Another 45 minute job took me close to 3 hours. Why me?

[Rene T]

My DW may have to start using a CPAP machine soon. She goes in to get fitted for a home study mask or whatever in a couple of weeks. 
I'm going to have to build a shelf on her side of the bed for the machine. Also, there is an outlet there but when the sliding door for access to the bathroom is opened all the way, it covers that outlet. So I needed to install another outlet about 12" away from the RV outlet. 
So I go to Home Depot and pick up 2 shallow boxes, 2 face plates and 2 receptacles. I don't like the RV outlet so I decided to change that one at the same time.
Opened up the existing hole and cut out the new hole. Ran a new wire, installed the boxes and connected all the wiring and installed everything. Turned the power back on and nothing. What the heck? 
To make a long story short, one half of one of the new outlets would work fine but when I plugged into the other half, it would trip the GFCI.
I pulled everything apart to make sure I didn't run a screw through the wall and into the wiring. Nope, all was good. Come to find out it was one of the outlets on one of the receptacles. When I would plug into that one, it would trip the GFCI. The other 3 outlets work great.
I had another one here I found and swapped it out and put everything back together and now we're back in business.
Am I expecting too much of these receptacles? After all, I paid a wopping $.87 for it.
Lesson learned, when you buy cheap, you get cheap.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I had the same experience with a cheap outlet, only mine tripped the breaker (shorted) when anything was plugged in. If you hold a more expensive model in one hand and the cheap one in the other, you can feel a difference in weight/heft and hear the difference if you shake them.  Expereince indicates that there is a quality control difference as well - more faulty units escape.  Cheap usually works ok as long as they don't get a lot of wear & tear, but a little more $ makes for peace of mind.  I don't buy enough outlets to worry about saving $0.50 on each one.

 

[Isaac-1]

I agree with Gary, it is usually worth it to me to step up to at least a commercial grade recepticle, on my coach I have an recepticle that is powered by the inverter in the corner of the kitchen which gets lots of plug insertion cycles, so on this one I splurged and went with a much more expensive $6 hospital grade recepticle.

 

[Hfx_Cdn]

    Rene, I keep telling you that you need to train Buddy to chase down the gremlins that keep appearing every time you try to fix something. 

Ed

 

[Roy M]

Rene, figure out how long it should take under worst case scenario then double it. You should be fairly close. ;D I get frustrated with that cheap offshore chit but sometimes that is the only thing available. I once tried a wireless mouse and keyboard, bought the higher priced one. I tried every which way but it would not work. When I took it back the smart azz clerk says well what do you expect for 50 bucks? Grrr!

 

[Isaac-1]

Don't forget that add in the time it takes to get parts orders

 

[Rene T]

    Rene, I keep telling you that you need to train Buddy to chase down the gremlins that keep appearing every time you try to fix something. 

Ed

I'm starting to believe you Ed.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

It's just an age thing,,,,and doesn't get any better.>>>Dan