shower stall lighting trouble shooting

[gobby]

I have a shower stall light, grounded, switch seems fine, wires at junction of switch lead and power appear well connected. Bulb is good. The fixture has a small enclosed connector into which the black switch line goes in and then to the light socket. The only thing I can think of is this connector is bad. The wires are sealed in this connector, so is the connector bad, should I bypass it to see, if so how is it replaced and do I need to replace it?

[lw@buyerbewareinc.com]

Shower stall lighting in a newer house has to be protected by a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt device. Check the outlet in the bathroom to see if there is any power to the outlet, or, if the reset button needs to be pushed.

If reseting the outlet restores power to the shower stall light fixture and there was power to the receptacles in the GFCI outlet even though it needed to be reset, the outlet itself is wired incorrectly. Power from the panel has to pass through the GFCI circuitry in the receptacle before going to the outlet. If connected backwards, the outlet can have power even though anything downstream from the outlet is turned off when the GFCI circuit is tripped.

If your outlet in the bathroom is off and not a GFCI receptacle with the "push to test" and "reset" buttons, look for a GFCI receptacle in another bathroom to reset. If all bathroom outlets are off and none are GFCI receptacles, check the GFCI outlet in your garage. If none there, look for a GFCI breaker in your panel.

If you house is old enough to not have GFCI protection for the bathroom outlets, the problem with your light could be a bad switch in the wall. Try wiring the light direct without the switch to see if it works. Make sure you turn off power to the circuit before you start unhooking live wires from the switch and connecting them directly to the light fixture. If you wire past the switch and have no power at the bulb, the problem may be in the junction box in the ceiling beside the fixture. The wiring box usually has a removable plate that can be accessed from the opening for the fixture.

[sugarloafthree]

By code there can not be any other devices on the bathroom outlet circuit other than the bathroom(s) outlets. One circuit can go from bathroom outlet to bathroom outlet and so on to as many bathrooms as you want. The only exception is a 20 amp circuit can feed the bathroom, outlets switches light and fan, but can not leave the bathroom to provide power to another room.

If your house is new enought it will be wired in this manner. If older it may not have GFI protection in the bathroom or even GFI protection for the shower light.

Most of the time the electrican will install a GFI outlet in a bedroom closet and feed from the GFI outlet to the wall switch that controls the shower light.

John, retired electrical inspector

[Speedy Petey]

I didn't notice you say you tested anything. Only that the connections seem ok. Did you test anything for voltage? If not, STOP. Go get a decent tester. You CANNOT troubleshoot without one.
If you do have one, tell us where you do have voltage and where you don't. Tell us if this voltage is being tested to ground or to neutral.

Also, shower stall lighting does not automatically require GFI protection. This is not a NEC requirement.

Originally Posted by sugarloafthree

Most of the time the electrican will install a GFI outlet in a bedroom closet and feed from the GFI outlet to the wall switch that controls the shower light.

In 20 years of doing this for a living I have never seen, nor even heard of, this being done. So I'm not to sure "Most of the time" is an appropriate description.
Must be a local thing.

[HayZee518]

Pete I agree with you. I was a master electrician in massachusetts, also had the journeyman's ticket and I never installed a gfi in a closet to feed a bathroom. most stupidest thing I ever heard of. All my wiring to a bathroom was a dedicated 20 amp on a gfi or a breaker. and like you said an install light was not required to be gfi protected.

[ElectricGuy]

No GFI protection for a shower light is asking for trouble, and would not pass code here in Canada. All it takes is some idiot to decide to change the lightbulb while in the shower, and boom, no more idiot.