Cautions Against Mis-Wiring of GFCI Outlets

 Wonder why GFCI outlets by Eaton and Leviton are packaged and labeled differently. Find this familiar and invariant  adhesive tape over the Load terminals of a Leviton GFCI. 

These instructions inside the Eaton outlet packaging are unhelpful to understanding the intended wiring arrangement. 

This is the Leviton GFCI powering a lamp, with correct wiring and normal function. The fairly-visible square green LED is redundant indication of the normal function.

"American" brands Leviton and Eaton share a deficiency that gravity must be turned to advantage to engage wires in floating grips. Better "Chinese" volunteered design has no-fail wire insertion through guide holes.

Eaton outlets have no instructions at all. 

Commonsense in the following rules argues against need of instructions: 

All GFCI outlets have these functional features:

• The outlet will not function at all if miswiring has the (single) hot lead attached to LOAD side instead of LINE. The reset then button does nothing. There are no LED indications.
• Upon trip, the outlet and all outlets daisy-chained from LOAD terminals are dead.
• Outlets daisy-chained from LEAD terminals are immune to GFCI trip, not protected. Perhaps half of circumstances are with want of this.  A GFCI outlet may be in a long daisy chain, not visible or even imagined, at a scene of frustration. It is bad practice if a device failure is caused by another device. Let every needed GFCI outlet be independent. 
• Another half of GFCI wiring circumstances has one GFCI protecting very-nearby other non-GFCI outlets, out of foolish economy, passing from GFCI LEAD terminals.

Yet, not-thoughtful installations where daisy chains branch loads to include lights, fans, dimmers, and more, may be dysfunctional, perhaps completely denying GFCI service..

For functionality, of all brands, I prefer Eaton.

Eaton is unique in having a bright red LED illumination at an edge of the RESET button. A small red LED is said to immuminate with device failure. For all other brands the small LED in green denotes proper service. The Eaton illuminations are more thoughtful.

Trip-Tested Eaton

Corner, tiny green indications of correct function are kind of silly. They are easily obscured by a cord plug.

Yellow tape over LOAD terminals does make sense. Daisy-chained outlets will by preference be strung from GFCI LEAD terminals. A string continuing via LOAD terminals does not miss protection by the GFCI outlet, the implication of the warning tape.

While all outlets now sold in USA are made in China, we will have no loyalty to USA brands Eaton and Leviton, then open-minded to all other brands imported from China. We expect to pay no premium for a "USA" brand not made in USA. At May, 2025, these other well-made brands are found at Amazon: Amazon Basics, ELEGRP, XIMAOESE and GreenCycle, cutting by half, historic prices of about twenty dollars per outlet. Tarriffs have no USA manufacturing to protect against global manufacturing cost difference arbitrage, a corrupt practice hurtful to workers. I have bought one each of all other brands, at Amazon, and find inadequate instruction against "miswiring" for all.   XIMAOESE and GreenCycle are exceptional in including the cautionary yellow tape of Leviton, now fully guarding against additional outlet connections daisy-chained through the LOAD terminals. At GreenCycle, I lose patience with all Chinese direct-sale offerings at Amazon. Be angry that market-flooding by China acts to destroy USA device brands, where we lose control of features. Be more angry that for the past fifty years, tax policy encouraged USA brands of all kinds, to end USA production.

The GreenCycle Ground terminal requires bending around the screw, a now-ancient and hated feature of outlets. Want straight insertion and space for bonding more than one ground wire. With GreenCycle, the green LED is on even after test-tripping. Want only red LEDs, indicating a tripped condition.

All GFCI outlets observed, when viewed as smiley faces, have ground terminals at the bottom. Since it matters very much to know which set of power terminals is Line for Hot connection, and backsides are hard to read, there must be consistency that Line is the upper set, as with current China production for both Eaton and Leviton. Instead there is absolute inconsistency. All knock-off brands made in China for direct sale as with Amazon, have Line terminals as the lower set. This is absurd and unacceptable. Buyers will presume that found wires undisturbed will accept a replacement outlet.

