Breaker

[Alicia]

I will look, thank you

[Alicia]

I have only seen one GFCI, in the bathroom that the heater was plugged in, won't reset but the little light on it is off. The coffee maker was plugged in the kitchen on regular outlet, neither work now but other outlets on same circuit work.

[Old and soft]

If it was me, the next thing I would do is get out my meter and verify if 115vac is present at the wires feeding the gfci. Could be a bad gfci, or a problem upstream from the gfci. If 115vac is present on the feed, I recommend replacing the gfci. If not present, the next thing I would do is use my meter to verify the breaker is passing 115vac to the circuit. Already too many if's to keep guessing.

[Alicia]

Waiting for my daughter to bring me her multimeter, gonna check outlets and breakers, thanks, crazy but no GFCI for fridge plug outside, didn't expect that

[Alicia]

No GFCI outside for fridge plug

[JFlightRisk]

Originally Posted by Alicia

No GFCI outside for fridge plug

The plug for the fridge will be downstream from a GFCI and protected, just like the one in the kitchen if it's close to the sink. I know in a regular house there can be the GFCI outlet, and four more downstream from it would be on that protected circuit also.

Our TT has one GFCI in the bath that's connected to the fridge, kitchen and two double outlets outside under the awning, per the schematic from Jayco.

[Alicia]

Exactly how mine is, one GFCI in bath, fridge down from that, breaker is too easy to push off, I barely touch it and I learned that if its that easy to switch on, it's probably bad

[craigav]

Originally Posted by Alicia

Exactly how mine is, one GFCI in bath, fridge down from that, breaker is too easy to push off, I barely touch it and I learned that if its that easy to switch on, it's probably bad

If you have a short on that circuit then the breaker can behave as you noticed. One thing you could try is to unplug the RV and then try to reset the breaker and see if it resets and has a more firm click when turning it back on while the RV power is off. If so, then once reset plug the RV back in and then check the breaker again. If it tripped then you most likely have a short on that circuit. If the breaker panel has another breaker of the same rating you could try switching the breakers (with all the power off) and see if the problem follows the suspect breaker or stays with the same circuit. ~CA

[Old and soft]

Sure was a lot of if's in that response. Start at the problem, no apparent power at the gfci. Is it being fed 115vac? If (ya like that) there is 115vac there, you are getting sent on some wild goose chasses.

[craigav]

It is very common in troubleshooting any issue to use a guide that states "IF" this condition is true then do this... "Else" do that. I suppose IF-Then-Else statements are not considered helpful to everyone but none the less are very common and very helpful to others. ~CA

[Vicr]

OK, I'm going to chime in here. There is not enough information from the OP to start guessing what is wrong. One thing we know is that there is no power to the GFCI receptacle as it won't reset without 120v (that means 120v between hot and neutral and 120v between hot and ground. This has not been checked. Also not checked is power at the breaker when flipped to the closed position is there power from the breaker to neutral? This hasn't been checked. After checking these two things then we can go into the "if's". Also, is the refer a residential or 120v/propane. And a side note, refrigerators are not required to be on a GFCI circuit. And a note, as a licensed electrician, is that is nearly impossible to trouble shoot electrical issues via an internet forum.

[craigav]

Originally Posted by Vicr

OK, I'm going to chime in here. There is not enough information from the OP to start guessing what is wrong. One thing we know is that there is no power to the GFCI receptacle as it won't reset without 120v (that means 120v between hot and neutral and 120v between hot and ground. This has not been checked. Also not checked is power at the breaker when flipped to the closed position is there power from the breaker to neutral? This hasn't been checked. After checking these two things then we can go into the "if's". Also, is the refer a residential or 120v/propane. And a side note, refrigerators are not required to be on a GFCI circuit. And a note, as a licensed electrician, is that is nearly impossible to trouble shoot electrical issues via an internet forum.

I agree that there isn't enough information to positively determine what is the cause of the problem (yet) and I am one who prefers not to guess often, but at the same time I do believe it is of value to provide an educated guess of the possible cause(s) and there certainly is enough information to make an educated guess. For example as in this case, when someone states they had a heater and coffee pot turned on at the same time and lost power, then imo a good "guess" would be that the the breaker has tripped and needs to be reset.

Also, there is a bit more that is known than just that there is no power at the GFCI (and another receptacle), which is that Alicia has stated more than once a similar statement and even as recent as in post #27 that the "breaker is too easy to push off, I barely touch it..." I think Grumpy was\is on track all along from comment #2 that the breaker has not been reset completely.

In any case, and perhaps related to the terminology one chooses to use, the word "if" is common and even as you stated above with an implied "if" the meaning is the same for me to state "If there is no power going to the gfci it will not reset" as it would be for me to state that "when there is no power the gfci will not reset...". There isn't anything inherently wrong with using either phrase.

