Need advice - Outlet caught fire

Just for info. I was in my kitchen nothing plugged in anywhere. I was washing dishes by hand, all of a sudden smoke came rolling out of the gfci next to me, melted it inside no load what so ever on the circuit at the time. So it can happen just about any time.

 

For us here on on the forum there is perhaps too much room for guesswork. There is a lot of good information here, but we can't study the details of your situation. We can't look over the scene, rule things out, come up with a high reliability answer. You might want to bring in someone who is a licensed electrician in your area, let them run an expert eye over the situation.

If the situation is ambiguous, or if you care to, you could run a dedicated 20 amp circuit, give the car its own outlet, its own breaker, not be concerned about what else is sharing its circuit.

 

Why would the Bathroom GFCI be wired to Protect the Garage outlet ???

However, since the bathroom WAS affected by using the garage outlet, it must be. Strange.

Get an electrician.

 

Post 16 and 20 & 23 are your best options. For charging use a dedicated outlet, only for charging the Prius. Put a new outlet in and check the voltage at the circuit breaker box coming in. This voltage and the outlet voltage should be identical. If there is a difference, there is a voltage drop (loss) and that should be investigated. Since you sound like a relatively new owner of the house, you should check all the outlets in the entire house. You never know what a previous owner might have done. Naturally replace the GFCI. If you can't handle this, hire a Electrician. Oh, if you can do so, bring the car in the garage and charge it. Eliminate the extension !

 

because them things are not cheap and no reason to put more than one on a single circuit. the GCFI protects EVERY outlet that is on that circuit

 

I took mine out and put a regular outlet in my bathroom as the ground fault interupt was constantly interrupting my voltage supply to three bathrooms. That was 40 years ago! No problems since. At the time I had access to a Elec Lab and checked the GCFI, it worked perfect, blew right at 50ma. I assumed at the time since the house was new, the device was not wired up correctly.

 

Your last sentence is the most important! We cannot be his electrician over the internet.

It is cheaper and nearly as safe to use one GFCI outlet to protect a whole series of 'normal' outlets that cost 1/10 as much. The problem for Prius owners is that the car charges for much longer than a 'normal' bathroom appliance and should be on a dedicated circuit near the car. (no extentsion cords)

You need GFCI protection in wet locations (dirty water conducts electricity well) with plumbing. (plumbing may well provide an accedental ground) These areas allow electricity to go astray from the intended path. The new path may go through you! Bathrooms, kitchens and garages meet this description so should be GFCI protected.

 

Only if it's wired that way.

 

This has all been speculation and guessing. He's not even sure if garage and bathroom were same circuit, said "apparently". I agree with the comments that he should have it checked by an electrician.

 

Did the OP say the bathroom outlet was a GCFI?

 

OP hasn't said anything since his initial post, lol.

 

I had the same situation on my 1950s house. Bathroom plug tied into the garage. When the gfci would pop the sprinkler system would turn off. When electrician installed new panel and new circuits he said hair dryers pull more electricity than most anything -- heat wires and can cause fires on these old houses. The new circuit outside was made a 240 and my evse was sent in to upgrade to 240. Love my car because of it.

 

But he checked PriusChat at 1:30 AM today.

 

i would have a licensed electrician look at this, don't fool around with potential house fire.

 

It's common practice to run a branch circuit through a wall outlet. Since they didn't have GFI outlets 40yrs ago- that bathroom outlet was a standard outlet up to a few years ago when someone replaced it with a GFI outlet. When the GFI pops- the rest of the circuit downstream goes out now too....

 

Was there really an OP?

 

It is a fairly common practice to do this. It is required by the NEC to protect outlets that are near water (bathroom) and/or outside with a GFCI. But you can protect many outlets with a single GFCI. And since the most common way to trip a GFCI is from something like a hair dryer, they always put them indoors and in the bathroom, so you can find it and reset easier than if it is outside or in the garage.

Mike

 

good luck, and do keep us posted