Three Dead Outlet Mystery

Users who are viewing this thread

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
One in the basement (washing machine)
Two on the first floor
The three outlets are dead, no power
All three worked fine up until now
So Far:
I have changed , tested all three outlets with a volt stick
None of them show any signs of having power
All circut breakers are on in the house
Everything else in the house works fine

How can I find out why these three outlets are dead??
 

Jadnashua

Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Messages
32,771
Reaction score
1,191
Points
113
Location
New England
It's probably a loose or broken connection. Many times, one circuit will feed multiple receptacles in a daisy chain. Break that chain somewhere, and those downstream stop working. So, looking at those receptacles, if you find one that only has one cable coming into it that doesn't work, it is the end of that chain...you have to work your way backwards and find those with two (or more) cables coming into the box, and see if there is power on one set, but none going out (probably because of either a loose connection, or a broken wire). There are tools that inject a signal into the wiring that you can trace, but baring purchasing one of those, you have to think logically on how the things were probably wired - most likely from one next to it, or directly above or below.
 

hj

Master Plumber
Messages
33,599
Reaction score
1,037
Points
113
Location
Cave Creek, Arizona
Website
www.terrylove.com
dead

The problem could be in the "first" dead outlet, whichever that one is, or the one AHEAD of it. Are you sure they are not on a tripped GFCI receceptacle?
 

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
I agree. dead feed somewhere.

This house is 75 yrs old, so is most of the wireing

the bad outlets are part of the original house wireing

All BX

I had planed to backfeed the last outlet and see where the power goes, however, that sounds dangerous to me

I will thr to just use the tester and find the outlet with power comming in and dead going out

that last outlet on the circut is a GFI

It has no power so I dont think its the GFI

Why would that last outlet have 4 wires on it ???

There is nothig past it. It is the very last outlet in the basement. It seems to me that it only needs 2 wires.

Is it the BX?? is that why ???
 

LLigetfa

DIYer, not in the trades
Messages
7,493
Reaction score
574
Points
113
Location
NW Ontario, Canada
that last outlet on the circut is a GFI

It has no power so I dont think its the GFI

Why would that last outlet have 4 wires on it ???

There is nothig past it. It is the very last outlet in the basement. It seems to me that it only needs 2 wires.

Why do you think it is the "last outlet"? If it were, it would not have 4 wires.

Are your breakers not labelled as to which feeds what? It could be a bad breaker or a broken wire after the breaker.
 

hj

Master Plumber
Messages
33,599
Reaction score
1,037
Points
113
Location
Cave Creek, Arizona
Website
www.terrylove.com
outlets

"backfeeding could be dangerous, because if the broken wire is the neutral, and you backfeed with the wrong polarity, you could cause a major short circuit. You have to remove outlets and visually inspect them to try to determine the power routing, in order to trace back to the point where you DO have power.
 

Jadnashua

Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Messages
32,771
Reaction score
1,191
Points
113
Location
New England
It's likely that the GFCI is the FIRST receptacle on that line, otherwise, it would not have something connected to the load side. Are you sure that it is not tripped? Have you tried the test button and pressed the reset? If the reset button won't stay in, you have a wiring problem down the line. It's also possible that the GFCI is bad, but more likely that there's a wiring problem, or the thing just tripped because of something you plugged into it was faulty.
 

Hammerlane

Member
Messages
275
Reaction score
13
Points
16
Location
Ohio
How can I find out why these three outlets are dead??

Prior to the 3 receptacles losing power have you touched, moved, changed, installed or re-configured any electrical device(receptacle, switch, fan, light, etc..) anywhere in the house within say 72 hours of the 3 receptacles losing power. That would be a good place to start looking for a loose connection.
 
Last edited:

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
I am now back to my electrical mystery. thank you for your replies

the only thing that has changed within the past few weeks is the new washing machine

LG front loader.

about a week after pluging in the new washer the problems began

the washer plugs into what I call the" last outlet" in the house

located in the basement, this outlet and box is exposed, accesable, and has had the old washer pluged into it for about 10 years.

the reason I call it the last outlet is because it has one bx cable going into the box and nothing coming out

the big mystery about that outlet is its a GFI, with all 4 wires hooked up to it.

Now for the dangerous part:

after determining that I would have to diassemble and examine about 10 outlets, I decided to narrow it down abit with the back feed method

I turned off the whole house, left one circut on that I know is independant (Bathroom), ran power into the (last outlet)

I connected the back wire to the black, and the white to the white

that left two other wires from that box just bare

I tested the Increadibly dangerous connection with my trusty volt stick

the hot from the bathroom lit up as expected

the white had no reading

whats inceadibley confusing is one of the bare wires was also energized. the other bare wire had no reading

I dont understand, how what apears to be the last outlet, can it have 4 wires hooked up to it??

why did the back feed test go so wrong?? all I achieved was energising two wires out of 4 in that last box

I tested the outlet that is directly connected the the last one ( its still in the basement and acssesable)

it was dead as a door nail. my backfeed attemt went nowhere.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I am really trying to not call a real electrition to come to the house due to my lack of funds.
 

Jadnashua

Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Messages
32,771
Reaction score
1,191
Points
113
Location
New England
First, a washer/dryer should be on it's own circuit! If there's one cable coming in, how are all four of the wires connected to a GFCI? You CANNOT connect the line and load leads together. If there's nothing going out, only the LINE leads should be connected to something, and the load leads capped, assuming it has pigtails coming out, or if not, just leave the screws empty. The LOAD leads only get connected if you wish to protect and power additional 'normal' receptacles downstream of it.
 

Hammerlane

Member
Messages
275
Reaction score
13
Points
16
Location
Ohio
the reason I call it the last outlet is because it has one bx cable going into the box and nothing coming out
the big mystery about that outlet is its a GFI, with all 4 wires hooked up to it.


I am scratching my head on this statement
 

JWelectric

Electrical Contractor/Instructor
Messages
2,608
Reaction score
21
Points
38
Location
North Carolina
It is now time to call someone who knows what they are doing before you either get hurt of burn your home to the ground
 

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
thank you for the replies.

I figurred out whats up with that "last outlet"

It turns out that it not the last outlet. what the electrition had done, is rewire the out let next to it.

it turns out that the GFI is the "second to last outlet". the last one is the one next to it with only 2 wires

it makes sence because they are both close to the slop sink

that explains the big mystery to me

I still have no power in any of the 4 outlets and I dont want to pull out about 12 outlets throughout the hose to find out were the power is being interupted
 

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
It is now time to call someone who knows what they are doing before you either get hurt of burn your home to the ground

I am trying to be as safe as possible. I will be passing any crazy ideas/plans, on this forum first, before i try it

thanks in advance, for any help you can provide.

maybe you can explain the correct way to locate the bad outlet without me having to pull out and test all of them

there has got to be a better way, what would a pro do??

somewhere between the breaker box and the 4 dead outlets there is a problem.

i wish i know wich breaker it was but i dont

it could be any one of about 5 circuts that run through this old house, each room has about 3 or four outlets and there are about 4 rooms
 

Cacher_Chick

Test, Don't Guess!
Messages
5,458
Reaction score
213
Points
63
Location
Land of Cheese
The first thing I do is map out what breakers are feeding what circuits, and then it is easier for me to visualize how the each circuit is likely to be installed.
 

WallyGater

New Member
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Long Island, NY
no matter what i do, the 4 dead outlets will remain dead even with the beaker off

it will still be hard to determine wich breaker/circut it is

But, it might help to narrow it down a bit
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks