A heated bidet seat sounded like a simple upgrade.
My elderly clients wanted more comfort in their toilet room.
The seat itself was not the hard part.
I had the bidet seat installed in about ten minutes.
Then came the real job.
The seat needed power near the toilet.
There was an outlet on the opposite wall.
That wall backed up to a laundry room.
At first, the plan looked easy.
I could drop a line from the laundry outlet.
Then I could feed the new toilet room outlet.
That gave the bidet seat the power it needed.
Everything worked great for about five minutes.
Then the GFCI tripped.
I took the wiring apart to check my work.
I wanted to be sure nothing was wrong.
The wiring was fine.
I put everything back together.
Then the GFCI would not reset.
So I installed a new GFCI outlet.
That still did not solve the whole problem.
At that point, I suspected the LG washing machine.
The washer was sharing the same power path.
It was causing nuisance trips on the GFCI.
Two GFCI devices had already failed to solve it.
A third one was not likely to help.
The better fix was at the panel.
I swapped the 20-amp breaker.
I installed a 20-amp combo AFCI/GFCI breaker.
That solved the problem.
The bidet seat worked as it should.
The washer no longer caused the same trouble.
This job was a good reminder.
Simple plumbing upgrades can involve electrical problems.
That is very true with heated bidet seats.
They need steady and safe power.
Bathrooms also need proper GFCI protection.
You can learn more about GFCI safety from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
You can also review electrical safety basics from the Electrical Safety Foundation International.
Question
Why did the heated bidet seat keep tripping the GFCI?
Answer
The washing machine was causing nuisance trips, and a combo AFCI/GFCI breaker fixed the issue.
I’m Chris Mayer, writing for Plumbing 101.