Repair of a Leaking Attic High Vent, Employing A Roof Penetration Adapter

This post of an action in 2016 is important in a Year-2025 campaign for broad employment of "roof penetration adapters" in residential roofing. Click the hyperlink to find a reverse chronology of all of my writing on this subject, in this blog.

Clarification is needed, whether penretration adapters are needed at attic high vent caps. They do have virtue. Please read on.

Here is a leaking condition that had recurred about once a year when high winds and driving wind would create a siphon under an attic high vent:

March 13, 2016

See that this attic vent was blindly cut in by roofers, without awareness of roof joist locations, as a new requirement on a home built in 1970. It would not have happened with a shingle tear-off.

A new problem was introduced in a re-roof, with cap misalignment from the shingle and sheathing cuts.

There are solutions against these misalignments. Immediately defy the siphon by stuffing a shingle bridge under the roof cap.

Better with a new venting opportunity on an already-shingled roof, let the vent locations be piloted from within the attic. Let all holes be circular, cut from the roof about the pilot hole. Insert a penetration adapter then to divert water flowing down-roof. Thereafter in a tear-off, center the adapter on the roof cut.

An imperative of easy and safe freedom in-attic to place high vent pilot holes would have been served by my self-funded campaign of Mandatory Attic Access Walkways. Know that vents clog over time from the inside. Circular high vents might have more promise of long unobstructed service, than roof-peak slots. A high vent cap should be easily removable for cleaning, from the roof,  without pulling any shingle nails.

Get the idea of the new-roof high vent installation process from rework of a found 4"  roof cap, now to serve a strong kitchen exhaust fan with 7" ducts. My roof adapter has bore 7 1/2" ID, 1 1/2" tall, formed of spun aluminum. The available roof cap is Famco 8". The 2x8 board has deck screws that when worked into composition shingles about the pilot screw will enable a well-defined sheathing cut by Sawzall. This is the same-size adapter plate that was tried by a very competent roofer under my instruction, to fix my leaking roof high vent.

Construction Metals RV38 Vent Cap Over Added 7.5” Roof Penetration Adapter

The penetration adapter is one shingle row deeper than the roof cap. A lower shingle bridge stops possibility of siphon action, even without the penetration adapter. The penetration adapter is redundant except as a can’t fail locator of the sheathing and shingle cuts. The adapter is locked in posution where it is attached to a duct. For a non-ducted roof cap, set it permanently upon the sheathing cut using upper-edge screws or nails. With a firm-set adapter rim, cut replacement composition shingles by stabbing-around with an awl; then breaking away the divots.

A further virtue of the adapter is in allowing a powered fan to be set in place of a static vent, without disturbing roof shingles, tiles or metal sheeting. Want all powered fans to be freely removable for service or replacement, without disturbing roofing.

The leaking vent was repaired including employment of a 7 1/2” spun-aluminum duct penetration adapter. Opportunity of better alignment with the roof cut was missed, and the use of shingle bridges is unknown. There has been no return of leaking. If respected, this will be an example to a roofer someday of ensuring alignment with the sheathing cut. Wish that better alignment of the adapter will be chosen. Wish the cut of plywood ang skip sheathing had not been excessive. Sharp corners are stress risers for lumber splitting.

We find that very many bath fans and kitchen exhaust fans are badly, even dangerously ducted. In any existing home the rather frequent retrofit of a new fan is not subject to building codes/ permitting review. Awful access to the attic contributes to the problem. I see this as a unique engineer/ inventor/ contractor/ technical writer. From age 60 twenty years ago, I have been a general contractor focused mainly on attics and crawl spaces. I know that dirty, awful work, delegated, is without learning and practice with ever-better materials, methods and procedures. I demand that practice of myself and am unaware of another like-minded attics person anywhere.

A roof penetration adapter is very useful when a roof cap is served by a through-roof duct. We shall want that all roof caps and roof-top powered fans are removable for service or replacement, without need af attic entry.

