Outlet/GFCI Issue

stubblejumper wrote:

Bob Landry wrote:

enblethen wrote:
The GFCI receptacle is the same as residential.

Any GFCI you buy is going to be a "feed through", whatever is meant by that. The terminals are going to be marked Line and Load and have to be connected correctly or any outlet downstream from it will not function properly.

Not true. Line and load are the input. Usually your GFCI is the first plug on the circuit. New GFCI's will often have both "feed through" and "pass through". Feed through means on going circuits are GFCI protected. Pass through means following circuits are not GFCI protected. There are separate terminals or "push ins" on the back of the GFCI for each circuit. Read the instructions that came with your FCI carefully so that the following circuits are hooked up as required.

No, the input is LINE. There is also a LINE out if you don't want to protect the downstream outlets.

The protected output is the LOAD. The LOAD is not and can not be the input.

Think about it a minute. There are 3 wires, and only 3 wires coming into the outlet and MAYBE 2 wires going out of the outlet. First is the GROUND wire to a ground terminal on the outlet. Second is the HOT wire going to the small blade side of the LINE connection of the outlet. Third is the NEUTRAL going to the wide blade side of the LINE connection of the outlet.

If the LOAD was an input, what wires would it get? All of the incoming wires are already accounted for.

The possible 2 outgoing wires are to feed other outlets downstream. They are HOT and NEUTRAL and can be connected to the LOAD or the LINE terminals depending on whether or not you want to protect them.

Although I have never seen one, a GFCI somewhere may be labeled "feed through" and "pass through." Every one, without exception, that I have ever seen was labeled LINE and LOAD.