ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area GFCIs in the past

This may have been posted on, but I can't remember. I have read that code first required GFCI receptacles outdoors in 1973 and in baths in 1975.

I also read that the first GFCI receptacle was invented by Pass & Seymour in 1971, Leviton had one in 1972.

This is interesting to me, because I have never seen them used this early. My house was built in 1976 and has no GFCI breakers or outlets anywhere. About the earliest I had seen them used was in a relative's 1978 house. It had Square D GFCI breakers on two circuits.

I suppose our local code did not require them until about 1978, hence we never saw them until then.

Has anyone seen any from early-mid 70s homes? What did the first GFCI recepts look like anyway? The oldest I have are early 80s.

Mike Holt has a chart

http://www.mikeholt.com/documents/nec/pdf/GFCI_requirement_page2.pdf

Basically the first use was receptacles near pools and outside (1971) Bathrooms came in 1975.
It expanded every cycle since.

Most jurisdictions have some lag time between new cycles being released and adoption. In Florida we are usually at least one cycle behind because of the difference in ICC building code cycles and NEC cycles along with the bureaucratic inertia of getting things adopted

Some of the GFCI receptacles were so bulky that a extension had to be used, the single pole GFCI circuit breakers took 2 spaces in the panel, one for the breaker & another for the electronics of the GFCI.

The ones from Square D, looked like a standard duplex. The top half was a single receptacle and the bottom was the GFCI buttons. It was very convenient that they could be used with standard covers. They were a hassle, sometimes, in existing construction, as you ended up with a single instead of a duplex.

I wish I could still get the 'quasi-duplex' design from Square D.
I always end up with a mess when I use a cast FS box since nobdy makes a cover for it.
I end up with a surface mounted cast box with a plate that obviously is designed to be installed on a drywall surface.

They make Decora handy box covers that will work on a cast FS box.

https://www.platt.com/platt-electri...s/Appleton/180G/product.aspx?zpid=404219

Many thanks, Greg.
The white plastic covers in an industrial setting always looked dumb.
Now the GFCI receptacles will look like they actually belong there.

The original GFI's that I used would come with a little spacer plate because the GFI receptacle was too thick to fit in the old metal boxes. I wish I could find a picture of it somewhere, I will have to look.

I think part of the problem was that they really squeezed a lot of wire in a small box in the olden days. I am not sure how old the fill rules are but they were cheating.

I have seen the Square D GFCI outlets before. In fact I have one in my collection of old items, labelled as Bell. I also have an old GE GFCI outlet, posted in some old threads here.

Does anyone come across any of these old outlets anymore? The oldest I typically see are the Eagle ones with the sideways outlets. Even those only go back to the 1990s I guess. Leviton GFCIs in the 1990s and possibly 1980s looked pretty much like they do now, but without the indicator lights.