A ducted roof cap with a stem invites others to bond the duct to the cap; then removable only with attic entry. My preference is that ducts shall be galvanized steel "warm air" pipes. The crimped end is upward toward the roof, engaging often as an elbow, to full, tight penetration of the adapter plafe throat. Slight maneuvering of the adapter in a reroof shall not decouple the duct somehow strapped-up.

There shall not be compromise aiming of a duct pipe or flimsy plastic thing toward an existing attic high vent cap. There shall be no capping over framing or roof sheathing at a static vent cap, with a common "duct starter" plate, the usual practice wrongly taught to weatherization contractors.

 At 2025 there is a wrongful trend to offer duct-served roof caps only with long stems that reach into the attic. There is at least one cap manufacturer thinking like me.

 InOvate/ BetterVenting 

Product RoofNeck

Employed with 4" stemless caps for clothes dryer ducting. This is a rolled-in pipe length necessarily reaching both directions from the plate.

Where the adapter has a neck penetrating roof sheathing, it is securely linked to the roof cut. For an adapter without sheathing penetration, as I  offer of spun aluminum, some other means must index the plate to the duct. A crimped pipe end protruding through sheathing, works. I do not prefer an adapter with neck. It is so very much harder to interleave with shingles, requiring more nail pulling in an insertion through already-placed shingles.

Want adapter plates with a simple neck at least 1 1/4" tall, as formable in stamping of aluminum. If a short neck protruding downward is needed as a location index, let it be a separate galvanized steel pipe length, crimped end, inserted from the attic. The stamped upper protrusion has needs of leak-free permanence.

Who do you call, for through-roof ventilation exhaust ducting?

Who do you call, for through-roof ventilation exhaust ducting ?

The Google AI Overview answer is:

For through-roof ventilation exhaust ducting, you should call a licensed roofing contractor. They have the expertise and experience to properly install ventilation systems on your roof, including assessing your needs, choosing the right type of vent, and ensuring it's installed correctly to prevent leaks.

If that were true, roofers would be constantly willing to work in attics to create the majority of that ducting and the installation of the fan appliances served. Roofers do not have this interest or capability.

Consider my need of a kitchen exhaust fan in the major remodel of the kitchen of the home I own.

I chose a Panasonic in-line fan, pivoting from flooring over thorough R49 insulation with only a small-bend 6" warm air elbow to complete the path through-roof. Here I drilled a pilot hole through-roof at the center of a tracing of the placed elbow. Duct completion is in several traverses between roof and attic, enabled by a strong attic ladder, and by good lighting and flooring in the attic

Typical of the process, here for a 4" bath fan duct. A 6.5" hole is completed with a sawzall.

Cut through shingles with a wood block propelling sharp deck screws, preserving a hole saw. Drill through wood with a hole saw. Pry shingles and pull nails as needed. Collect wood debris in the attic upon a sheet.

12/5/2018

Here is the fan ready-to-use.

My vast attic flooring is useful. It adds to insulation value and serves as the top element of extremely strong box beams of the 12" thickness floor over the remodeled kitchen.

The insulation is protected forever.

I had to anticipate all of this in placing the register and duct from the kitchen ceiling over the electric (not gas!) stove.

At much of a four-foot periphery the insulation is protected just by being off-path. See top-layer R30 Rockwool insulation except R30 fiberglass at the extreme periphery, accommodating plywood attic ventilation inlet baffles.

9/27/2018

See the kitchen fan register in-line with an operable window, over the kitchen stove. Upon a steamy or stinky cooking adventure, lift the window a bit or a lot, and turn on the fan. The view is from the archway entering the kitchen from the living room. The fan switch is the right-most of a 4-gang switch group at your left hand. The lighting constellation chosen here is Passing Through,  4-Way switched at each of the three entries.

In this, my now-modern and clever 1955 home, I could not imagine calling a Licensed Roofer, for greater competence at the through-roof ducting of the kitchen fan. Roofers by my experience see an attic as merely a trash heap. They will not go there. Roofers will benefit in a new regime where other Trades, or a general contractor, will just stay out of their way. And, that is what I have practiced here.

