Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs
Have new upright freezer coming in another week. Had old one plugged into outlet in garage but.... the outlet was one that "trips" (??) at any lightening strike, or power interruption, and a red light comes on and no power until you manually push the light "off" and then the outlet will work again. Of course this created a nightmare for the freezer... unlike in the house, where things come back ON after a power interruption, this outlet will not. So, the questions are:
.Can a freezer be plugged into any outlet in the garage ?
. Can this outlet that "trips off" be changed to NOT do that ?
. Does a freezer need a special kind of outlet like a stove ? HD website "seems" to say refrigerators and freezers do NOT need any kind of special outlet ?
. 1 outlet in our garage has sprinkler system, one on ceiling has only door opener, and then there are three others, one of which is the one that has to be reset of power goes off, so we are looking for a better solution for the new freezer... don't want to loose everything again because we aren't here to reset the outlet if the power goes out !
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That is a GFI outlet because it is in the garage and a potentially wet environment. You have the same in all your bathrooms and kitchens. That "light off" button as you call it, is there to reset the outlet after it has tripped due to an event. It is a safety feature. That outlet could be protecting other outlets as well. For example, you may see a similar outlet in your kitchen that is protecting multiple kitchen outlets.
No, you can not safely just change it to a non-GFI outlet. A GFI is designed to protect people (and pets, etc) from electrocution. It is being tripped because of one of two events:
1) You have a *real* ground fault somewhere. This can be a dangerous situation. In this case, the GFI is doing its job. The solution is to find the fault and this will likely require an electrician.
2) The GFI outlet itself is faulty. In my experience as a long-time homeowner, this is more likely. They are inexpensive (Lowe's / Home Depot). You can change it yourself. Just be sure to turn off that circuit at the breaker first. Because this is easy, inexpensive and do-it-yourself, I recommend doing that first. You may find that that is the end of the problem.