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The 'National Electrical Codeappliance has been removed from the circuit or insulated from ground. If a GFCI Socket fails to trip when the test button is pushed (and the GFCI had been previously armed by first pressing in the reset button), it means the GFCI outlet must be replaced because it is no longer providing protection against ground faults.
Like fuses and circuit breakers, a GFCI socket has a finite number of uses. It must be replaced when a test fails to trip the device.
Another safety device introduced with the 1999 code is the arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). This device detects arcs from hot to neutral that can develop when insulation between wires becomes frayed or damaged. While arcs from hot to neutral would not trip a GFCI device since current is still balanced, circuitry in an AFCI device detects those arcs and will shut down a circuit. AFCI devices generally replace the circuit breaker in the circuit. They are required on all 15 and 20 amp circuits to bedrooms, where experience has shown most arc fault fires originate. In the future it is likely that all circuits will require their use.
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