Why doesn't my electrical outlet work?
Question:I am removing wallpaper from my bathroom. I have sanded a little bit, but not very much. My two electrical outlets in the bathroom have all of a sudden stopped working. The lights work, I have flipped the breaker, and they worked earlier today. I have only sanded around one of the outlets, as this bathroom is long and the second outlet is farther away (but on the same wall)? Has anyone else had this problem before?
Answers:
There may have been a weak electrical connection and have been knocked loose. Turn the power off at the main breaker box and remove the outlets that are not working. Check all connections to make certain they are tight. If any wires are not connected, black wires go to the brass screw terminals and white wires go to the silver screw terminals.
If this does not solve the problem, the loose connection may be on a feeder wire from another outlet "upstream" so to speak. The steps to check that outlet are the same, but may be difficult to locate. However, it should be relatively close to the ones that are not working.
Good Luck
is this a gfi outlet?? if so hit the reset in the center
You might just have a loose connection and the pressure you have put on the wall to sand might have vibrated it loose.
Does the outlet have a safety tab for you to push in and reset the outlet? If you were removing the wallpaper with a sponge and water its possible that when the water got to the outlet it tripped the safety switch which is there so you don't get electricuted.
I guess a couple of things happened, it depends on what you are sanding. There could be a GFI outlet that needs to be reset (if it is not in the bathroom where you are, it could be in the other bathroom, or in some cases, at the breaker). If you were using a steamer or some other device (like a palm sander) this could have tripped the GFI.
If the outlets are GFI types, as others have mentioned, (they should be, if located in the bathroom) you should only have to push the "reset" button at the center of each one to solve the problem. They are most likely wired on the same circut; when a GFI outlet is "shorted" or the test buttnon button pushed (which you probably did by accident, they can be quite sensitive) it is designed to also shut down any outlets wired to it. So, even if one outlet is not a GFI, it would still have been shut down by the GFI on it's circut (resetting that one should solve the problem for both outlets).
The outlet itself does not have to be a GFI outlet. If there is a GFI outlet that supplies the power to this one, it will trip the gfi outlet that is upstream.
It certainly is easy enough to check!
Check the other bathroom and see if it is a GFCI, Also check the garage, outside, kitchen, and basement gfci and make sure they are all reset. Sometimes people wire houses a little funny. If it is not a gfci and the breaker has been reset then check the outlet itself. one most definitely feeds the other so if one goes they will both go. lastly just call a licensed electrician to figure it out and save the headache and chance of shocking the heck out of yourself.
Good luck.
Go around your house and push in the GFI buttons until they click. Bathroom plugs have high probability of being on GFIs. Check the plugs with a multimeter (make sure you set it to AC!) to check voltage. Open plug and check for voltage. (Don't recommend this if you haven't used a multimeter before, but it's really simple.) Check for disconnected wire. These two are probably on the same series, so one of the wires is off. You may be able to determine which with multimeter.
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you have a loose connection or broken device. If you don't know about electricity, I'd suggest you call an elctrician. You can burn your house down with a bad connection
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