This illustrates a customer installation of kitchen exhaust ducting similar to my own. See that the ideal location of the penetration adapter is in hinging at the high end upon the roofing membrane. That is one shingle-layer deeper than a common roof cap. The better roof cap is minimally tucked under shingles. The screwed-down roof cap safely anchors disturbed surrounding shingles against driving wind and rain.

As a inventive Weatherization Contractor and General Contractor, I almost always confront really-awful ducting of bath and kitchen exhaust fans surely not the work of roofers. I am not taught to call a roofer, but to do what I can, myself. With bath fan ducts, the best and awful practice of weatherization contractors is to just plug the plastic or flexible-aluminum found duct, to a 4" take-off stabbed into a plate that covers a found roof high vent. I know better. That installation then lacks a backflow check and diminishes the needed attic ventilation. The duct probably obstructive of discharge from a crummy fan that is only a noise-maker, continues to do harm.

Here is a photo album sampling my jobs employing penetration adapters, in chronological order, showing evolution of methods.

Search  Label: Roof Penetration Adapter , at this blog, and find posts including these:

Roof Caps For Bath and Kitchen Exhaust Ducts  (January 15, 2017)

Note then this post describing the shingle-over of my roof in Spring 2023, being the roofer confronting this roof cap. I could venture into the attic, but there is no need:

 Roof Penetration Adapters and a Composition Shingle Overlay  (April  3, 2024)

Turn out four gasketed deck screws to reveal the roof closure with a 6" penetration adapter and its' transferred flapper, riveted to the adapter rim.

With little nibbling of new shingles, the rain barrier  hinges down, perfectly aligned with and coupled to the duct and fan below.

There was the same accurate simplicity at three 4" plastic Air Vent caps without stems.

Learn an important lesson. Lay down all covering shingle rows before screwing down the roof cap. The shingles will be more-strongly retained including fullest engagement of tar strips. Let the cap not be tucked under shingles anywhere if that is how it works out. Remember, the cap is only a rain cover. There is never a need to cut shingles as more than the circular hole. Shingle material lapping over the top of the roof cap has no purpose. It is not more pretty.

What, really, is needed in a roof cap?

code requirements for ducting a bath fan through a roof

Google AI Overview: 

when ducting a bathroom fan through a roof, the primary requirement is to exhaust the air directly outdoors, not into the attic or any other interior space, meaning the duct must be routed to the exterior of the building and terminate on the roof, with the fan capacity (being met).

There is reference to International Residential Code (IRC) Chapter 15, Exhaust Systems.

code requirements for ducting a kitchen fan through a roof

Google AI Overview:

According to most building codes, when ducting a kitchen fan through a roof, the exhaust duct must terminate at least 12 inches above the roof surface, with some regions requiring even greater heights to prevent snow buildup, and the ductwork should be positioned at least 18 inches away from the roof surface where it attaches to the fan; the fan discharge itself should be at least 40 inches away from the roof surface.

This is surprising in the matter of elevation at discharge!   And, never met in my discoveries. Who offers such a discharge path above the roof? It seems to be concerned about flame in a grease fire, or discharge burial under snow.

I find nothing offered, in this Google search: image: 12" tall kitchen exhaust roof cap

Smarter now, I could replace the squat Famco cap with this: 

Goose Neck Exhaust Roof Vent – Painted Famco, $99.95. 

The lesser flow resistance makes sense. Nibble out the stem and flapper, or convince Famco to offer separate cap without stem, and flappered penetration adapter.

Want the elevated discharge for a bath fan too, to tolerate snow.

Let even a not-ducted attic ventilation high vent be only a rain cover. Where placement is set with a penetration adapter, avoid misalignment of the sheathing cut and the cap.

Now move on to report an incident that inspires this post:

Violence against bath fan ducts in my row home residence, July 17, 2024!

In this job photo album, I share the awful and typical conditions of fans and ducting that I found and fixed in a now-pretty and useful attic.

On July 17, 2024, the two bath fan roof caps were ripped off, leaving broken ducts to dump moist air into the attic, blackening the roof sheathing.

