Outlets Not working? Need help troubleshooting

[MacJunkie]

I am a new homeowner. I have four outlets that are not working. The house is 10 years old. Both of the bathroom outlets are not working. and the exhaust fan switch for the fireplace isn't working. I have taken them all out and tested them and the light on my tester is not lighting up? what could be the problem. I tested an outlet i knew worked to make sure my tester was working. Does anyone have a fix for me besides calling an electrician?

[pcboss]

Have you checked ALL the GFI receptacles or breakers in the house? You may need to look in out of the way places like the garage or basement. Look behind the boxes stored against the wall.

[Wirepuller38]

Reset the circuit breaker in the service panel. Turn the breaker all the way off and then turn it on.

If you still have a problem, look for a tripped GFCI receptacle upstream of the receptacles which are not working.

If neither of the above solve the problem, you have a connection problem at one of the receptacles.

[ray2047]

Bathroom is the keyword. If you have flipped all the 20a and 15a 120v breakers off and on then it may be a GFCI is tripped. Finding the GFCI is like an Easter egg hunt on Fantasy Island. It could be anywhere. It could be in the garage, basement, outside, hidden behind furniture or who knows where. If in fact there are already GFCIs in the bathroom it is less likely.

If not a GFCI you must open up all the bad and good receptacles on the affected circuit and move any back-stab connections to the screws. Check all wire nuts by tugging or just replace with new. Problem could also be at a switch, light, or Jbox.

[MacJunkie]

I'm not really familiar with a GFI or where to find it or hell even what it looks like. If you could help me with that it would be appreciated. I replaced both of the outlets with the new receptacles with the reset and test button, even with the mis-wire light. I live in NC so we don't have basements only about a two foot crawl space. I completely reset the main breaker and even put in a new "fuse" if thats what it's called, in the breaker box to replace the one that runs the outlets. Both bathrooms run off the same breaker. If you could help me with a little more info on how to find this GFI i would greatly appreciate it. The last thing i want to do is to call in a pro to fix something that i could fixed and feel like an idiot. Also any ideas on why my exhaust fan isn't working? The GFI as well? Thanks again i greatly appreciate the info!

[Gunguy45]

GFI outlets are the ones with the test and reset buttons (like the ones you put in the bathrooms). You didn't need to replace them in the bathrooms because there is already one protecting them (if they had regular outlets before), it's just hiding somewhere.

Check the garage, outside outlets (behind shrubs esp), laundry room...bet you have one hiding as was stated.

Can't believe you have fuses in a 10 y/o house. I think they are all breakers aren't they? Black with levers on them and numbers saying what they are rated?

You can keep swapping parts..or you can go slowly and carefully according to the advice here, and prob solve the problem with no $$$ expended. Time...yes

One thing at a time...since they may be unrelated...or maybe not.

[ray2047]

Just to add if you do find a GFCI controlling the circuit you need to replace the two new GFCIs with regular receptacles (outlets). Feeding a GFCI from another GFCI can sometimes cause problems.

[MacJunkie]

Yes they are breakers, i wasn't thinking when i typed that. So i am looking for another outlet with a reset button? Does it have to be on the same circuit as the bathroom outlets? I guess i will have to go search around the outside of the house to see if i can't find this little *******. My girlfriend keeps cryin about having to dry her hair in the bedroom. I don't need an outlet in the B/R but damn women can't go without! lol I appreciate everyones help. I hope i can find the GFCI, reset it and solve this problem. If it doesn't work i guess i'm gonna have to call a professional. Thank you all again very much!

[Tolyn Ironhand]

Of the GFCI's you have found, push the test button on them and make sure they trip and then reset with no issues. I just had to replace two 10 year old GFCI's because they would trip and then reset only after a lot of screwing around.

[ecman51`]

Where have you tried looking so far for the GFCI?

I would have already suggested to look to see if you had a GFCI breaker in your panel box, except I believe you said you replaced the circuit breaker that serves this circuit, if I'm not mistaken?

Do you have an outlet mounted to the panerl box itself, that is a GFCI?

I'm presuming you have a GFCI, and so is everyone else responding here, based on a 10 year old house and electrical inspection. But we really do not know what kind of jurisdiction you are in. Like, for all we might not know, you live in some small rural place where somebodies brother-in-law did the electrical.

If that were the case, perhaps no GFCI's in the house? And you simply could have a bad backstab connection in some outlet upstream of the first bad outlet.

[MacJunkie]

All the outlets worked when they did the home inspection. There is one GFCI outlet in the kitchen, i tripped it and reset it. Works fine. The one in the garage i tripped and reset without a hitch. i am lost on what to do. I have reset the whole breaker box numerous times with no response. There is absolutely no power to the outlet when i used the tester. I am at a wall here!

[ray2047]

As I stated in my first post: "If not a GFCI you must open up all the bad and good receptacles on the affected circuit and move any back-stab connections to the screws. Check all wire nuts by tugging or just replace with new. Problem could also be at a switch, light, or Jbox."

[Wirepuller38]

Check for bad connections at the fire place exhaust fan. Is this fan upstream of the problem receptacles?

A sketch of your floor plan showing the location of the service panel and the location of the problem devices might help us help you figure this out. Post the sketch on Photobucket and give us the link address.

[furd]

When I bought my home the home inspector did not test for GFCI protection on the bathroom receptacles. He did test the single GFCI receptacle in the kitchen and then found it would not reset. It was because the two "small appliance branch circuits" had ground fault protection from GFCI circuit breakers and the GFCI receptacle was redundant. After moving in I replaced the redundant receptacle with a regular receptacle.

When I used my GFCI tester on the bathroom receptacle it did trip so I knew there was a GFCI device somewhere in the circuit, I just didn't know where. I finally traced it to a receptacle in the garage that had one of those adapters that covers the entire receptacle and provides six new places for plugs instead of the two on a standard receptacle. Removing the adapter showed that the underlying receptacle was a GFCI and resetting that restored the power to my bathroom receptacles.

I eventually removed the garage receptacle, reconnecting the wires to feed the power on to the bathrooms. I put a blank cover plate over the wiring box and replaced the plain receptacles in the bathrooms with GFCI receptacles and installed new GFCI receptacles on new circuits in the garage. Now each of my bathrooms have independent GFCI receptacles.

[ecman51`]

For the fun of it, did you bother to test the load wires coming out of the GFCI? Not in the outlet's slots, but right at where the load wires are.