So the other day the plugs in the bathrooms of my house were becoming intermittent with random tripping of the GFI breakers for no reason.

The same GFI breaker handles the garage power with the garage door.
Lo and behold today I couldn’t get the garage door to open, go to check out the breaker there was a nice hot metal arch burning smell. Flipped it on again and tried the garage door GFI triggered again. Something clearly wasn’t right with the breaker. After turning off the main breaker I noticed the problem quite quickly.

oh yeah that contact on the gfi breaker is badly burned out.

cheep crappy design only has contact to the hot blade on one side. frequent movement of the breaker can cause a bad connection and arching.

I was quite surprised at the amount of arcing that was happening between the contacts with the hot bus bar tab.

Words cant describe this design failure.

Clearly the plastic started to melt and cause a loose connection to the hot bus bar tab creating a bad connection and arc situation. The GFI was tripping its self!

Here is what the proper replacement GFI terminals looks like. Notice the spring clip V shape that will always have some form of contact with the hot bus bar.

Check your breaker box for this GFI made by Sylvania It is definitely a hazard and should be replaced.


This GFI is easy to identify as it is the only type I have ever seen with green test button.