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I'm trying to wire two GFCI circuits sharing a neutral. The line is coming in from a 2-pole circuit breaker. I want to have two circuits at each location, each protected by a GFCI upstream.

Currently, I have it wired as shown below. If I reset 1 GFCI outlet, it works. When I try to reset both GFCIs, the first one trips.

What am I doing wrong?

current circuit

Nathan DeWitt
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  • Fairly certain this is a duplicate, but if your question is different, let me know in the comments and we can reopen. – BMitch Oct 03 '13 at 21:26
  • I was thinking I could share a neutral all the way down the line. The linked question seems to indicate this is not the case, and that I must run two neutrals to all the downstream receptacles. Is this correct? – Nathan DeWitt Oct 04 '13 at 04:11
  • If your circuit is actually wired like this, it's a mess! First off, your GFCI receptacles are hooked up backwards. In your image the grounded (neutral) terminal is on the left, but you have the ungrounded (hot) conductor connected to it. Secondly, because of the shared neutral you'll always have unbalanced loads through both GFCI receptacles. This is going to cause one or both of them to trip, as soon as any load is put on the circuit. – Tester101 Oct 04 '13 at 10:33
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    This blog article might help you understand GFCIs a bit better. Demystifying the mystifying GFCI. – Tester101 Oct 04 '13 at 10:37
  • @NathanDeWitt Shared neutrals and GFCI load connections don't mix, you either need multiple GFCI's connected only by their line connection, or a second neutral conductor so it isn't shared. – BMitch Oct 04 '13 at 11:30
  • I drew the connections backwards in the picture, but the hot wires are connected to the correct terminals, as are the neutrals. I was mostly trying to work out a way to share the neutral on down to the load receptacles. Since that's not possible, I'm running another neutral line to each receptacle. Thanks. – Nathan DeWitt Oct 04 '13 at 11:33

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