Posted: 12/14/2016 12:17:43 PM EDT
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A month ago I lost electricity in my living room, main hallway, stairwell, and front porch. I thought the space heater had tripped the breaker, so unplugged the heater, and checked the breaker. Breaker had not tripped, but was real easy to flip to the off position. Turned the breaker back on, still no lights. Checked and nothing was using power on the circuit. Reset the breaker again. Still nothing. Then I thought maybe that electrical outlet was shorted where the heater was plugged in, since it was kinda warm when I unplugged the heater. Replaced the outlet. Still no electricity. Reset the breaker back and forth a few times out of dumb frustration, and then poof I had electricity.
Thought it was a flaky circuit breaker. Everything in my house is 30 years old. Decided to wait and see if it happened again. Hard to troubleshoot something when everything is working fine. Well, two nights ago, it happened again. Came home, no power in that part of the house. I installed a new circuit breaker, and I still don't have electricity in those rooms. So it's not the breaker after all. So now I'm wondering if I don't have a light switch or outlet or light fixture that's failed in some way. None of the outlets in that circuit appear to be GFCI. I've got the breaker turned off until I figure this out. Other than just randomly replacing all the components, is there a way to figure out which one has gone bad? |
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If they wired the room without jumpers on the receptacles you may have a failed one that is killing juice to everything after it in the series.
Start with the outlet or switch closest to the breaker box, pull it out, inspect it, or change it out, and and see if it fixes it. Receptacles are cheap, so you can go buy 2 or three so you can rotate them in while you are troubleshooting. Get ready to make about 40 trips back and forth between receptacles and the box while you are testing. I had a bathroom outlet (non-GFCI) fail once and nuke two other rooms with it, as soon as I swapped out that one everything worked again. |
| Are all of the neutrals tight in your breaker box? The fact that the power was restored after flipping the breaker back and forth makes me think something was jostled. Are all the wires in your box in good shape? Did you check for voltage right at the breaker itself when the power is lost? |
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Are all of the neutrals tight in your breaker box? The fact that the power was restored after flipping the breaker back and forth makes me think something was jostled. Are all the wires in your box in good shape? Did you check for voltage right at the breaker itself when the power is lost? When I swapped the circuit breaker out last night, I realized it could just be a loose connection somewhere too. I did check all the connections to all the wires and everything seemed fine. I didn't think to check for voltage right at the breaker. I can't find my multimeter anywhere. I suppose I should get another one anyway. |
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Did the replaced outlet have "stab in" conductor connections where the conductor is inserted into a hole rather than fastened under a screw head? If so, look for an outlet ahead of the replaced one with a bad stab in connection. They're all stab-in connections in my house. When a stab in connection goes bad, is it just loose? |
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They're all stab-in connections in my house. When a stab in connection goes bad, is it just loose? Quoted:
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Did the replaced outlet have "stab in" conductor connections where the conductor is inserted into a hole rather than fastened under a screw head? If so, look for an outlet ahead of the replaced one with a bad stab in connection. They're all stab-in connections in my house. When a stab in connection goes bad, is it just loose? That's no doubt your problem. They are an invention of the devil. You REALLY need to remove every freaking one and buy good outlets and wrap the wires around the screws and tighten securely. It's a fairly big job but you will have ongoing problems if you don't remedy the situation properly. A good outlet will cost about $3-4, and are worth it. DO NOT buy the $.78 ones. 
