A heated bidet seat sounded like a simple upgrade.<\/p>\n
My elderly clients wanted more comfort in their toilet room.<\/p>\n
The seat itself was not the hard part.<\/p>\n
I had the bidet seat installed in about ten minutes.<\/p>\n
Then came the real job.<\/p>\n
The seat needed power near the toilet.<\/p>\n
There was an outlet on the opposite wall.<\/p>\n
That wall backed up to a laundry room.<\/p>\n
At first, the plan looked easy.<\/p>\n
I could drop a line from the laundry outlet.<\/p>\n
Then I could feed the new toilet room outlet.<\/p>\n
That gave the bidet seat the power it needed.<\/p>\n
Everything worked great for about five minutes.<\/p>\n
Then the GFCI tripped.<\/p>\n
I took the wiring apart to check my work.<\/p>\n
I wanted to be sure nothing was wrong.<\/p>\n
The wiring was fine.<\/p>\n
I put everything back together.<\/p>\n
Then the GFCI would not reset.<\/p>\n
So I installed a new GFCI outlet.<\/p>\n
That still did not solve the whole problem.<\/p>\n
At that point, I suspected the LG washing machine.<\/p>\n
The washer was sharing the same power path.<\/p>\n
It was causing nuisance trips on the GFCI.<\/p>\n
Two GFCI devices had already failed to solve it.<\/p>\n
A third one was not likely to help.<\/p>\n
The better fix was at the panel.<\/p>\n
I swapped the 20-amp breaker.<\/p>\n
I installed a 20-amp combo AFCI\/GFCI breaker.<\/p>\n
That solved the problem.<\/p>\n
The bidet seat worked as it should.<\/p>\n
The washer no longer caused the same trouble.<\/p>\n
This job was a good reminder.<\/p>\n
Simple plumbing upgrades can involve electrical problems.<\/p>\n
That is very true with heated bidet seats.<\/p>\n
They need steady and safe power.<\/p>\n
Bathrooms also need proper GFCI protection.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about GFCI safety from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.<\/p>\n
You can also review electrical safety basics from the Electrical Safety Foundation International<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why did the heated bidet seat keep tripping the GFCI?<\/p>\n The washing machine was causing nuisance trips, and a combo AFCI\/GFCI breaker fixed the issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m Chris Mayer, writing for Plumbing 101<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question<\/h2>\n
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