Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet

RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Lucy (Guest Post) (06/11/2008) Hi, I plugged in a fountain in an outside outlet and it worked for a couple of seconds and went out. The next day I found that some of the inside outlets were not working such as the bathrooms and garage. I have checked the breaker box and everything was still lined up and I flipped them to be sure. I reset the gfci button. Should I replace the individual outlets ? What could be wrong ? What should I try next ? Thank You for your help."" Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post by ThriftyFun (3745) | (05/09/2008) Profile | Blog! | Contact Hi Dave, I have never heard of self-resetting receptacles for home usage. Since it would be extremely dangerous, if for example a saw turns on suddenly, they are not allowed by code. Replacing the receptacles won't make a difference. That would be replacing the messenger, not the cause of the message. Best would be to 1) have the wiring checked by an electrician, especially if there is metal siding involved, and 2) have a temporary sub panel on a 30 Amp BX or similar armored cable plugged into a dryer outlet, and let the contractors plug into that sub panel. That sub panel should have GFI breakers for outdoor usage. Anything else could lead to somebody getting killed AND/or very expensive damage. Good Luck DearWebby Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Dave Nickerson (Guest Post) (05/08/2008) Two of my wall outlets are now not working since construction workers used heavy equipment on my outside outlet. I have had this happen before and somehow the outlets became o.k.. Maybe they got hot and in 1/2 hour became o.k.as they cooled.No circuit breaker ever was tripped.I am pretty sure the outside line which was used for the heavier machine also may lead to the other outlet inside which has a phone and stereo hooked to it. At other times another outlet will cut off for a while but is o.k. if not overloaded. Should I try to replace the receptacle/s ? Report Spam or Abuse RE: constant power on electical Outlet on both sides why? Post By chad (Guest Post) (05/02/2008) I installed a new outlet. It used to be controlled by a switch. I wanted it to be live at all times. The problem is when I use a pen type tester both end that you would put a plug in show hot, like the circuit is completed but it isn't. Report Spam or Abuse Electrical Outlets that no longer work Post By Pamela T (Guest Post) (02/17/2008) Hello! I have purchased an apartment in Budapest, Hungary. The building is very old (maybe early 1900s) A renter has somehow managed to render most of the outlets, simply not to work! Suggestions? I'm at a loss. There are still two main outlets that do work. Thanks for any help you could offer! Pamela Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Sara (Guest Post) (10/19/2007) I want to replace my electrical outlets (update from almond to white) but the outside wall boxes have been filled with spray foam. What should I do? Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By adouzart (Guest Post) (07/29/2007) I moved into an older building that recently had an upgrade to all the electrical outlets (closing off older ones and installing newer ones). I went to hook up my home theater and digital cable box. However, the home theater initially came on but had no display, and now it won't come on at all, although the power light is showing power. The cable box worked for about a day and a half, but now it will try to boot up, but then does nothing, not even displaying the clock. I have tried switching outlets, switching surge protectors, using no surge protector at all, making sure no other electrical items were running in that room, etc. What's up!? Please advise, thanks. Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Ronda (Guest Post) (07/22/2007) I have an electrical outlet that worked fine, until we plugged a drill in it and it blew it. We changed the outlet, but now the outlet shows power with the tester, but not enough power to run any electrical equipment. What is going on? How can it show power, but not run anything? Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Hernando Perez (Guest Post) (06/16/2007) "I have an outlet that was working fine. It has 2 orange/red and 2 white copper wires. However one of the red/orange copper wire (hot?) broke off, since then several outlets went dead. I have since repaired the 1 copper wire that broke and put the outlet back together. Somehow I now have power on the outlets that were not working but I now I don't on have power on outlets that were working. All I have is 2 red/orange & 2 white, how do I get my power restored to all outlets? This is driving me. CRAZY...someone help. Answer: I would be curious about what country thus request came from. In the countries that I am familiar with, orange/red is a color for low power data, not for household power, though I have once seen a solar powered house that used multicolored automotive wires. If you can send a picture, I can probably figure out the problem. Otherwise you will have to hire a local electrician. Have FUN! DearWebby Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By bill (Guest Post) (09/05/2006) i have a open hot @ my outlet Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By Look ma! (Guest Post) (02/06/2006) I installed an outlet by wiring it with marats to a light switch. If I turn the light on the outlet gets no power. What's the deal? reverse wiring in marats? Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post By mgulker (Guest Post) (04/18/2005) Hi, about a week ago I started blowing fuses on a particular outlet and I discovered the outlet would move when I pulled the plug in and out. I went to shore up the outlet a bit and found that after some pulling and tugging, I had a short somewhere in the outlet box. Since I didn't have enough wire to work with inside the box and the wiring is inaccessible except by opening up the wall, I opened up the wall, put in a junction box behind where I assumed the short was, and rewired things. However, to my dismay, I found that I was now only reading 12 vac on my outlet (both across hot and neutral and hot and ground)! Help! Editor's Note: We posted this as a new request: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf393038.tip.html Report Spam or Abuse RE: Troubleshooting Electrical Outlet Post by ThriftyFun (3745) | (01/12/2005) Profile | Blog! | Contact Dear Brandon I would be nervous too, with wiring like that. Your description would indicate either that at one time somebody tried an old English trick for shunting part of the load through a water heater to ground, so that it would not show on the meter, or that somebody at one time was not quite sober enough to do house wiring. The mystery switch, that you can't find, is probably the thermostat in your water heater. I would recommend that you find a discrete independent electrician to quietly fix that. If your electrical company finds out, they can charge you the difference between estimated usage and what your meter showed, all the way back to when you bought the place or when your electricity bills dropped to the current level. That can bankrupt you. Also keep in mind that that trick used to be a favorite with indoor dope growers who were trying to hide the high power usage of the grow lights. The electrical companies are required to report that to the cops. You could get all kinds of unwanted attention related to a previous owner of the building. Since that kind of "creative" wiring is not according to code, your insurance company does not have to pay if you have a fire that can be blamed on electrical wiring. Best to get it fixed, quietly, but quickly. Have FUN! DearWebby http://www.webby.com/humor/ Report Spam or Abuse