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So, I want to add a receptacle in the bathroom (I tend to run out of batteries on my phone while crapping at the end of the day). There's a GFCI outlet on the other side of the crapper wall that faces the bathroom sinks, so would be a simple matter to wire off of that one, if its possible.

They make these charger receptacles that would be nice to use:

...but they're not GFCI. Is there a way to wire one of those into an existing GFCI circuit so that GFCI protection is still enabled (and legal)? I live in Austin, Texas.

The only reason I think this may be possible is that our current GFCI outlets seems to have several "normal" looking outlets on a circuit with just one outlet that has the buttons to reset it that switch power on and off for all the outlets on the circuit.

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    Those receptacles sound like a good idea, but they tend to be very deep - if your outlet boxes are small, it may be hard to get everything in there.
    – Aaron
    Dec 7, 2012 at 18:48
  • This would be a brand new outlet, so I'll make sure to pick an outlet box that's big enough. Thanks for the head's up!
    – SDGator
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:36

1 Answer 1

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You should never chain two GFCI circuits together. When you install a GFCI circuit, you should only ever chain standard outlets off of them. Multiple GFCI on the same circuit can cause each other to trip.

So yes, what you want to do is actually what you should do.

What you do need to do, however, is make sure you connect the new outlet to the LOAD terminals on the GFCI outlet. That will put the new outlet on GFCI protection.

You should also sticker the new outlets as GFCI protected.

enter image description here

See in the above how the duplex (standard) outlet is fed from the GFCI, NOT the main line.

And in case it's unclear- the 3 gfci in the pic are not chained - they are connected in parallel. Only the standard outlet is "chained" - or connected in serial.

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    Perhaps it should be mentioned that 14/2 wire (shown in the diagram) should only be used if your breaker is 15A. If your breaker is 20A for this circuit, use 12/2 wire.
    – Pigrew
    Dec 7, 2012 at 18:01
  • Fair point. The pic was lifted from elsewhere and included the 14/2 so its worth noting. Another way to tell, if the existing sheathing going to the existing GFCI is white it's 14/2, if it's yellow it's 12/2. Color matching for electricians! :D
    – The Evil Greebo
    Dec 7, 2012 at 18:41
  • Are there any safety issues chaining GFCI's off each other, or just a risk of nuisance trips?
    – Grant
    Dec 8, 2012 at 15:33
  • AFAIK just nuisance trips.
    – The Evil Greebo
    Dec 8, 2012 at 21:25
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    @TheEvilGreebo You can't always go off of the color of the sheathing. I have personally seen 12/2 cable with a white sheath, and some with black sheaths.
    – Brad Gilbert
    Dec 9, 2012 at 2:34

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