electric won't turn back on??

[inreplyavalon]

Thanks bighead.

I am guessing the home was built in the seventies because of the style home it is.

Also we are running a good amount of watts and if it is a supply line issue i would be surprised because of all the 240v power running in there.
But i will still take a look!

 

[PharmaCan]

If you have a little stick tester and it has wires w/ probes on it, that will suffice.

What you need to do first is take the dead panel off of the main panel and see if you have any power coming out of your breaker. First, turn the breaker off as far as it will go, then back on again. Put one probe on the screw that is holding the black (red) wire in place and one probe on the neutral bus. If you've got juice, your breakers are working. No juice means the breakers are bad.

If you don't feel comfortable working around a live panel, get an electrician out there. You most likely have a simple problem with a defective part.

PC

 

[inreplyavalon]

Ok pharma i may try this just a question or two.

What do you mean by the 'Dead Panel'?

Is the screw you are talking about on the breaker switch or underneath it?

Thanks again

 

[TwoPaid]

It could be the outlet itself. Most home outlets are only rated for 15 amps max. I read that you have 4 outlets in the garage and none work. If the outlet you pluged the heater into is the first one from the panel box you blew the outlet and no power is being feed to the second outlet. I hope you understand what I'm saying. I would take the cover plate off and test to see if you have power. If you have power but nothing work when you plug it in. You will need to replace the outlet and that should do the trick.

 

[TwoPaid]

If it is not on a GFI which if you dont have any water in your garage I would be willing to bet its not a GFI. Now like I said in the post above if you dont have any power in the wire feed from the panel to the outlet. You would have to have a bad breaker in your panel. It has to be either what I said above or what I said in this post.

 

[TwoPaid]

"Should i take apart the outlet and use the power tester on the wires to see if they work and it is my outlets failing? Seems unlikely that four outlets are failing when they look like they are in decent shape. They are old though. "


It is very likely that the other outlets would fail. Due to the fact that are on the same curcuit. The main feed runs to the first outlet and jumps off to the next one and so on. If the first one goes bad it will cause the other to stop working as well

 

[PharmaCan]

Ok pharma i may try this just a question or two.

What do you mean by the 'Dead Panel'?

Is the screw you are talking about on the breaker switch or underneath it?

Thanks again

The dead panel is the sheet metal panel you are looking at when you look at the breakers. It has the breaker knock-outs in it. You take off this outer piece to see/access the wires inside your breaker box.

If you look at the breakers, they all have a wire going into one side. There's a screw that is used to tighten the wire into its slot on the breaker. The screw is accessible from the front of the panel (top of the breaker). When the breaker is on and functioning, that screw will be hot. It's a handy place to put a probe to see if your breaker is working.

You already know that you have no power in your receptacles. Taking them apart is a waste of time at this point. The first thing you need to do is determine if you have power going out of your breaker box.

PC

 

[inreplyavalon]

All right pharma i think i understand. I am going to try this and see what i can find. Thanks for explaining so clearly and concisely.

twopaid thanks for the tips. I did happen to take a receptacle out and see if it the wires were powered and they were not. So i am thinking it must be a switch issue and am going to attempt to check that.

 

[bigghead]

did you resolve the problem? interesting

 

[sirripalot]

a few weeks ago i had a simliar issue. i rewired an outlet while it was hot, and tripped the breaker. i finished wiring up the outlet, only to find no power after flipping the breaker on.

later i find my bathroom upstairs isn't working either , all of my bathroom GFI's were looped including this one outlet for some reason. DON'T rule out GFI just based on location of the outlet, some weird things go on.

good luck.

 

[bigezfosheez]

um, its most likely just a blown outlet. I was vacuuming and all the grow lights turned off in the other room, it wasn't the breaker. It turned out it was an outlet in a different room all together that was blown and stopped everything else from working.

 

[inreplyavalon]

So there is one gfi in the house. It initially tripped but was reset and the two problem outlets never worked again. I have checked their wires for power and they have none.

bigeezfosheez how did you identify that your outlet was blown? Was it a visual thing?

Sirripalot There is one GFI outlet in the house and it is working. I think i have moved on from that being the problem.

Bigghead no i still have not gotten the two to work.

Today i am taking pharmacan's advice and checking the braker to see if it is working.
one tester on the screw on the circuit and the other on the neutral bus bar!!! wish me luck...hopefully i will be able to post a reply as to how it went...if you know what i mean

 

[LolaGal]

IN: have you unplugged ALL the things from the blown circuit? If you just keep all that plugged in, and reset a blown breaker, it will just keep blowing.

I snuck into my GFI in my bathroom after inspector left and tapped into my bathroom from the living room, installed another outlet on that circuit. I tell you this cause you never can tell what somebody before you has done to the wiring.

Sometimes you just need to buy a new breaker, and replace the old breaker, pull it out and check what it looks like, take a picture for us of the bad circuit breakers.

 

[sirripalot]

ah okay, sorry. yeah a multi-meter on right on the pole is definitely the best initial test, then follow to the outlet (probe the screws on the outlet to assure power is making its way there, then you know you've got a blown outlet, an easy fix indeed.

 

[caljim]

Sirripalot There is one GFI outlet in the house and it is working. I think i have moved on from that being the problem.

Before you rule out that gfci, pull the receptacle and check the "load" terminals for 120v (the silver and brass screws on the lower part of the device). The contacts inside the GFI might have failed and not be sending power down stream.