Is there an electrician in the house? (1 Viewer)

[Da Guru]

All of a sudden the circuit that my microwave, garage door and laundry room are on is not working.  The lights and outlets are out but the circuit breaker in the basement box is not tripped.  Everything else in the house is working fine.  Any ideas?

 

[berndog]

Is there a GFI that was tripped?

 

[cosjobs]

Probably a bad breaker. Pop it out and replace. (after checking GFI)

 

[Ketamine Dreams]

GFI

V = IR

That's all I got. 

 

[Nugget]

Did you recently plug something in to an outlet?  I had a similar situation that was caused when I plugged a bad power strip into an outlet.  I took out the lights fans to a bedroom and the hall.  Once I unplugged the power strip everything came back on.  I had tried flipping the breakers and all the GCFI outlets in the house first.

 

[Da Guru]

Is there a GFI that was tripped?

GFIs are good

 

[Fishboy]

Is there a GFI that was tripped?

I'm going with this.  Happens this time of year, as the outside Christmas lights get plugged into an outlet in the garage.  Microwave will get tripped and I have to reset a completely separate GFI outlet, also in the garage. 

 

[Fishboy]

GFIs are good

look elsewhere in the house/garage.  At least that's how mine was wired. 

 

[Da Guru]

I'm going with this.  Happens this time of year, as the outside Christmas lights get plugged into an outlet in the garage.  Microwave will get tripped and I have to reset a completely separate GFI outlet, also in the garage. 

One of a different circuit?

 

[Fishboy]

One of a different circuit?

It's an outside outlet, an outlet in the kitchen that the microwave is plugged into and 2 outlets in the garage (1 GFI) and the garage door opener.  They somehow are all on the same circuit breaker, but it's the GFI in the garage that trips.  Since it's the GFI, all looks good at the circuit breaker and since it's the kitchen outlet that was out, it took me a while to go searching and testing out in the garage since they are physically 2 of the furthest things from each other.  

 

[cosjobs]

I'm telling you that that breakers themselves can go bad. I've had it happen. Swapping it out is the easiest cheapest solution. And if you're wrong, your out $15 and 10 minutes

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I'm telling you that that breakers themselves can go bad. I've had it happen. Swapping it out is the easiest cheapest solution. And if you're wrong, your out $15 and 10 minutes

This happened to me recently, so I can attest that it can happen. It was the breaker for the HW heater, so it was much easier to figure out but I'd still check that in your case.

 

[Foosball God]

Agree with Cos that breakers can go bad, but my money would be on a GFI that you don't know is part of that circuit.

 

[GregR]

Agree with Cos that breakers can go bad, but my money would be on a GFI that you don't know is part of that circuit.

My money too.

Not that I know anything about these matters.  I just feel like gambling today.

 

[cosjobs]

My money too.

Not that I know anything about these matters.  I just feel like gambling today.

Also the OP could just swap out breakers and see if that fixes it.

 

[Keerock]

My money too.

Not that I know anything about these matters.  I just feel like gambling today.

Also the OP could just swap out breakers and see if that fixes it.

Good premise for a movie.  Run with it GB!

 

[jwb]

I'm telling you that that breakers themselves can go bad. I've had it happen. Swapping it out is the easiest cheapest solution. And if you're wrong, your out $15 and 10 minutes

This happened to me recently, so I can attest that it can happen. It was the breaker for the HW heater, so it was much easier to figure out but I'd still check that in your case.

Yup, I've had breakers go bad without tripping. 

 

[Foosball God]

Yup, I've had breakers go bad without tripping. 

Do you have more breakers go out when you are tripping?

 

[parasaurolophus]

Try flipping the breaker off and back on again. I eventually replaced but same breaker in my house microwave, garage, breezeway would trip but not look tripped. If i flipped it off and back on again everything worked again.

 

[Da Guru]

OK....we go all night without power in the back area.  It was the day after New years so we did not plug in any of the Christmas lights we had put up.  My buddy is coming over today to take a look..so this morning my wife plugs in a light into an outlet on a wall in our family room that the laundry room is on the other side of the wall where the power is out....bam everything goes on!  WTH??   Think it is a short in the outlet?  It is not a GFI

Power went out again on that breaker.  Called my friend who is an electrician and he came over and he assured me it was a loose wire somewhere. We started in the area in the back of the house and basically had to go through every outlet in the house.  First 12-14 were OK...then one by the front door far away from the problem was the culprit.   When we pulled it out to check it one of the two receptacles had a wire that was fried and popped out.  

One little wire in an outlet caused all the problems. 

 

[Cowboysfan8]

OK....we go all night without power in the back area.  It was the day after New years so we did not plug in any of the Christmas lights we had put up.  My buddy is coming over today to take a look..so this morning my wife plugs in a light into an outlet on a wall in our family room that the laundry room is on the other side of the wall where the power is out....bam everything goes on!  WTH??   Think it is a short in the outlet?  It is not a GFI

Is the recep that she plugged into part of the same circuit that wasn't working before?

 

[Black Box]

Sounds like you might be haunted by some dead rabbits.

 

[ChiefD]

Sounds like you might be haunted by some dead rabbits.

They're not dead yet.

Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade. 

 

[jwb]

OK....we go all night without power in the back area.  It was the day after New years so we did not plug in any of the Christmas lights we had put up.  My buddy is coming over today to take a look..so this morning my wife plugs in a light into an outlet on a wall in our family room that the laundry room is on the other side of the wall where the power is out....bam everything goes on!  WTH??   Think it is a short in the outlet?  It is not a GFI

It's possible there's a loose wire / pigtail back there.

Does that outlet your wife just plugged into have anything at all to do with what's out? Maybe a better question is are you 100% confident in the accuracy of the documented circuit/breaker paths? This is the first step to fixing/diagnosing any electrical problem.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

It's possible there's a loose wire / pigtail back there.

Does that outlet your wife just plugged into have anything at all to do with what's out? Maybe a better question is are you 100% confident in the accuracy of the documented circuit/breaker paths? This is the first step to fixing/diagnosing any electrical problem.

Yep. Loose connection in the box she plugged into was where I was going

 

[Foosball God]

OK....we go all night without power in the back area.  It was the day after New years so we did not plug in any of the Christmas lights we had put up.  My buddy is coming over today to take a look..so this morning my wife plugs in a light into an outlet on a wall in our family room that the laundry room is on the other side of the wall where the power is out....bam everything goes on!  WTH??   Think it is a short in the outlet?  It is not a GFI

I think the only plausible explanation is that your wife is really Powder