Test your GFCI outlets
Annual · typically March
Why it matters
GFCI outlets — the ones with TEST and RESET buttons — protect every spot where electricity and water share a room: kitchen, bathrooms, garage, outside, and anything near a sink.
The mechanism inside wears out — industry testing puts the failure rate of older installed units high enough that "press the button once a year" is the entire reason the button exists.
What skipping it costs
$0–$250
A GFCI trips in a fortieth of a second when current leaks somewhere it shouldn't — like through a person. They wear out silently: the outlet keeps making power but quits protecting. The test button is the only way to know, and a dead one is a $25 part. The alternative it exists to prevent doesn't have a dollar figure.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
- Find every outlet with TEST/RESET buttons. Note that one GFCI often protects several regular outlets downstream — garage and exterior outlets are commonly fed from one GFCI in the garage.
- Plug in a lamp or phone charger, press TEST. The power should snap off instantly.
- Press RESET. Power returns. That's a pass.
- If TEST doesn't kill the power, or RESET won't hold — that unit is done protecting you. Stop using it for wet-area loads and get it swapped.
- Confident DIYers can replace a dead GFCI themselves (breaker off, line/load terminals matter — this is the one step that's genuinely difficulty 3), but there's no shame in calling this one in.
Hire it out
$120–$220National fair range — local labor moves this number.
An electrician swapping a dead GFCI runs $120–$220 including the device — more if several need doing, less per-unit when batched, so test everything first and hand them the full list in one visit. It's honest work at that price; a name-brand GFCI is a $20–$25 part and the labor is real.
The pattern to watch: outlet calls are a classic door-opener for panel-replacement pitches. Aging panels are sometimes a real issue — but "while I'm here, your panel worries me" deserves photographic evidence and a competing bid, not a same-day signature.
Ask the tech
- Is this outlet the GFCI itself, or downstream of one — and which locations does each GFCI protect?
- Are you installing a name-brand device (Leviton, Eaton, Legrand) or a no-name?
- While you're here — are all my wet locations (kitchen, baths, garage, exterior) actually protected?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A whole-house 'panel safety inspection' upsell that started as a $150 outlet swap.
- 'Your panel is a fire hazard' with no photos, no thermal reading, and a five-figure quote — some panels genuinely are (certain 1960s–80s brands), but that diagnosis deserves evidence and a second bid.
- Charging per-outlet to 'test' downstream outlets that one GFCI already protects.
Second opinion time: Any panel-replacement quote over $2,500 that came out of an outlet service call.
The call
DIY the test — it's two buttons. Hire the electrician only for dead units or missing coverage, and don't let either visit become a panel-replacement seminar.