We have just recently bought a repossessed house, all the plumbing and lights work fine. Everything in the kitchen works, but none of the plugs around the house do?
You really need a modern box with safety cut-out switches. Don't try to do anything yourselves with this problem. Deterioration of old wiring after a year's non-use is very likely, and re-wiring is your only answer. You don't know how long this has been a problem - maybe more than a year - and I'd prefer to be on the safe side.
After an electrical outage, 3 outlets on 1 breaker servicing 2 TVs and a computer system (all with power bars) stopped working. I reset all breakers (none had kicked off), changed out the circuit breaker servicing the 3 outlets, tested voltage, all showed good. The house was built in 1980, there are no CFCI breakers. At times I can get the outlets to work with a small clock/radio, but as soon as I plug in anything requiring more amps (?) like a TV, all 3 outlets stop working. Ideas before I call an electrician?
By Doug B
I live in a 2 bedroom duplex. My wife plugged the vacuum in the master room and the room lost all power. The breaker was fine, the room itself doesn't have a a GFI, but all the ones where we have GFIs are fine. Any ideas before calling a electrician?
By James
My basement was refinished just before we bought the house. I'm pretty sure the previous owner did the work himself as there are so many problems. Several outlets seem to have the faceplate screwed just into the drywall, and are always falling off. Now one of the outlets has no faceplate and is popping way out of the wall. I don't know how to begin to fix this, but I'm pretty sure there must be a relatively easy way to do it?
By Amy Fletcher C. from Louisville, KY
My mother has an enclosed porch and there are outlets on the wall of each side of the room. Neither of the outlets are working. My mother said she could have shut something off (last fall?), but I don't ever remember her shutting anything off before. This has never happened before. The porch is off the kitchen and we did have to hit the reset button because a fuse was blown early in the year.
The microwave and toaster have to be used separately. It just seems strange to not have any of the porch outlets working. Each outlet has two spots to plug something in and none of them are working.By Laurel P
The whole house has 15 Amp outlets; some with one or two #12 wires. I came across, while changing an outlet that this particular one has six #12 wires on a 15 Amp outlet. My new outlet doesn't has holes big enough to insert #12 wires. Can I use piggytail to use these six #12 wires on 4 side screws or for this purpose do I have to buy a 20 Amp outlet. Please help.
By hard worker from Auburn, WA
I have a thirty amp circuit that seems to control the lighting and outlets on the attic level of my home. I also have the problem of outlets that are older and deteriorating badly, one of which came apart while being used and shorted out, but this didn't trip the breaker.
I shut off the breaker and replaced the outlet. When I re-energized the circuit the new outlet didn't work. The new outlet is 125/15amp CU only. It does not appear to be a wire going to the circuit.
Upon further inspection of the remaining outlets in the area, there are more than one that appear to not work. There are others that do work. I will attempt to replace one of these to get some kind of baseline. Do I need to call an electrician?
I am quite capable of replacing all of the outlets, but if there is no improvement I guess there is a wiring problem.
I have been researching and it seems that the thirty amp circuit controlling everything is not a good idea. I moved into the house ten years ago and it was that way then. I had the home inspected by a home inspector who didn't mention this as a problem.
By tom
The outlets in the two main bathrooms seem to work for a while and then they seem not to work. No breakers are blown, I have made sure I reset all the breakers in the box. The lights work right next to these lights so there is power going to those rooms just not the outlets. They are none GFI plugs so I cannot reset at the plug. I have tested the powder room plug. I had a tester and accidentally hit the button on the tester and now cannot get that plug to work either. Please help.
By Chris
Are you sure the lights are on the same circuit?
Checking your wiring map (hopefully when you home was wired, they mapped it out in the breaker box). There could be a gfi in a different room that is tripping. For some reason, we have 2 outlets in the garage that are on the same circuit as one wall of the kitchen. I have to go out the garage to reset it if it trips.
You may also have a faulty breaker. Once you determine for sure which breaker goes to that outlets, replace the breaker.
Otherwise, you have a common junction between those two bathrooms that is shorting out. Ideally, the two bathrooms should not be on the same circuit.
We removed a closet from our bedroom. It turned into a nightmare. First the walls were of plaster with the wire mesh for the corners. While removing the wire mesh we cut into a tiny red wire in the ceiling. It made an outlet not work. However this outlet is run by the closet light. If the light is on the outlet works, but if it is off it does not work.
I believe this tiny red wire being cut is responsible for this because the light did not have to be turned on before this tiny red wire was cut. This tiny red wire was buried into the plaster and we cannot find where it goes. Any suggestions on making this red wire dead? I am fine with having the switch on to run the outlet.
We live in an apartment building built in the 1970s, maybe 80s. My daughter had an inexpensive fan in her room that would slow down and then it just stopped working.
Last night it worked and then stopped. I jiggled the cord, unplugged the light, and the fan, and it worked then stopped. So afraid a fire or a weird wire is the culprit I moved to a different outlet and it worked fine. How do I know what is going on with the outlet, and are we in danger? Is it just the voltage to that one outlet?
The landlord is a super pain to deal with.
Thank you.
I have a problem here that I was hoping you could help me with. 1 of the 2 receptacles isn't working, in my kitchen, 1 outlet with 2 plugins. I tried changing the whole outlet, but that didn't help. It can't be the breaker as the other plugin is still working.
Please help
One of my bedroom sockets is going off and not tripping. Two of my livingroom ones just cut off and then they come back on a few hours later. Weird.
The outlet for my cook top and fan is not working, but the breaker is fine. I checked the voltage between phase to neutral and it was 20V. I checked the phase to ground- 120V.
I have a touch lamp that previously worked in my daughters' bedroom. It went out so I had a new switch put in from a lamp repair shop. Now it works in every outlet except the 2 upstairs bedrooms! Other things work in the outlets (iPod dock, video monitor cameras, sewing machine), but the lamp doesn't!
It's so strange because the lamp works in other rooms in the house. Any thoughts on this?I woke up this morning and plugged in the blender like I do every morning and night. However today it wouldn't work so, I switched it to an outlet on a different wall and it worked. I noticed the GFI light was red, this is a newer house (2-year-old), so I have never had this problem before.
I tried to fix it by unplugging everything and then pushed the GFI button in and it clicked, but it is still red. So I flipped the breaker and it is still red what should I try next? Thank you so much for any help.I arced three wires in my light, the three connected. Now 1 plug in works and 1 doesn't.
If the light is plugged in the wall and had no wall switch, have an electrician come to install a new receptacle. Receptacles are cheap. In the process of changing the receptacles, he/she will have to unwire the old and wire the new so the integrity of the connections will be verified.
If the light is plugged in the wall and has a wall switch, have an electrician come to check power at the receptacle and switch. Receptacles and switches are cheap. I suspect the switch is bad (which would be indicated by no power to half of receptacle with the switch on). In the process of changing the receptacle or switch, he/she will have to unwire the old and wire the new so the integrity of the connections will be verified.
It would be helpful to identify which breaker the circuit is on, so that it can be shut off while the work is done.
