In 1999, members of the NEMA GFCI Section received reports of non-operational Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) whereby, after the GFCIhad been installed, the GFCI could not perform its intended function or later became non-operational. In response to these reports, the members of the NEMA GFCI Section, at its meeting on September 8, 1999 passed a resolution that read:

“NEMA 5PP Section supports the conduct of an impartial and comprehensive investigation of field performance of GFCIs. The investigation objective is to obtain statistically valid data to identify, define, and quantify long term operation of GFCIs in the installed infrastructure. For suspected field failures, both the installation and the product must be analyszed and data compiled to enable clear definition of the cause of failure (including condition of use and environment) and mode of failure (e.g., SCR failure, test button failure) sufficient to define remedial action(s) if required.”

The GFCI Section formed the Field Test Survey Task Force at that meeting to define the study and how it would be conducted. The study examined 2,680 GFCIs installed in 1,090 residences in ten locations within the continental United States.

Click here to review this report from NEMA.

Mike Holt Comment: This is a 14 year old report, we just wanted to pass along the info if you had not seen it previously.