OT: Household Electrical Mystery - Solved!

[Spaghetti Legs]

I have a group of outlets that stopped working and I can’t figure it out.

My wife tells me the power went out for a short time last night during a storm while I was out work but it doesn’t sound like anything too unusual for around here. Today, I find that 2 outlets in the bedroom, an overhead light for the bed and all the outlets in the adjacent office are dead - total of about 10. A look at all of the breakers for the house show none are tripped. My breaker panels (2 of them) are labeled mysteriously, just like every house I’ve ever lived in, but I sequentially reset all the likely candidates without success. Kicking myself for not finishing the project of mapping out the breaker box and misplacing the paper where I’d written down what I’d gotten so far.

I also checked and don’t see any GFCI amongst the dead outlets. Any ideas?

[Davist]

try resetting the breakers again. Breakers are "trip free" meaning they'll trip even if the handle is held closed for safety. Sometimes, since they're not used often they'll hang up a bit. I'm guessing that's the most likely issue. Also sometimes they're hard to reset, turn ALL THE WAY OFF, then on, you may feel it re engage.

[Jaybee]

Check every GFCI in the house, maybe?

I once had a similar problem, turned out that circuit was routed through a GFCI on the other side of the house - weird and unintuitive, and the electrician that helped me figure it out didn't charge me because he found it so funny.

[makoti]

try resetting the breakers again. Breakers are "trip free" meaning they'll trip even if the handle is held closed for safety. Sometimes, since they're not used often they'll hang up a bit. I'm guessing that's the most likely issue. Also sometimes they're hard to reset, turn ALL THE WAY OFF, then on, you may feel it re engage.

If the OP is like I was, he didn't know this was needed, or that there was a halfway position to breakers. I thought they were on or off. Nope. Almost paid for a service call to find this out, but the guy asked me if I had flipped the breaker ALL THE WAY while I was making the appointment. Did the trick.

[zmudshark]

Did one of the overhead wires get pulled out of the house? I had that happen once.

[mg2ride]

As others have said, cycle the breakers if you have not already. At least put a hand on each one and wiggle it. Sometimes you can feel that they tripped but can't see that they tripped.

Otherwise check all GFIs.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Good ideas everyone thanks. Jaybee, I thought that might be my next step, search whole house for tripped GFCI. I’ve reset about 7 or 8 of the most likely breakers, but will probably go through and do every single one.

Apparently it wasn’t a typical outage, in that sparks were flying from a transformer across the street and people came out of their houses, but power was back on within a minute.

[Davist]

Good ideas everyone thanks. Jaybee, I thought that might be my next step, search whole house for tripped GFCI. I’ve reset about 7 or 8 of the most likely breakers, but will probably go through and do every single one.

Apparently it wasn’t a typical outage, in that sparks were flying from a transformer across the street and people came out of their houses, but power was back on within a minute.

So most likely your house saw a surge of sorts, which most likely tripped one (or more) of the branch breakers. On the utility side, the circuit has automatic reclosers that work in 3 seconds (usually, fun to count and amaze the kids during momentary outages). Hope you were able to figure it out.

As to the above where a GFCI is attached to 10 outlets 'across the house' not legal by NEC in any jurisdiction I can think of, I'd get the wiring checked by someone competent (not laugh it off, like his electrician did)

[HenryA]

Check every GFCI in the house, maybe?

I once had a similar problem, turned out that circuit was routed through a GFCI on the other side of the house - weird and unintuitive, and the electrician that helped me figure it out didn't charge me because he found it so funny.

Same weird thing here, but my electrician found it and I really felt stupid, ‘cause I do not like to have to call someone when I could fix it myself.

[Gsinill]

Do you have any "fancy" receptacles?
I.e. I had a 110V dual receptacle with 2 additional USB ports which obviously included some electronics.
I had the exact same issue after a power outage, and it turned out that the guts of the outlet were fried.
1 of the 2 110V outlets of the receptacle still worked the other one was dead.
Keep in mind that the outlet might bridge the incoming hot wire through the 2nd outlet to the the downstream wiring.

Kind of like this:

https://i.postimg.cc/ZRYj8XJd/outlet.png

You might want to check all your receptacles and find out whether one has only 1 active outlet.

[unterhausen]

It has been really common in the past, but (not an electrician, so could be wrong) I think that running power through an outlet like that is no longer allowed.

If nothing else, my guess is that the OP has a back-stabbed outlet that had a contact fail during the surge. That's why nobody with any sense uses back stabbed outlets now.

