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Purchased a new Leviton Tamper-Resistant GFCI Outlet. Installed it and the green light comes on, but when I plug something into it, it doesn't come on. Tried something else that I know works and still no power to it even though the light on it is green. The reset / test buttons are very hard to press and one of them doesn't seem to be working.. Can I fix the button? Did I install it wrong?

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  • Turn off the breaker, pull out the GFCI, and take pictures of how you wired it.
    – crip659
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 22:40
  • Are you sure you connected to the Lind terminals and not the Load terminals? If you are using both, try disconnecting the Load terminals and see if that changes anything.
    – DoxyLover
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 22:41
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    Did you actually press the reset button then the test button and hear a click where the reset button pops out slightly, if not the receptacle may not be reset, I have big fingers and use a screwdriver to push the buttons.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 1:06
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    Many need to be reset when first powered, even if everything is wired correctly.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 1:40
  • Yes, GFCI outlet troubleshooting step 1 should be cycling of the TEST and RESET buttons!
    – Huesmann
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 14:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Basic trouble-shooting for GFCI/receptacle:

  • Disconnect all wires.
  • Determine which wires are incoming/line. Connect hot and neutral from that set (wires or cable) to the incoming/line side of the GFCI.
  • Turn on the breaker and test: indicator light, TEST/RESET, 3-light tester and then actual device. If something doesn't work you either have incorrect wiring or a bad GFCI/receptacle.
  • If daisy-chaining: Turn off the breaker. Connect outgoing/load wires/cable to the outgoing/load side of the GFCI/breaker.
  • Test thoroughly again. If it doesn't work, doesn't RESET, etc. then you have an existing ground fault in the load wires/devices/receptacles and will need to fix that before continuing.

Note that I didn't mention ground. That's because I assume you are using metal boxes with ground wires going to the boxes and the GFCI/receptacle grounding from the yoke to the box.

Note that on non-GFCI receptacles, neutral (line & load) is on one side and hot (line & load) is on the other side. With GFCI/receptacles you need to check carefully to see where each wire is supposed to connect. Connect things wrong and all kinds of strange things can happen. (Same advice applies to 3-way switches and smart switches.)

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