I had a situation with the county deputy inspector this week. He was doing a final on a new house I had wired and informed me that all of the GFCI receptacles would have to be replaced so he could re-test them before he would sign off on the final electrical. I asked what the problem was and he told me that when he tested them with his Ideal receptacle tester they would trip okay but upon being reset they didn't register as hot. These are P&S Safelock 15A GFCI receptacles. He demonstrated for me and it was just as he said. I asked him to unplug his tester before he reset the GFCI. When he did this the power was restored to th GFCI immediately. The inspector thought these were all faulty GFCI receptacles(12 in this home)and wanted them replaced. I referred him to the manufacturer's instructions which state the GFCI receptacle should be tested using the test button on the receptacle. The instructions also refer to the device meeting the 2003 UL requirements. I wonder if the Safelock feature requires anything plugged into the receptacle at the time it trips to be unplugged before power is restored to the receptacles. The info that comes with the GFCI doesn't mention it. The GFCI would reset with the tester still plugged in, it just wasn't "hot" until he unplugged the tester and then plugged it back in. Anyone else run in to this? By the way, he passed all of them after repeating his test unplugging the tester after tripping and reset.
