Gfi on hair dryer keeps tripping?

have a gfi in breaker box feeding two bathroom non gfi recepticles. in main bath the hair dryers gfi keeps tripping, sometime even before you turn it on- after several trips the hair dryer won;t work. The 15 amp gfi in the breaker box never trips (unless I test it). I realize the breaker is somewhat undersized for the new dryers- but its the hair dryer gfi which trips. Also no problem with the other bathroom recepticle and I have replaced the recepticle in the main bath- problem continues.

Help I am stuck!

Gfi on hair dryer keeps tripping?

If I understand you correctly, the GFCI on the hair dryer CORD is the one that trips? If so, and plugging any other appliance or device into the GFCI outlet in the bathroom does not result in a trip, then your hair dryer is the problem. Considering the low cost of hair dryer (relatively) I suggest replacing the hair dryer.

If, however, the GFCI wall outlet is the one tripping when any appliance or device is plugged into it then there might be a problem with the GFCI outlet. If you have another GFCI Wall outlet try plugging the hair dryer into it. If it trips then the hair dryer is the problem, if not then were back to the bathroom GFCI outlet.

The back of the GFCI outlet should be labled (in small print) LINE and LOAD. The power supply from the breaker box goes to the LINE side and the LOAD continues to the othe outlet in the circuit. If it is wired incorrectly it will trip.

Wiring a GFCI outlet is easy, just remember to cut off the breaker first.

Gfi on hair dryer keeps tripping?

If it's the GFCI in the hair dryer cord toss it and get a new one. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter. In a correctly working circuit current flows from the hot side (black wire) through the appliance and then to ground through the neutral side (white wire). This means that in a correctly working circuit the current flow on the hot side and neutral side will be identical.

If the GFCI detects that the current flow is 4mA different from one side to the other it means that current is going ground somewhere other than where it is supposed to so it shuts the circuit off. It has nothing to do with how much load is on the circuit- if the circuit is working correctly but was overloaded the GFCI wouldn't trip- the breaker in the electrical panel would open.

If nothing else trips the GFCI in the breaker box the circuit is fine. Replace the hair dryer.

Brendan

Gfi on hair dryer keeps tripping?

the air inlet screen must be dirty and not allowing enough of air to flow through the blow drier. this causes the hairdrier do draw more power and heat up the wires.

Gfi on hair dryer keeps tripping?

did you buy it at a bargain shop?

check if it has the UL sticker on it