Several receptacles in my house, which have been working fine for the five years I’ve lived here, are now not getting power. The switches in the rooms [on the same circuits] work–it’s just some [not all] receptacles. I’ve checked to see whether they’re controlled by some oddly placed GFCI, but couldn’t find anything.
How do I begin trying to figure out what happened and possibly fix it? Thanks!
Replies
Check every outlet on the circuit for loose wires. I have found that a smack to each outlet may uncover the problem.
Thanks for the tip, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. I even took the cover plates off and did a visual inspection, as well as a slap-and-jiggle.
What's the chance that the hardware at three different outlets would fail at the same time? Still, I guess I should try replacing one of the receptacles to see whether that fixes it.
I'd say that the 3 failed outlets are last on the circuit, and the problem could just as likely be in the working junction box that feeds them, as in the non working outlets. Actually it could even be in a light fixture. I have even found the problem in an outside light fixture.
Generally outlets are "daisy chained" together, with the wire running through successive boxes. There is likely a bad connection either in the first failing box in the chain or the last non-failing box in the chain. The trick is to figure out how the chain runs. If you pull the covers off the boxes you'll probably find one that has only one cable entering, and that would be the last box in the chain.
Note that the failure can be on either the neutral or the hot line. Using some sort of tester to measure between all three combinations of hot/neutral/ground will usually tell you which is failing, but interpreting cheap testers can be tricky (since they often register spurious voltages due to electrical interference between wires).
Buy a cheap voltage sensor, the ones that light or beep when they get close to a power source. Granted they give false reading sometimes & never should be fully relied on when working with a bare wire.
Take cover plates off dead outlets, place sensor in box around receptacle. Repeat for each outlet.
Generally when the sensor lights or beeps, yet you don't have power at that outlet the incoming hot is either loose or broken.
If the sensor does nothing on all outlets, the feed hot coming from the previous outlet feeding the dead outlets is either loose or broken.
Those are the most common things I have seen with this type of problem.
“It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Something similar happened in my BIL's basement. They dropped on plug at a time all the way down the chain till none worked. By the time they asked me to take a look I found it was a bad neutral at the start of the line, changed the cable and they havent had a problem since.
Thanks all! I'll try anything and everything to put off calling in an electrician!
It was a hidden GFCI in the garage after all! I knew about one that was out there, but another was hidden behind some stuff that, since I haven't used it in five years, I ought to get rid of. Now that I've moved it, I should just pack it up and take it to resale.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions!