My outside outlet was working, then it rained and now none of my xmas decorations come on. Does anyone have any ideas on what might have happened?
By BEV
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My guess is the rain tripped the breaker or the ground fault. If you have Christmas decorations out side and the wall plugs are also outside electric code requires all receptacles outside as well as well in kitchens,baths and garages be ground fault receptacles. So,on ground fault receptacles there should be a reset button and sometimes a small light. The reset button should be reset. Also check your circuit breaker in your electrical panel to see if that has been tripped. Other than that I would check the wiring and connections for areas that water could have leaked into. When working around electricity. Be careful not to get a shock!
The outdoor socket is often wired to one of your bathrooms so that it shares a GFCI circuit. Go into each of your bathrooms and check the little breaker on the outlets there. One of them may have tripped. The GFCI trips if you drop an electrical device in the sink so it is useful outside where electrical devices might get wet.
If you can't find a little breaker on the outlet, check your fuse/breaker box. Sometimes the GFCI is placed in there or its possible that the breaker for that circuit has simply tripped.
Finally, double check to make sure the outlet isn't actually on. Plug a little lamp into it to check. If the outlet is working, but the christmas lights aren't, then you need to check the fuse in the lights themselves. Try each strand individually, if you can. If one strand doesn't light then unplug it and see if you can find the fuse door on the plug. Often there is a replacement plug right in there. Otherwise it will be in the original packaging of the lights. Or, you can get one from a local hardware store.
Thank you it was in my bathroom
TEN years later, I am so happy I found this answer buried on the Internet! You saved me from going crazy cause I could not find what was wrong! Thank you!
So glad you were able to find help. Thanks for letting us know. :)
Thank you I could not figure that out for nothing, I checked all the breakers everytime, thank you so much
If it happened after a rain, likely the fuses aren't the culprit. That said, it's also important to pay attention to the number of strands you're allowed to connect together, because fuses are sensitive and it's a pain in the rear to check them all. My neighbor has an outdoor yard pole light that goes out when it rains, then comes back on when it dries out.
My back porch has an outlet that always trips when I was down the porch. There is an outlet in my garage that has a little breaker on it and i just have to press the button.
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