This is an eyewitness account of the importance of GFCI protection. It happened right in my own home and it even shocked me. No pun intended. If you don’t have GFCI protection on all the outlets servicing your kitchen counters, you may want to make sure you get it………soon!
A few days ago I was in the kitchen making some lunch. I opened the toaster oven, put the food in and turned it on. Nothing happened. The light didn’t come on and the element didn’t start glowing. A few quick looks around and I noticed the GFCI a few outlets away was tripped. I thought it was odd, and reset it. It immediately popped again and I was again without power to my toaster oven. It was odd to say the least.
After a little more investigating I noticed the power cord for the ‘under the cabinet’ radio was stuck to the stainless steel of the toaster oven. When I removed the wire I noticed it was melted and the bare wire was showing. This was allowing the AC power from the radio to flow directly through the grounded outer shell of the toaster oven. The GFCI had done its job!
Without GFCI protection for that outlet, if I touched the stainless steel on the toaster oven, I could have provided an alternate path for the electrical current to travel and may have been electrocuted. Like I said in the title, that was a close one.
Many homeowners assume that a GFCI outlet is only needed near water. I proved that to be a false assumption. Please don’t assume anything where safety is concerned. If you have a question about this or any other safety issue in your home please call. If we can’t solve it with a phone call maybe a Maintenance Inspection is in order.
Importance Of GFCI Protection
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