[NHAero]

Typically, outlets in some rooms require GFCI, and others (I don't recall the exact NEC req't) require AFCI, which are different. But both need to be turned all the way off and back on to reset. You may have a circuit protected by an in-wall GFCI, in which case you need to find that GFCI receptacle and reset it.

[OtayBW]

It's electricity. You may have forgotten the magic incantation.....

[eippo1]

It's electricity. You may have forgotten the magic incantation.....

This reminded me of the Stephen King book Revival. Good book with some frightening electricity.

As to the problem, you might want to check your outlets to see if they are grounded with pigtails as well. If they haven't been, there's a chance that one or more can be fried and will lead to issues down the line.

[bart998]

Is it an older home? I had a house (1950's) that had the same issue... one bank of outlets went out. Turned out to be a wire broken in the wall (lathe and plaster). Turns out wires get old and brittle where the clips fasten them to the studs. All the outlets past the break go dead. The electrician was able to "jump" those outlets onto another circuit which solved that problem. Not very expensive. It's been a few years so I may have something wrong, but that's what I recall the electrician explaining to me.

[robt57]

I once saw the feed hot into the back of the 1st receptacle in a chain [x10 used to be legally most on 15a plug circuit] arc and loose elec connection. That is one possible thing. Changed out recpt and cut back the tempered arced end before putting back in to feed chain, yada... The plastic where the hot went in was melted. And nothing was plugged into the plug, the causal load was downstream.

I am betting the highest likelihood if your issue is the first recpt on that run is a GFI feeding the others, and is tripped.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Is it an older home? I had a house (1950's) that had the same issue... one bank of outlets went out. Turned out to be a wire broken in the wall (lathe and plaster). Turns out wires get old and brittle where the clips fasten them to the studs. All the outlets past the break go dead. The electrician was able to "jump" those outlets onto another circuit which solved that problem. Not very expensive. It's been a few years so I may have something wrong, but that's what I recall the electrician explaining to me.

The house is about 15 years old. It’s kind of odd in that when we bought it, it was marketed as a “meticulously built by a professional builder as his own home” but, while well built and even over built in many areas, as we live in it longer, we see there are areas with slipshod work and cut corners. I worry that the electrical system might be one of those areas.

Anyway, first run through all the GFI’s I could find and all were OK. I looked through the attic as well as the basement. Search continues but I’m feeling like an electrician might have to get involved...

[NHAero]

Breakers go bad too. If this is one circuit, the breaker itself is where I'd look next. Turn off the main, pull the breaker, replace with another breaker of the same size, see if the circuit comes back.

The house is about 15 years old. It’s kind of odd in that when we bought it, it was marketed as a “meticulously built by a professional builder as his own home” but, while well built and even over built in many areas, as we live in it longer, we see there are areas with slipshod work and cut corners. I worry that the electrical system might be one of those areas.

Anyway, first run through all the GFI’s I could find and all were OK. I looked through the attic as well as the basement. Search continues but I’m feeling like an electrician might have to get involved...

[biker72]

You may not be comfortable doing this but this is what I would do.

Do a HARD reset on ALL the breakers.

Take off the panel cover and check the voltage with a voltmeter on the outlet side of the breaker. No voltage?? The breaker is bad.

If all this checks out OK, call a electrician.

[rwsaunders]

I’ve had a set of GE breakers in a panel go bad and you definitely want an electrician to deal with the replacement. I’ve also had a lightning strike take out all of the electronic devices that were assigned to one side of a panel. I went with a surge protection device at the panel after that expensive event.

[glepore]

Sounds like its one circuit. The breaker for that circuit may have failed during the surge. Only way to find this, unless you know which breaker it is, is with a voltmeter (or a 110 v test lamp). Have one if you need.

[unterhausen]

Several posters have noted that breakers go bad. Some of them are really well known for going bad. Hopefully that's all it is.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Sounds like its one circuit. The breaker for that circuit may have failed during the surge. Only way to find this, unless you know which breaker it is, is with a voltmeter (or a 110 v test lamp). Have one if you need.

Thanks Greg. Mine died a couple years ago, so I went ahead and ordered a new one. Peered at a few outlets which I thought might be first in the circuit and nothing looked amiss and lost interest in looking at every single one. I’ll post an update once the meter arrives.

This is taking away from tinker time with the Breville!

[djdj]

The house is about 15 years old. It’s kind of odd in that when we bought it, it was marketed as a “meticulously built by a professional builder as his own home” but, while well built and even over built in many areas, as we live in it longer, we see there are areas with slipshod work and cut corners. I worry that the electrical system might be one of those areas.

