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The problem is we don't know anything about the OP's wiring. We don't know if that plug is a rat's nest of wires, or the house is question was built in the 1930's with old cloth AC cable that has faded to the point you can't tell the colors, or a previous owner miswired something and the neutral is hot.
We all assume a perfect install, with perfect romex, and a nice breezy, wide open spaceous box. In that case, a GFCI swap is easy.
Since none of us are in the OP's shoes, it's not fair to push them to do something they are not comfortable with.
Precisely. I have a nephew who is always thinking he can DIY various issues he encounters.
He asks his buddies at work, and they tell him how to do the thing, then he consults YouTube and finds videos of how to do it, then he goes to the hardware store and gets the parts, and tools if needed, then he sets to getting it done. And usually on Sunday night, he calls me and asks me to come help him get out of the mess he made of the whole project, because he hasn't a clue what to do next. I come over and figure out what he has done, and help him correct the problem and finish the original job.
Not everybody is a DIY'er. Even when the job is a simple one.
Thanks all. I do have a call into the electrician. I would rather spend the money than mess with electricity.
The button did actually pop out onto the floor which seemed alarming.
There are many things I am happy to try 'DIY-ing' but this one seems a bit beyond me (my husband is even worse).
watch a youtube video. It is as complicated as boiling an egg. I have done outlets during a tv commerical with a 99 cent screwdrive. And more importantly once you know how to do it you know how to do it forever.
GFCI Outlets and Breakers.. Well, let's go over it, just in case.
An outlet CAN provide Ground Fault protection for an entire circuit.
A breaker DOES provide GF protection for an entire circuit.
When the outlet trips, it's because of a detected GF on that outlet, or one that it feeds.. Or the GF circuit in the outlet has gone bad.
When the breaker trips.. It could be due to a detected GF or an overload. Or the breaker has gone bad.
I despise the GF breakers due to this.. And electricians who wire GF outlets to control other rooms tick me off. I don't have a massive issue with the GF outlet in the bathroom also being connected to an outside outlet.. That makes some sense.. But cost cutting, putting a GFCI in the bathroom that controls the outlets in a bedroom? Not so much to me.
Breakers are easy to change in main box. Change them both.
The problem is we don't know anything about the OP's wiring. We don't know if that plug is a rat's nest of wires, or the house is question was built in the 1930's with old cloth AC cable that has faded to the point you can't tell the colors, or a previous owner miswired something and the neutral is hot.
We all assume a perfect install, with perfect romex, and a nice breezy, wide open spaceous box. In that case, a GFCI swap is easy.
Since none of us are in the OP's shoes, it's not fair to push them to do something they are not confortable with.
No one was pushing......I recommended he get some books and then decide for himself if he was comfortable or not.
Hey! I'm a SHE!
I am strangely delighted that this thread has received so many posts. Our house is 100 years old and the bathroom was updated by the former owners, so I have no idea what the state of things might be (although I did learn that the circuit breaker panel had some rooms mis-labelled which does not inspire confidence). I am taking the financial hit by having an electrician come out on Friday but plan to watch him closely so I can learn a little more.
I like to do things myself when I can but I also feel okay paying someone on occasion if I feel intimidated or over my head. Fortunately we have spent very little on professionals in the five years we have owned this house.
Thanks all. I hope this thread will be helpful to others in the future especially if they are more inclined toward/comfortable with electricity than me
My healthy respect for electricity comes from me sticking a bobby pin into an outlet when I was 4 years old. I was thrown across the room and my hand was black and blue for a while. It is one of my earliest memories.
Did you know that the tracks of an HO scale train set are just the right size to go into an electrical outlet? That's how I started learning about electricity- I wanted to know what came out of the wall to make the train go. The wires to the track ran into the control box, and then to the plug...so I wondered, "What would happen if I put a piece of track directly into the outlet?"
I did it twice, just to check that the result would be the same a second time. Hmmmmm, yes, something powerful there for sure. Next experiment- a wooden ruler, the piece of track, and some copper wire (bare). Wire the track to the ruler, use the ruler for a handle, so I wasn't touching the track rails, and stick it in again.
*Everything* in the house went dead. My mother had no clue what happened, she had to wait 'til my father got home. Old style fuse box with the screw in fuses, main fuse blew. They never did figure out what caused it.
I did some electrical work at an office I worked at.. basically needed to remove some broken electrical outlets and replace.. Well, no point in calling an electrician for that.. But.. The outlets were going back to various different breaker panels.. This is back in the days before the 'toners' that you can just plug in to ID the breaker..
So, I pulled the outlets.. Unscrewed the hot and neutral.. Grabbed my needle nose.. Popped them together.. Trip the breaker. Go and ID the breaker, label it.. Replace the outlet.. Turn breaker back on.
All went well until about the 4th one that I did. That's when my hatred for fixing other peoples work started. Some nutjob apparently didn't have a spare 20A breaker.. So, he installed a double pole 100A(It wasn't that big, but I don't recall exactly what it was.. probably was a 40 or 60A) breaker and just ran one leg of it to this line of receptacles. I put those wires together and it was like an arc welder. Thankfully, did trip the breaker without burning up all the wiring, but.. Learned my lesson on doing things that 'should' be OK.
I took a hit of 277 way back in the early days of my electrical career. Wakes you up better than coffee.
Yeah, I had to replace my well-pump switch a while ago. None of the breakers were marked except the one that I had marked for the well pump, which I had found by just flipping breakers until the pump cut off. What I didn't know, was that there were two separate breakers for the system- one supplying 240v to the pump, and the other supplying 120v to the switch...I sure enough found out when I stuck my hand in the box and it was still live.
I've taken bigger hits working on military radar systems but it made me take notice.
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My healthy respect for electricity comes from me sticking a bobby pin into an outlet when I was 4 years old. I was thrown across the room and my hand was black and blue for a while. It is one of my earliest memories.
