RE: GFI's 3/7/03

My origional question was about my GFI tripping without anything being turned on. I also stated I had more than two lines connected to it. I worked on it yesterday and this is the result.
A) There are four lines coming into the box.
1) The line in.
2) A line that goes to the garbage disposal through a switch.
3) A line that goes to the dishwasher.
4) A line that goes to the rest of the outlet boxes on the run.

The circut breaker in the fuse box is 20 Amps as is the GFI. I origionally thought that was the problem. There is enough room on the back of the GFI to connect (8) wires. The configuration I have now is:
1) All the grounds are tied together with one coming to the receptical.
2) The white wire for the disposal runs from the line side straight through and the black goes through the switch before tying into the hot side of the receptical.(bottom/line side)
3) The dishwasher is tied into the line side.
4) The line for the rest of the run is tied into the load side.
5) The line in is tied into the line side.

As you can see I have more wires to the line side than I have space for so I tied two together before bring it to the receptical. It seemed to be working ok yesterday but was off this morning when I got up. Installing another box to aleviate the congestion is not an option, although reinstalling a standard receptical is.

I realize this is a tad long winded but I'm trying to get you all the information I can. Hope you can help.

 

Why are you using the GFI to protect the disposal and dishwasher?

The contertop circuit should only supply receptacle loads in the kitchen and dining room areas. The dishwasher and disposal should be on their own circuit.

 

pc is absolutely right, and if anyone turned on the disposal, they could very easily have tripped the GFCI

 

pcboss,lestrician,
The way I read the post,the dw and disposal are connected to the line side of the gfci,not the load.

skip,
Did you try what was suggested in my previous post?

 

Tex:
Yes I did. Thats why I was so specific in my last post. The appliances are tied into the line side. The only other thing pluged into the circiut is a microwave. With everything unplugged I went through the process expland above and this was the result. I put a standard receptical back in because i got tired of the whole thing. Everything is working fine. I'll leave the GFI on the counter top when I move out in a month and let the new owners worry about it.