One more thought to share is that the way I would troubleshoot such an issue is often different than what I would suggest to anyone that I believe may not be aware of all of the dangers involved. For example, while I may suggest to disconnect the power going to the (RV) breaker panel and then trying another breaker, I rarely (if ever) would suggest to someone I didn't know to remove the breaker panel cover with the power still on and start checking the voltages inside... at least that is not what I would suggest for most people to do. ~CA

[Vicr]

Craig, I hope you don't think I was trying to criticize you in any way as I am not. My statement is from the perspective of an electrician who has years of troubleshooting electrical systems and I was trying to say things in a "just the facts" manner. From my perspective "time is money" in that as a supervisor I couldn't have guys spending a bunch of time chasing their tail troubleshooting an issue and being someone with not much patience for that I spent considerable time teaching both journeymen and apprentices the proper trouble shooting methods for the particular system that had an issue. What surprises me (well maybe not, its the internet) as how many people with issues that post either don't read mine or do not heed my suggestions or answer my question(s) that I ask in my post when I state that I am a licensed (not all states require this) electrician.
Anyway in regards to my post we really need to know what is going on at the breaker and GFCI. Yes, the breaker might be bad but we need to know what is going on at the GFCI. What most people over look is the possibility of a neutral issue. Another issue is when an OP says "I checked" what does that really mean. Nothing to me unless the procedure is stated defining how exactly it was checked. Anyway to me, and I would like to help the OP and maybe enlighten some readers along the way, but I, as an electrician, need to know the status of the breaker and GFCI as described in my post then "we" can make the "what if" suggestions.

[craigav]

No worries, we all have our unique perspectives which are often acquired through our careers and I didn't take your comment as an attempt to be negative towards me or anyone else.

In any case, and for Alicia, I still believe the issue is likely with the breaker (but it certainly could be an issue with the gfci and\or the wiring between the gfci and the breaker) and generally speaking I always recommend when troubleshooting this type of issue to start at the source of the circuit that is having the problem (the breaker itself as we already know the breaker panel has power) and then work your way forward instead of starting in the middle of the circuit.

However the previous guidance I suggested was purposely written with your safety in mind and one that would likely still provide a resolution with less risks involved. Regardless of everything else, I highly suggest if you are not familiar with the dangers involved when working in a breaker panel and checking the voltages, along with understanding what could happen if you accidently touch something you shouldn't, then I highly suggest you consider finding someone who is familiar with doing this for you. ~CA

[Alicia]

I switched out GFCI and still not working so I'm under assumption that no power is going there. Replacing breaker this morning, not an electrician but know my way around these things. Fridge is working fine on propane so happy there. I appreciate everyones advice and trouble shooting does help as I thought this forum was about. Ifs are fine with me ��

[craigav]

Originally Posted by Alicia

I switched out GFCI and still not working so I'm under assumption that no power is going there. Replacing breaker this morning, not an electrician but know my way around these things. Fridge is working fine on propane so happy there. I appreciate everyones advice and trouble shooting does help as I thought this forum was about. Ifs are fine with me ��

I believe that what is most likely the breaker isn't resetting as I mentioned earlier (which could be because the breaker is bad or for a few other reasons), but I want to also share a suggestion to try prior to replacing the breaker and based on your previous comments and in particular to comment #27 "breaker is too easy to push off, I barely touch it and I learned that if its that easy to switch on, it's probably bad"

Inside the breaker is a spring loaded "catch" or perhaps better stated "latch" and the spring is used to trip the breaker in a manner similar (in concept) to the spring and trigger on a mouse trap. When you try to turn off and on the breaker and you don't feel a firm amount of resistance (as for example the same resistance as the other breakers) then that indicates the switch lever is not engaging the latch inside.

What I suggest to try, if you haven't already, is to "firmly" move the breaker switch lever all the way you possibly can in the "OFF" direction until you cannot move it any further and then hold it there for a few seconds, perhaps even try to wiggle the breaker lever while holding it firmly in the furthest off position possible. If the breaker's lever can re-engage the breaker's internal latch you will notice a significant difference in force required when turning the breaker back to the "ON" position (due to the spring inside). You may want to try this a couple of times although I wouldn't try it too many times as the breaker may actually be working fine and tripping. ~CA

[Alicia]

Its fixed everyone, thanks for all the advice, it was the breaker. Loose switch equals bad breaker, also didn't help overloading it. Learned lesson. Thanks for your time and help.

[craigav]

Originally Posted by Alicia

Its fixed everyone, thanks for all the advice, it was the breaker. Loose switch equals bad breaker, also didn't help overloading it. Learned lesson. Thanks for your time and help.

Good Deal I am happy for you. Just curious if you were you able to get it to reset or did you end up replacing it? ~CA

[Alicia]

Replaced breaker, GFCI was fine. I did try unplugging main but it all came down to the switch.

[craigav]

Good deal, it is hard to know how long a breaker will last, many (most) will last a very very long time. Sometimes they do fail though and in my experience they fail more often when the breaker trips as you experienced, especially if the breaker has tripped more than a few times already, but a breaker could fail even on the first trip (albeit less common). ~CA