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viperfalcon · Apr 23, 2007, 09:30 PM

I have one electrical outlet in my house (2 yrs old) that recently stopped working. Its not a gfi and the other outlet in the same room isn't either. (both of these outlets are in the bathroom) but only one doesn't work... I plugged an appliance into it and no juice. I went and bought another outlet and wired it in and still no power. I also checked the main circuit breakers and they're OK. When I shut off the circuit breaker the other outlet in the bathroom goes dead so I know that breaker works. I have a voltage detector which I used to test the area at that bad outlet and it didn't "sense" any electricity. Could a (bad) gfi in the house somewhere that has'nt tripped cause one single outlet not to work ? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated... thanx.

ebaines · Apr 24, 2007, 07:21 AM

Yes, it is possible that the bad outlet is on the protected side (load) of a GFI outlet in some other room. I suggest you check all the other outlets to verify that they are working. A few other questions:

1. Has the bad outlet ever worked?
2. It seems that the bad outlet may be on a different branch than the one that works - did you check that all the circuit breakers are set properly?

labman · Apr 24, 2007, 10:49 AM

Go to the other outlet and check to see if it has 2 cables, a hot incoming one, and a second one that should feed the non working one. Voltage detectors are slick. You can easily see one cable is hot and the other isn't. There is a good chance the problem is a bad connection in the working outlet. If it has the wires pushed into hole in the back, try moving them to the screws. If it is the neutral not making contact, the voltage detector could fool you.

hdguy · Apr 29, 2007, 10:10 AM

GFI outlets have a second set of screws that allow that outlet to control 'down stream' outlets. Outlets that are wired to that set of screws will trip the GFI if they have a short. The 'down stream' outlets do not need to be GFI to get the protection of GFI.

I'd be checking the voltage at those (usually top set) of screws on the GFI outlets.

Jimmy

Stratmando · May 3, 2007, 05:13 PM

Remove GFI, Take note of line and load.Need to put these 4 wire back, The line side should have voltage, Now connect white to white, and black to black? See if other outlet now has power, Replace GFI, Make sure live goes to Line side.