We were not consulted We were not informed.

New steel caps with manually-crimped stems were left to again defy roofers, at the next roofing replacement, if we were smart enough to reattach the ducts..

10/30/2024

The steel ducts with new elbows are now screwed and taped to the foolish roof cap stems. At next reroof, workers might curse the now-captured roof caps, again breaking the ducts in refusal to enter the attic.

See that this space directly off the  wonderful attic ladder is the convenient repository of long ducts and other sheet metal I keep in reserve for my unique A-rated business of Attic Access.

With this post and that album, please understand that a roofing company is not the superior owner of well-performing bath fan ducts, entitled to demolish them for no apparent reason and without notice. The roofing repair company of this incident is identified as  NW Roofing. We must learn whether NW Roofing routinely breaks ducts bonded to roof caps, without thought of repair. In most cases, attics are hostile of access, and in many there are no safe walkways to points where it is known that service will be needed at intervals not longer than 25 years. See my proposal that attic access walkways shall be mandatory to expected service points.

This blog, Sunday, October 30, 2016

Mandatory Attic Access Walkways

At my own expense I defended ten thoughtful proposed revisions to 2016 International Energy Conservation Code. All ten were unanimously disapproved in a codes process rigged by National Association of Home Builders. In a bad regime of service access, it is very important that roofers shall not be required to enter attics. Roofers must come to understand the impossibility of their responsibility for and superiority over ducts. With roof penetration adapters and their permanent attachment to ducts, roofers may do only what they do best.

As a unique and valuable weatherization contractor/ engineer/ inventor, age 80, I have given much exemplary service to existing homes for twenty years, in metro Portland, Oregon. Here is the job album of one good example in SW Portland, with mending of awful bath fans and a kitchen microwave exhaust without ducting even to the attic. Safe, lighted access and removal of interfering and not-needed beams were  imperative. Awful, dangerous conditions in a home often need considerable investment to do right.

Job Album C-L Attic Access, November-December 2016.

 

I know of no one else on Earth doing the important work I inspire. I need allies including most-competent roofing companies. Specifically at January 2025, I need the support of Pacific West Roofing, the installer of the current roofing of the townhouse complex where I live, and where my penetration adapters known to them, were misunderstood and violently discarded. I ask that Pacific West Roofing shall support my timely product improvement requests to roof cap manufacturers Famco and BetterVenting. Where BetterVenting begins with a focus on the small market of through-attic clothes dryer ducts, they shall know that dryer caps must be cleaned often, off-roof. BetterVenting (Inovate) offers an adapter similar to mine, called RoofNeck. They don't seem to value the device as a water barrier or as an asset to cap cleaning. Dryer ducts must be thoroughly cleaned very often, more easily in soaking, off-roof.

BetterVenting RoofNeck with smallest-possible sheathing cut:

Install above or below the roof deck. 

The plate is too small to mend sheathing hacks or misalignment with shingle patterns. The neck at 4 1/8" ID does not securely engage with warm-air steel ducting 4" OD.

The downward neck invites capture in the attic, which is OK only if  this is a permanent part of the roof. Atttachment holes should then be only at the top edge.

BetterVenting imagines a dryer cap thoroughly bound by surrounding shingles. If there is a RoofNeck here, it is not being employed to best advantage.

I have learned that the best use of a cap primarily a rain cover, is to anchor the surrounding shingles, with just four gasketed deck screws. Don't be breaking tar strips and pulling nails to clean a cap/.screen/ backflow flapper.

At 2/12/2025, Google this:

penetration adapter for ducted vents of a house roof   

Find some foolishness in caps with stem jabbing through-roof, and this:

Roof Cap Vent Adapter · Metal Ducting · Galvanized · 6" (RVA6) 

By PrimeSource Building Products

Dunn Lumber Store SKU

559176

Must a condensate drain line have a low point, a trap?

 Express the Subject another way, in a Google search with AI:

may gravity-drain condensate lines loop with a low point?

