2 GFI's in line.
GFI's do not trip from an over loaded circut, they trip when there's a dead short or voltage leakage.
I'd have the fridge on a non GFI circut on it's own and just plug the lights into the GFI protected outlet.