How can my grandparents fancy covering electrical outlets over and too near their kitchen sink, without spending money on covers? There are no children or animals in their home. Can they cover with cardboard or duct tape?
They're wearied of pushing the reset button on the GCFI triggered by water or steam.
There's no lifehack for this. Buy outlet covers, they are cheap and importantly, they are designed to be safe in this situation.
Try to find out what causes the GFCI to trip. For example, if you place an electric kettle directly in front of the outlet and you aim the spout at the outlet, that makes the GFCI likely to trip. So don't do that.
This is a learning moment. You might find some redundancy in my answer.
Have a talk with your elders. Explain that it is a Safety mechanism that works automatically to turn off/deactivate the outlet. It is an automatic switch for the outlet. It is unnecessary to have the outlet activated unless it is going to be used right then and there/right away/immediately. You already have a switch that turns off the outlet. You do not need a cover unless there is NO other safety switch to turn off the electricity.
If you do not use the outlet you can ignore it until you want it. Then, turn it on (press the reset button) if it is not already active.
Use an analogy. On a lamp there is a switch and a plug. Covering the lamp when it is off is not necessary. Unplugging the lamp is unnecessary when the switch is off, etc.
Explain that, as with the lamp, when the outlet switch is off, it is unnecessary to turn it back on at all if it isn't needed or wanted. That reset switch affects nothing else in their environment. It only affects that outlet.
Tell them they can relax.
Good luck.
Why not try covering with electrical PVC tape?
If the electrical installation complies with the local building code then there is nothing to worry about; outlets are permitted near sources of water provided the rules for locating and protecting the outlet are followed. If the outlets were installed without regard to the code and are in violation of it then they should be removed
If an appliance if positioned such that it routinely introduces water or steam onto the faceplate of an outlet the appliance should be repositioned
If your grandparents are certain they will not use these outlets the safest thing to do would be to switch off the entire circuit, remove the outlet from the wall, disconnect the wires from the back of the outlet, terminate them in a connector block (if the outlet is the last on the line) or use a connector block to continue the circuit (if the outlet is not the ultimate one) and then reenergise the circuit
If your grandparents do want to use the outlet sometimes but not others you can perhaps work on the logic of this with them; that the outlet presents the same risk all the time, so if they're prepared to use it some times but not others they should treat it like every other socket in their home. They are, after all, just millimetres away from touching a live conductor when they hold the cord of the vacuum cleaner and plugging anything into an outlet is a far greater distance separation from the live conductors.
A better spend of time and money would be to ensure the ground fault detection systems in the installation are up to scratch and working properly; they really do save lives
While a GFCI outlet can trip via water/steam, you should at least check for a legitimate trip from a faulty appliance. Get a list of everything that's protected by the GFCI, (by hitting the test button then seeing what breaks; don't forget to check the garbage disposal) then unplug things and see if the problem mysteriously goes away.