Yes, a gravity-drain condensate line can include a loop with a low point, as long as the overall slope of the line still allows for proper drainage by gravity; the low point essentially acts as a "trap" to collect any debris or sediment that might otherwise clog the line further down. 

This result is correct. A trap may exist. It is not commanded or desirable. Condensate is acidic and foul, and over years unflushed, can plug the line. In usual PVC, the fouling is not visible.

Many HVAC mechanics think a trap is MANDATORY, and will glue-in this PVC trap. They will then plumb this to a transfer pump, even where a gravity drain was easily achievable..

This is the starting condition of a situation I have improved. See the undesirable PVC trap in the upper drain line of an air conditioning heat exchanger. The high-efficiency gas furnace condensate drain dumps directly to the pan of an ugly condensate pump. The pump pushes foul water up and over thirty feet to dump outside through a drilled hole in a rim joist.

There was never a need for the PVC trap.

All will be rearranged except the supply registers and their approaching in-wall ducts.

Now toss the PVC pipes and pump, and dump as trash. See a convenient plumbing drain that will accept gavity drain of condensate via a new P-trap.

With this arrangement of joining the two condensate paths, a trap exists in the furnace condensate line. I know it is nonsense that this could alter the dripping-down in  the exhaust pipes or affect furnace performance, I will eliminate the trap.

As the minimum required for all drain piping, and as limited by availble elevation change, I maintained a steady 1/4 inch per foot downward slope to disccharge atop a P-trap

I then swapped out the furnace-drain plastic 1/2"  MPT x 3/4" barb fitting for brass, to stop a flow pouring along the barbs.Unbelievably, the barbs are formed as spiral threads. I can't just return the fitting to Home Depot. I have reported a manufacturing error, homedepot.com, Feedback, asking a product recall. I believe the pipe threads also leak unavoidably from roundedness and inability to develop sealing pressure of engagement. Cast polypropylene may be always inappropriate for fluid hose pipe thread fittings.

This is the homedepot.com product image. Do you see the spiral threading of the barbs? Defective, untill molds are corrected.

4.5 stars in 56 reviews. There is no means of offering my own review. But, I have called the manufacturer.

Here are rival and contradicting Google AI search results:

Must a condensate line have a trap?

Yes, a condensate line must have a trap, especially if the drain is under negative pressure, as it prevents conditioned air from being blown back into the living space and is crucial for proper drainage and system efficiency; essentially, a trap is considered a necessity for a condensate line on most HVAC systems. 

This is an incorrect rule for HVAC condensate. The search demonstrates current Google AI bias to the affirmative of a question; the supporting of preconceived notions that makes a searcher feel good and click more.

Household drain piping is vented to atmosphere and can not be under negative pressure here. Pipe internal total pressure must be equal, atmospheric, at both sides of the trap.

Must a condensate line drain without looping?

A condensate line ideally should drain without looping, meaning it should have a consistent downward slope to ensure proper water flow and prevent potential clogs caused by water pooling in a loop; however, depending on the layout of your system, a small loop might be necessary, but it should be minimized and designed to avoid trapping water. 

This is more-correct, and it is what I practice.

And yet, know that permissiveness of a trap in a condensate line is a very positive thing. With stiff hose material sold in a coil. straight-running at modest slope may be hard to achieve. A complete loop for reach flexibility, is allowed. Do not prefer, opaque stiff and fragile PVC, for trap avoidance. Prefer serviceable connections without glue.

Here is another gravity-drain condensate lines example with an upflow high efficiency gas furnace:

In both examples, the found A/C heat exchanger condensate line has a P-trap, and the furnace heat exchanger condensate line does not. Why then, a trap, ever?

Here is another example with A/C drain trapped, and condensing furnace, not.

See a rare example of better efficiency of heat transfer to air, with intermediate hot water, Lennox Complete Heat. It is hydronic home heating. Want to know more about this integration of domestic water heating, and home heating. Wonder why this was discontinued by Lennox. Wonder how this relates to electrification, in future fossil fuel bans. Tentatively find that the integration makes sense with geothermal heat pumps. See that this unit is serving reliably.