GFCI Fail
Before Cub Scout Pack Meeting and Board of Trustees Meeting:
"What's that smell? It smells
very faintly like burning electrical components, but I can't locate it."
Near microwave: <sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff>
Near Outlet: <sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff>
Near oven: <sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff>
Near coffee maker: <sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff>
Trying to catch a waft of it again: <sniff, sniff, sniff>
<grumble, grumble>
"Probably slopped some coffee down the side of the carafe and it burned up in the hotplate"
After we return home:
"Holy mackerel, it is the GFCI outlet. I am going to get a flashlight & flip the breaker."
Nothing like a good outlet change by flashlight. Especially one that requires heat shrink tubing to re-insulate wires that have burned/blown off their original insulation. And making pigtails so that every amp drawn through the circuit doesn't have to flow through the outlet.
FTR, I changed the GFCI out for a standard outlet.
Photos in-wall by flashlight:![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OGa9BOdUvvY/TsM7q3QyxSI/AAAAAAAABDM/N-KjRYWwBG8/s800/gfci_01.jpg)
![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Syy4OTsH9Vk/TsM7rbp8-gI/AAAAAAAABDM/OeufDdvKnL0/s800/gfci_02.jpg)
![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-n5gyFJgATcw/TsM7rKykgoI/AAAAAAAABDM/_aQsdMtIrx4/s800/gfci_03.jpg)
After changing it out:![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MvR-jGjIudk/TsM7r5MWptI/AAAAAAAABDM/BY2mwSkxDY0/s800/gfci_07.jpg)
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-d6se21NzEI4/TsM7sYwCUqI/AAAAAAAABDM/jqFW_NDwYzE/s800/gfci_08.jpg)
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X6QKTRKnPHg/TsM7sqoRlsI/AAAAAAAABDM/QtxnL6Jpc3c/s800/gfci_09.jpg)
![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AIwwK_x5H4Y/TsM7suUMHlI/AAAAAAAABDM/vWlP7BySlXk/s800/gfci_10.jpg)
HOT WIRE, indeed.
Happy, neutral side:
Face: "Nothing going on here, no sirree! The smell? What smell, ossifer?"![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XDb_T9vaZRA/TsM7qcC5p-I/AAAAAAAABDM/oBBGqhOj_LE/s800/gfci_12.jpg)
Awfully glad we all didn't die in a fire at 0dark30.