GFCI Outlet under dinette will not reset. All other electrical is Okay.

[Steve Morris]

We’re at the Florida egg rally, on a full hookup site since Wednesday. Just came in this evening and the GFCI outlet under the dinette had tripped, and won’t reset. We had a small ceramic heater running on that outlet. Now, all downstream AC outlets are dead. These are on circuit breaker #3, which had not tripped. I opened and closed breaker #3 just to be sure. Breaker #4 is the separate microwave outlet, and it works fine. Only the wall outlets downstream from theGFCI outlet stopped working.

The Progressive Industries display is showing 120V and no errors. So the fault seems to be the GFCI outlet. Do these go bad? The ones in our house that we bought 34 years ago still function. 

In the morning, I’m going to unhook from the campground power pedestal and try resetting the GFCI outlet on inverted AC power. 
 

It did start raining a few hours ago, but if that was the cause, it would affect all AC power, not just circuit #3. 

Thoughts?

[dewdev]

They can go bad but very seldom.

I agree, try unplugging from shore power, then reconnect the shore power and try resetting the GFCI. When this has happened to me, I have had to use a butter knife to reset the breaker as for some reason my finger was not getting the reset button in enough.

Edited Wednesday at 10:00 PM by dewdev

[Snackchaser]

Could be a number of different things, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with the circuit breakers or park power.  The fault will be at the GFIC outlet, or one of the downstream outlets fed by it. GFIC’s are not overcurrent devices, rather they detect minute circuit imbalances where either the hot wire or neutral wire is leaking current to ground.   So one of the most common problems is moisture, usually in the outdoor outlet/box.   Make sure the cover seal is good and dry it off as best you can.   Another common cause is improperly wired devices, so make sure everything is unplugged.

If that doesn't fix it, then disconnect the "load" side of the GFIC outlet and see if it’s still tripping.  If so, then replace the GFIC.  If it doesn’t trip with the load disconnected, the GFIC is okay and I’d go back to the outdoor outlet and really dry it well.

Good luck!

[Steve Morris]

Problem solved! The exterior receptacle is not a GFCI out, but is downstream from the one under the dinette. Unplugging the refrigerator extension cord solved the problem. We’ve had worse rain than this before, but usually plug it into the power pedestal. This campground doesn’t have a 15A outlet in the box. 
 

I use two 25’ extension cords, and the juncture was underneath the trailer. But with the rain, it was half buried in wet sand. I took it apart, and cleaned and dried it, but apparently not enough, as it tripped the GFCI outlet immediately when I plugged it back in.

So for now, I’m using one Bluetti to power the fry while the other is charging inside the trailer. I’ll swap as needed until I get things dried out.

Thank you for all of the help and advice!

[jd1923]

8 hours ago, Steve Morris said:

I use two 25’ extension cords, and the juncture was underneath the trailer. But with the rain, it was half buried in wet sand. I took it apart, and cleaned and dried it, but apparently not enough, as it tripped the GFCI outlet immediately when I plugged it back in.

Be careful running any appliance requiring high amperage using an extension cord, and worse is to daisy-chain cords. If you really need to run something at a distance use one longer cord ( your issue was in the connection). Most extension cords are 14 AWG. Extension cords designed to be appliance cords are always short (6-9') and 10-12 AWG.

I have a 50 FT 10 AWG extension cord which I do not bring camping but certainly would given your needs. Something like this:

https://a.co/d/j6hUQN6

Edited January 20 by jd1923

[Steve Morris]

54 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Be careful running any appliance requiring high amperage using an extension cord, and worse is to daisy-chain cords. If you really need to run something at a distance use one longer cord ( your issue was in the connection). Most extension cords are 14 AWG. Extension cords designed to be appliance cords are always short (6-9') and 10-12 AWG.

I have a 50 FT 10 AWG extension cord which I do not bring camping but certainly would given your needs. Something like this:

https://a.co/d/j6hUQN6

I don’t have any high amperage devices, let alone on an extension cord. 

The biggest load is an 1100W ceramic heater plugged directly into the GFCI outlet under the dinette. The extension cords connected to the outside receptacle are 25’ long and 12AWG outdoor rated. The only load on that outlet is a  2.8A AC max draw fridge/freezer in the truck. 

I’m good. This was a rarity. I’ve only had to plug the fridge into the trailer one other time in two years, and it was fine in the rain.