Hi. I was thinking of converting one of my bathroom outlets to GFCI. Easy right. NOT... I was expecting a maximum of two(2) pairs of wires. Guess what, I have three (3) pairs. I was thinking that there should only be one pair which should be 'line'. And the other two pairs should probably be 'load'. Please correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, one pair was inserted into the slot while another pair was screwed to the brass and silver lugs. Is this a 'technique' on pigtailing? Please confirm and thanks in advance.

 

Find out which pair of wires is the hot or line. You will have to separate the wires, turn the breaker back on and test with a meter or other test device. This set of wires goes to the "line" side of the GFCI.

Take some short pieces of cable and tie the other two sets of wires together - white to white, black to black. Now you will have other two sets of wires tied together to feed other places and you will have a pair of wires to tie to the load side of the GFCI. This is pigtailing.

Hope you have enough room in your box and don't forget to tie all the grounds together.

 

hello bajod,
3 sets of romex in a singel gang box with a gfci is a tight fit.
you have 2 options here i cant say which is better since i do not know where the other sets go.
option 1 pig tail (small piece of wire aprox 7" long wire nutted to 2 or more wires produceing 1 end to tie to a device)all wires color to color, and connect them to the line side of gfci. ONLY THIS OUTLET WILL BE GFCI PROCTECTED.
option 2 seperate the 3 sets into there own sets, and locate the hot set, connect this to the line side of gfci. pig tail the other 2 sets (small piece of wire aprox 7" long wire nutted to 2 or more wires produceing 1 end to tie to a device) color to color and connect to the load side. this provides gfci proctection to this and all other outlets that the other 2 sets supply. this is the best option if any of the other outlets need to be gfci procted. ie within 6' of a sink, outside, garage, another bathroom, shower light.