Has anyone in your family hung any new pictures, cabinets, adding fixtures even a wall hook to hold things, anything where nails or screws would go through the walls?
4est
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Dang. I wish there was a better answer for you... I used to do electrical maintenance for a living - industrial motor control and utility substation type stuff, and that got rather... interesting a few times where either a) there were no prints, b) no wire labels, c) wires disappeard into conduits that went thru walls/floors/ceilings where I couldn't physically get to the other side to trace them out, or d) some god-forsaken combination of 'all of the above'.
I did some work with my brother (licensed master electrician, doing mostly farm/residential work) a few times... and quickly decided I wanted no part of *that* B.S. for exactly the reasons you're encountering now... the wires get ran with little to no information as to exactly *where* the heck they go in the walls, what feeds what, and in the example of the houses I've personally bought and lived in, none of them had even half the circuits in the electrical panel labeled.
Did I mention I really hate residential wiring?
About my only suggestion would be the same as one of the ones already mentioned... with the power *off* (as in confirmed, with a voltmeter, not one of those **** tick-testers) start wringing out the wires for continuity to find out what is powered from where and which wires go from point A to point B. Hopefully somewhere along the way you can map out where your problem lies.Last edited by milanuk; 02-21-2008, 10:19 AM.All right, breaks over. Back on your heads!
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If you are having this much trouble and have all this stuff on one circuit overloading it, can you just run a new circuit? If there is a way to route the wiring without tearing the walls up, it could be your best option. If if you had to do a little wall-board work, it is not really that involved, especially if you have the paint.
I was not reading real close so this may have been suggested but you could also turn the power off, remove an outlet from it's box, pull it out far enough you can get a multi-tester on its terminals, turn the power on, test both in and out, and then turn the power off to reinstall. There are metal strips connecting the two hot side screws and two neutral side screws but that metal piece is easy to break (in case you want to do half-hots). It could be you have a broken regular outlet. You could test most of this just by putting the leads into the outlet on the top and then the one on the bottom. If one is hot but the other isn't, replace the outlet.
JimComment
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Don't forget to check any outside recepticles. I trip the GFI in my bathroom at Christmas when raining on my outside Christmas lights. I was unaware those were on one of my bathroom circuits. Just one more thing to check.
BobComment
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For anyone still playing, I just got the bathroom outlets powered up again.
Somewhat embarrassingly, it turns out the bathroom outlets that were "dead" are actually connected to a GFI in the garage, not the one in the half-bath. In my defense, I did check the garage GFI originally, but it had power...either it's miswired or it's defective. And who would expect two outlets in a tiny half-bath to be on separate circuits? The scariest part is I now know I replaced the non-functioning outlets while the circuit was live...only protected by the defective/miswired GFI.
Still have two problem outlets, though. The two exterior outlets didn't get power after resetting the garage GFI, even though the other non-functioning outlets did. So, now I'm not sure what circuit they're on...will diagnose after I replace the obviously defective/miswired garage GFI if the replacement doesn't fix. These exterior outlets were confirmed working as recently as last month (Chrismtas lights) so they appear to have most likely failed at the same time as the bathroom outlets.
In all of this sleuthing, another mystery has reared its head. That garage GFI is in a double gang box. The double gang face plate has a full rectangular cutout for the GFI outlet and the other half appears to be cut for a standard duplex outlet. However, there's a horizontal action single pole (labeled on/off) switch in the top half and an amber/orange light in the bottom opening of the duplex section. First assumption was the switch simply controlled the GFI outlet, but switching it doesn't effect power to the GFI or anything else I can find...technically the light goes on/off, but that's it. The switch light does go dead when I cut the breaker to that GFI, so at least the switch and GFI are on the same circuit. Hopefully, I can learn a bit more when I pull the cover to replace the GFI.
Thanks again!
-BrentComment
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Don't be embarrassed! You're not the first person to run into this kind of a problem.
I spent a half hour recently tracking down a problem garage door opener for a customer. No power to the outlet - all breakers normal.
Turns out the door opener was getting its power from the second floor bathroom outlet (GFI-protected)!
The opener was 7 feet from the breaker box and the bath outlet was at least 30 feet in the other direction.
The owner had been soaking some undies in the bathroom sink and had dropped a curling iron into the water. GFI's do work!
You might think I haven't contributed much to the world, but a large number
of the warning labels on tools can be traced back to things I've done...Comment
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The switch doesn't control the outside outlets that you're having a problem with, does it? Maybe someone figured out a quick way to turn on/off the christmas lights from inside the garage?- Dennis
"If your mind goes blank, don't forget to turn off the sound." --Red Green
and yes, it's a potato.Comment
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No joy. First thing I tried when I discovered the two exterior outlets were still dead after resetting the GFI.
I'm wondering if it might possibly connect to the attic exhaust fan. That's a separate issue I haven't worried too much about in the past 4 years. A touchless sensor says the fan's got current up to the motor, but it's never come on as far as I can tell...even tried lowering the temp & humidistat as far as they'll go while up there. I've just assumed the motor was fried or possibly a bad thermostat/humidistat and just never been amibitous enough to replace. It would be a pleasant surprise if this switch was the culprit.
-BrentComment
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Undies male or female?
Were these male or female undies? There is a difference, you know!Don't be embarrassed! You're not the first person to run into this kind of a problem.
I spent a half hour recently tracking down a problem garage door opener for a customer. No power to the outlet - all breakers normal.
Turns out the door opener was getting its power from the second floor bathroom outlet (GFI-protected)!
The opener was 7 feet from the breaker box and the bath outlet was at least 30 feet in the other direction.
The owner had been soaking some undies in the bathroom sink and had dropped a curling iron into the water. GFI's do work!Comment
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