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Dead Outlets
I have 3 electrical outlets that suddenly quit working in the living room.Checked breaker and it was not tripped and then manually tripped breaker and reset and still no power to outlets.Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for or where to start looking.Thanks
Be very careful.
Likely a break in the line at a receptacle.
If you are lucky, it is at either the left most or right most receptacle.
If not, the break is at a receptacle to the left or right of those three.
Do look: is the hot still there but the neutral gone away?
Do you understand the last question?
Has someone recently installed a gfi without having the first clue as to what he was doing? ( a recent service call for me!)
No recently installed gfci.
More info is needed. For starters - What happened to make you aware that the receptacles were not working?
This is in an Apartment. Tenant had portable A/C unit plugged in and quit working but the A/C unit works in other receptacles and A/C unit is meant to be used on 120v and works fine.Everything else in the Apt works fine except fot the 3 receptacles.
You may have overloaded a circuit and popped a fuse or breaker, but it could also be a bad connection developed in the system. Outlets in a room are "daisy chained"....power comes to one, then taps off and goes to the next, etc. Wherever the bad connection is, all the rest in the chain are dead.
You need to connect a "toner" to one of the dead receptacles and then trace the sound to see where it stops. One way will be the end of the string and the other will be where the wire is separated. But the broken wire could be the hot or neutral so you should determine that first.
Licensed residential and commercial plumber
Sounds like a problem in the circuit. Heavy load from the A/C unit caused a poor connection somewhere to fail.
Back-stabbed devices are notorious for this.
Absolutely.Originally Posted by ActionDave
And backstabbed are nearly universal in the sort of contracting that builds apartments.
I never use the blasted things. If I'm not paying two and a half bucks for a receptacle, I am very dubious of it.
I am pretty insistent with the client that he be ready to pay for the moderately good stuff, at least.
The receptacles that have a plate torqued down with the screw, so that I only have to bare a short straight bit of the wire, and not form a loop. Those really suit me.
Have you pulled out this receptacle? After turning the power off, of course?
Have some fresh, non-backstab receptacles on hand. Just replace receptacles until the power comes back, if you want the easy solution.
Because as Dave says, this is almost certainly about daisy chained outlets and them being backstabbed.
The one the AC was plugged into is your first likely culprit.
Homeowner
I was planning on remaining silent but you have made back to back post that are based solely on your opinion and nothing factual therefore I must speak.
The use of stab-loc devices has been around for a very long time. There are a lot of stories and fables floating around about how inferior these type terminations are but these stories are unfounded.
When done correctly they are just as good as any other method used to terminate conductor. There are several different uses of the stab-loc methods in use today that are not on receptacles or switches. This technology is used with splice connectors of all types and sizes.
When made correctly the failure is from overloading the receptacle not the termination. What we forget is that a 15 amp receptacle is rated for no more than a 12 amp appliance to be used. Yes this includes 15 amp receptacles used in kitchens for over the counter top.
Wrapping the wire around the screw or using a receptacle that has jaws instead of the stab-loc does not increase the rating of the device. If you have ever plugged in a cord and it all but fall out, the receptacle has failed. It doesn’t matter if it was stabbed or wrapped it is still bad, it was overloaded to the point of the spring of the blades has failed.
I did nothing but multifamily dwellings for a very long time in my career all over the state of NC. This was at the time when 20 amp circuits were allowed to be back stabbed. The sweet part of these multifamily dwellings is I also had the maintenance contract for these buildings for a period of five years after they sold. During this 12 year period I can count on one hand the number of failures we had and in every case the culprit was portable electric heaters or large kitchen appliances. Any 1500 watt load will cause a 15 amp receptacle to fail if run continuously. During this time period we had several receptacles that wouldn’t hold the end cap in place due to the spring metal of the slots being heated to the point of failure but very few of failures on the stab-loc itself.
The question always comes up of just how many of these devices did we install. I can’t answer that question but I can say that in Sept. of 1988 we had 2000 units that were roughed in awaiting trim out so I would say there were quite a few as at this time I had been doing multifamily dwellings for more than 11 years and still had the maintenance contract on some of the first I did.
The key to this post is “when done properly” they are just as good as any other method. When done incorrectly even the wrapping of the screw fails.
I have found in my career, more wire nuts that failed due to improper installation than I have back stabbed devices. I suppose that I should jump up on my soap box and start saying just how inferior that wire nuts are compared to a set screw termination.
Let me put to rest the adage that 15 amp receptacles have a rating of 20 amps of feed through current. This is true but the 15 amp receptacle is still rated for a plug and cord connection of no more than 12 amps. See Table 210.21(B)(2) of the NEC for more information.
"Stab" the LANDLORD with a message to come fix HIS stuff. Thats why you pay rent.
umm, he IS the landlord... (or caretaker) of the unit.. it may help if you read the 5th post.
"This is in an Apartment. Tenant had portable A/C unit"
My opinion regarding backstabs is based on my experience replacing backstabs.
I have a client, owns an apartment building with about 30 units, built some decades ago. Probably late 50's or 60's.
The power going into the kitchen and beyond is in each of four of the units (and almost certainly going to come out in all the others) a three wire affair, that splits the two sides of the phase behind a little cabinet under the wall oven. This cabinet is just large enough for some baking sheets. There is no chance that I can reach in from the front and get at the box.
I need to pull the wall oven out.
Four times. Backstabbed. Including the shared neutral. And this is not a receptacle that gets used over and over. The gas wall oven gets plugged in and that's it. No one can reach it.
Four times now I have been called out to replace the receptacle. Of course, I use a pigtail.
If you think backstabs are OK, fine. I would not give you a warm bucket of spit for one. I will insist that it is foolishness to use one for any purpose, I think they are junk.
Yes. My opinion, and I am not ashamed of it.
I understand what you are saying but you need to understand that UL says different. When it comes to choosing which I will listen to UL will win every time.
If there were so many documented cases of failure do you think it would still be an approved method today?
When one fails one or two things has happened, one it was not done correctly or 2 it was overloaded plain and simple
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