Anyway, first run through all the GFI’s I could find and all were OK. I looked through the attic as well as the basement. Search continues but I’m feeling like an electrician might have to get involved...

My house is about the same age, and I had a similar problem. After much searching, the electrician found a tripped GFI in a closet hidden behind some boxes. Problem solved.

[tuxbailey]

Thanks Greg. Mine died a couple years ago, so I went ahead and ordered a new one. Peered at a few outlets which I thought might be first in the circuit and nothing looked amiss and lost interest in looking at every single one. I’ll post an update once the meter arrives.

This is taking away from tinker time with the Breville!

Oh you got it :)

[jimcav]

having moved 13 times with the navy, I learned the hard way stuff just craps out.

Washer, fridge, GFCI, breaker.

I am almost sure my current home had some DIY circuit work from the prior owner. There is stuff that makes no sense, like garage stuff tied to a guest bath GFCI. Oh well.

It isn't practical to have back-up fridge and washer on hand, but pretty easy to have a back-up GFCI and circuit breaker.

Especially when HD closes at 6pm now, and I just KNOW what-ever happens it will likely be at night...

I try to keep a stock of basic plumbing stuff too, like the pcv parts for the sprinkler, and the toilet and sink valves, etc

A small tote with $100 in electrical and plumbing parts has made my life a lot easier several times. Sad to say I used it as nearly as often as my tubular insta-flat stuff when i was commuting...

[NHAero]

Good suggestions! I should have a spare GFCI and AFCI breaker in "stock".
Another note:
I have a 15ft3 chest freezer in my basement. My electrician when he re-wired during our retrofit put in that receptacle and he conformed with code by putting a GFCI in that box. After that tripped from who-knows-what, I decided that I would shoulder the small risk of having 18" of water in my basement and getting electrocuted vs. losing $100s of food in the freezer, and I put a conventional receptacle in that box. All the other basement receptacles are protected.

House is in the sand plain where the water table is 70 ft down, basement flood is unlikely. When I bought the place, I noted some holes in the foundation several ft below grade that they'd drilled but not used, or plugged, and no signs of ever having seen water.

having moved 13 times with the navy, I learned the hard way stuff just craps out.

Washer, fridge, GFCI, breaker.

I am almost sure my current home had some DIY circuit work from the prior owner. There is stuff that makes no sense, like garage stuff tied to a guest bath GFCI. Oh well.

It isn't practical to have back-up fridge and washer on hand, but pretty easy to have a back-up GFCI and circuit breaker.

Especially when HD closes at 6pm now, and I just KNOW what-ever happens it will likely be at night...

I try to keep a stock of basic plumbing stuff too, like the pcv parts for the sprinkler, and the toilet and sink valves, etc

A small tote with $100 in electrical and plumbing parts has made my life a lot easier several times. Sad to say I used it as nearly as often as my tubular insta-flat stuff when i was commuting...

[Spaghetti Legs]

All those who suggested a hidden, tripped GFI, give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done!

I looked everywhere (well I guess not everywhere) inside and outside the house, including the attic and far corners of the basement for unknown GFI outlets. No go. My new multimeter arrived today, so I proceeded to test every circuit breaker, about 40, and all good. Next step, I took the cover off very dead outlet, inspected and tested to see if a hot wire dead ended in any of them. All good and I literally got to the last one to check before I had to think about calling an electrician. It was in a corner behind the bed. I tried leaning on the bedside table to remove the cover but found it would be easier if I moved the bedside table and lo and behold, 1 foot away from the other outlet is a tripped GFCI.

All is well and I can turn my attention now to stuck dropout screws. Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Peter P.]

Thanks for the update! It was an interesting story to follow.

[Louis]

Glad to hear that you found the culprit.

I have a somewhat similar problem, except that it's a single outlet (as far as I can tell) in my bedroom. Unfortunately, because it's behind my "cycling kit dresser" (yes, I have an entire medium-sized dresser devoted entirely to cycling-related clothing) I can't get access to the outlet itself. I've checked all the other outlets I can find, included the kitchen, which is on the other side of the wall, and haven't found anything else that's bad.

Because it was much easier to run an extension cord from an outlet behind my bed to the area where power is needed (compared to emptying the dresser and moving it) I've done that, and have successfully ignored the problem for the last two years or so.

[robt57]

I am betting the highest likelihood of your issue is the first recpt on that run is a GFI feeding the others, and is tripped.

I don't get to quote myself too often... Coulda been at least a 1/2 dozen other things of course... ;O

Thanks for posting the outcome.