Why Bad GFCI Plugs Shouldn't be Donated

Griffin recently spotted a GFCI plug at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. It was a good price, so he bought it. But you can't tell at this type of store whether electrical items are good or not. Griffin at least has the advantage that he knows to expect some of the items to be bad, and has a way to test them. He worries that the average person, just looking for items for their home, wouldn't know this and might buy one of these unreliable items and accidentally start a fire or electrocute someone.

This GFCI outlet, apparently was fried on the inside, which made it stuck ON. So it wouldn't cut the power in an emergency, which is what it was designed to do. It is supposed to cut the power if there's a situation like the classic "dropped a hairdryer in the bathtub".  

Because it was already broken, Griffin took it apart to find out what was wrong on the inside. If you can see from one of these three pictures, there is soot on the circuitboard at the bottom center of the picture. The solenoid coil that actually does the switching has overheated and melted. This would not have been something Griffin could fix.   

So Griffin says, If you are replacing failed GFCI outlets or broken switches, Please do not donate them to Habitat or other resale shops!