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They're all stab-in connections in my house. When a stab in connection goes bad, is it just loose? It could be lose, or push itself out and start arcing all over everything. My whole house was back stabbers, until I flipped a switch and sparks flew out. |
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They're all stab-in connections in my house. When a stab in connection goes bad, is it just loose? No. The looseness causes higher resistance in the connection which heats and degrades the connection over time, eventually causing it to open the circuit (symptoms can come and go like you experienced). The copper removed from a bad stab in connection will look burnt and have arc damage. That burnt portion of the wire needs to be trimmed back to undamaged copper for the new connection. Make the connection directly to a screw on the new outlet, using a wire nutted pigtail if 2 or more wires are junctioned in the box. |
one actually blew the bottom off the outlet. I am in the process of replacing everything before the house burns down
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Do you have your main panel mounted high enough in your house so that the electricity can flow downward to all the devices it's powering? Remember: electricity doesn't flow uphill. No, but I do have an electron pump installed. It's still whistling and chirping so I'm sure it's working fine. |
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That's no doubt your problem. They are an invention of the devil. You REALLY need to remove every freaking one and buy good outlets and wrap the wires around the screws and tighten securely. It's a fairly big job but you will have ongoing problems if you don't remedy the situation properly. A good outlet will cost about $3-4, and are worth it. DO NOT buy the $.78 ones. Better yet, get outlets and switches that wire in the rear, but secure with screw-down terminals. It's all I use anymore. They're just as secure as the side terminals, but you don't have to waste time wrapping the wire around a screw. |
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It could be lose, or push itself out and start arcing all over everything. My whole house was back stabbers, until I flipped a switch and sparks flew out. Niiiiice. Ok, I have my weekend planned out now. I guess that's true for light switches. I've got 8 outlets and 10 switches on that circuit, I bet they're stab-in as well. |
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Better yet, get outlets and switches that wire in the rear, but secure with screw-down terminals. It's all I use anymore. They're just as secure as the side terminals, but you don't have to waste time wrapping the wire around a screw. Quoted:
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That's no doubt your problem. They are an invention of the devil. You REALLY need to remove every freaking one and buy good outlets and wrap the wires around the screws and tighten securely. It's a fairly big job but you will have ongoing problems if you don't remedy the situation properly. A good outlet will cost about $3-4, and are worth it. DO NOT buy the $.78 ones. Better yet, get outlets and switches that wire in the rear, but secure with screw-down terminals. It's all I use anymore. They're just as secure as the side terminals, but you don't have to waste time wrapping the wire around a screw. Do they take up more room in the box? |
OP, I just went through something similar. Follow that circuit from the breaker box if you can. At the first junction box, disconnect all the wires, then flip the breaker. If it stays on great! Reconnect one wire and then try the breaker again. Repeat until the breaker trips. You then have isolated which wire to follow from there. You may have to repeat this a couple of times. Hopefully you have a basement where you can follow your wires. Eventually you will isolate the problem wire and then check all outlets and switches on that wire. It sucks but it the best way of tracking the problem. Just make sure you are turning off the power at the breaker each time.
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OP, I just went through something similar. Follow that circuit from the breaker box if you can. At the first junction box, disconnect all the wires, then flip the breaker. If it stays on great! Reconnect one wire and then try the breaker again. Repeat until the breaker trips. You then have isolated which wire to follow from there. You may have to repeat this a couple of times. Hopefully you have a basement where you can follow your wires. Eventually you will isolate the problem wire and then check all outlets and switches on that wire. It sucks but it the best way of tracking the problem. Just make sure you are turning off the power at the breaker each time. Ugh. No, I'm on a concrete slab with no accessible junction boxes, everything is behind drywall. I think I will just say fugg it and replace all the switches and outlets. I've got one 30 year old light fixture and one original ceiling fan that maybe I should check, too. All the other light fixtures have been upgraded in the past few years. |
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check gfci outlets and see if one has tripped. Just one in the circuit could cause none of them to work. I did check and none are GFCI. However, this circuit also includes my outside electrical outlets on my porch. I'm wondering if I shouldn't upgrade that to GFCI as it's more exposed to the elements (though it is inside one of those flip-cover outlet things). |
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No. They are spec grade/commercial grade. Expect to pay accordingly. They work especially well with stranded conductors. Quoted:
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Do they take up more room in the box? No. They are spec grade/commercial grade. Expect to pay accordingly. They work especially well with stranded conductors. Make/model? I have some outlets to replace and don't like junk. |
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I did check and none are GFCI. However, this circuit also includes my outside electrical outlets on my porch. I'm wondering if I shouldn't upgrade that to GFCI as it's more exposed to the elements (though it is inside one of those flip-cover outlet things). Quoted:
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check gfci outlets and see if one has tripped. Just one in the circuit could cause none of them to work. I did check and none are GFCI. However, this circuit also includes my outside electrical outlets on my porch. I'm wondering if I shouldn't upgrade that to GFCI as it's more exposed to the elements (though it is inside one of those flip-cover outlet things). You would be better off to put a GFCI at the box just prior to the outside one and then wire it to provide downstream protection. GFCI outlets don't like moisture. |
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If you're not an electrician hire one.
A co workers house burnt down last year in the middle of the night. Everyone got out but it was close. The smoke detector didn't even go off until after the place had been burning for 45 minutes. I think either the dog woke them or one of them got up by chance. They got lucky. Root cause was an extension cord on the porch failed. Don't cheap out with electricity issues. |
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Make/model? I have some outlets to replace and don't like junk. Mine are all made by Leviton, and I just get them at the Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-ProGrade-15-Amp-Duplex-Outlet-White-10-Pack-M22-CBR15-WMP/100684044 $1.90/ea (by the 10 pack) is cheap, IMO. And if they take up more room in the box, I surely don't notice it. |
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If they are all stabbed in, turn the breaker on and go to each outlet that doeant work and smack the wall next to it and see if the lights flicker. Like this:Attached File If they do, you found your bad outlet. If they dont, turn the breaker off and pull 1 outlet at a time, turn the breaker on and see if you have power with a tester. One of the beeping non-contact testers work great for this. I would also suggest rewiring the receptacles so the wire is looped around tge screw and not back stabbed. Like this: Attached File |