jamescity1989
Member
kok328 - The GFCI/AFCI receptacle did not burn out. This receptacle replaced a regular receptacle that burned out.
Jamecity1989: The new GFCI/AFCI receptacle is not the problem here in my opinion. As I said we have to determine what caused the original receptacle to burn out. Now that this new AFCI/GFCI tripped and won't reset tells us that the feed to it lost power. What is on this circuit before the AFCI/GFCI receptacle. This is where the problem may be.
We are only talking about one dual function AFCI/GFCI receptacle at this time. If this receptacle will not reset this more than likely means either it was wired incorrectly (the way he describes he wired it seems corret) or there is no power going to the GFCI/AFCI receptacle. Tossing all GFCIs receptacles will not solve this issue.
The issue is the original receptacle burned out which means there is an issue with the circuit or the original receptacle.
Jamescity replacing the original burned out receptacle with this AFCI/GFCI receptacle will not necessarily make this circuit safer if there is a problem with the circuit prior to the location of the AFCI/GFCI receptacle. We need to first determine what caused the original regular receptacle to burn out.
Jamescity you say you have a VOM. Do you know how to use it?
First shut off the breaker to this circuit. Disconnect the wires going to the line side of the GFCI/AFCI receptacle. Pull the wires apart from each other so they do not touch. Turn the breaker back on and record the readings of these wires. Tell us what hot to neutral, hot to ground and ground to neutral are in Volts. This will be the starting point. We need to know if 120volts are being feed to the AFCI/GFCi receptacle on the line side of this receptacle and then take it from there. If you don't have 120v on the wires connected to the line side of the AFCI/GFCI receptacle then it will not reset. Also double check carefully by looking at the back of the AFCI/GFCI receptacle to be sure you are placing the incoming power wires to the line side and the outgoing wires to the load side.
Let's take this one step at a time and not start throwing things away thinking they are bad or replacing the AFCI/GFCI receptacle thinking it is bad. They are pricey. Changing the other receptacles to a higher grade is acceptable but it would be best to first before fiddling with other receptacles etc taht we determine what caused this receptacle to burn up. By making all of these changes we are complicating how we can solve this issue. Don't make changes yet.
Jamescity you say you are good with computers. I used to be an IT analyst and computer programmer. We know that the last think you do when attempting to troubleshoot a computer problem or software problem is to go in an make multiple changes at one time. Doing this you will not know what caused what. Think of this the same way. One change or troubleshoot step at a time only. The more changes you put in the mix the more difficult it will be to find the problem. Load multiple programs on a computer and you find you have problems you won't know what program caused the problems. Load one at a time and test it and then you will see what program caused the problem.
On the circuit before the af/gf receptacle is normally her tv printer and cable box and roku which were all plugged into a surge protector. When i visually inspected the receptacle it had no signs of any arcing.
The first the original receptacle died before we replaced it with the afci gfci outlet was due to an old phone charger cable and box.