I have an older 3-prong receptacle next to my sink and I wanted to replace it with a GFCI. When I took it out of the wall, there are 3 sets of wires. One black and one neutral was attached to top outlet screw terminals. Two black and two neutral wires were attached to bottom outlet screw terminals. The grounds are twisted together and attached to a screw in the box.

Initially I put the 1 black / 1 white in the line terminals of the gfci and the others in the load terminals, assuming that was the original setup on the old receptacle. The green light on the gfci came on but it won’t reset and gfci tester in bottom outlet registered nothing. More importantly refrigerator is still off so I’m sure this didn’t work.

its a 20a circuit and I think this is the 2nd device because the receptacle on the other side of my sink (in the same circuit) works but none of the other devices do.

How do I troubleshoot this? I’d like to have the gfci there and have fridge, dishwasher and other outlets working.

if I can’t get gfci to work and go back to 3 prong outlet, I can’t have two wires under 1 terminal, right? So i’d Use pigtails?

sorry for the lack of photos - I’m on my phone.

thanks!

 

You need to find which set of wires is the hot and neutral coming into the box. They will be your LINE wires. If the other sets of wires will not be GFCI protected by this GFCI you would wire nut them all together and connect some pigtails to the GFCI device.

If you do want to GFCI protect other outlets/circuits downstream from this device you would then connect them to the LOAD terminals. Yes, if you have more then one wire you would wire nut them and add a pigtail to the terminal.

 

Just an addition to Scott's reply..... a GFI receptacle uses side screws with retainer plates so it is ok to put two wires on a terminal. There will be two holes in the back of the GFI per terminal.

 

i was able to figure out the pairs and install both gfci. Now that I understand more, I must say the hardest part is bending the wires and getting the gfci receptacle back in the box!