Did I break my house?

February 21, 2009 9:12 AM

No power to a specific receptacle in the house. Changing the receptacle doesn't work. Now what?

Here is the story thus far:

We used to plug in a baseboard heater in a standard 110V wall outlet and stupidly, used to "turn it off" simply by unplugging it from the outlet (while it was still on). And "turn it on" by plugging it back in.

Considering that the heater probably sucks up a lot of power, this act of plugging and unplugging the heater while it was still on, probably did something to the wiring, because now the receptacle doesn't seem to work for anything.

It's not the circuit breaker - other receptacles that are linked to the same circuit breaker as that of the now-faulty one work fine.

In fact, there seems to be some power going to this faulty receptacle - I have two voltage testers - the one that detects voltages as low as 50 V detects something, but the one that detects voltages as low as 80 V doesn't.

So I changed the receptacle thinking maybe I busted that, but even with a new receptacle I can't get anything to work when plugged into it. The wires looked fine when I inspected them.

So what else could be the problem? Was this related to the plugging and unplugging? Is there anything else I could try/do before I call the electrician?

FWIW, I tried plugging various things in, including a clock radio that works elsewhere, but no dice.

posted by bitteroldman to home & garden (12 comments total)

Is the outlet either on a GFCI breaker or daisy-chained from a GFCI outlet somewhere else in the house? Plugging and unplugging a big active load can sometimes cause a twitchy GFCI to trip, which would kill that outlet. If it's not that you could be looking at a bad splice somewhere, which is a pain in the ass to find (and also dangerous, since bad splices inside walls can cause fires). I'd start by figuring out if that outlet comes off of another outlet, and checking the connections at the upstream outlet.

It's possible (and pretty normal, actually) to get a reading on a voltmeter from a dead outlet -- you're either seeing random signal pickup on the wires (if they're forming a good antenna) or, more usually, capacitive coupling across the tripped switch/breaker/splice/etc. In order to see if the outlet is actually live or dead, you need a tester that applies a load -- usually the tester will have a solenoid or neon bulb inside (or both)
posted by range at 9:42 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]

If you go to home depot and get a receptacle tester just plug it in and it will tell you whats wrong
open neutral if the plug is wired right etc there cheap like 20 bucks
posted by SatansCabanaboy at 10:34 AM on February 21

Get a $10 multimeter, instead of the receptacle tester (which is just a specialized version of the voltage tester you are already using, so that won't help you). Check the real voltage coming out of the wires.

Also - are the wires blackened? Copper oxidizes, and arcing causes carbon to build up, so many old wire ends have highly resistant coatings. It's all fine while the original wiring is untouched, usually, but as soon as the socket is fiddled with, the protected surfaces no longer connect, and the voltage drops (along with heating at the junction!). The simple cure is to take a tiny piece of sandpaper (300 grit or finer), and polish until it looks coppery again. You can do this "live", as the sandpaper is a good insulator. Remember to check the outlet/switch contacts for corrosion, too.

Finally, the multimeter (set to AC Volts, of course) will swing wildly if there's a periodic short. Of course, it will also swing if you don't connect well...

My rehab-experienced bet is corrosion on the wires, or a torn bit of insulation allowing the wires to connect with the housing (any brownouts?), as a less likely possibility. If you have cloth-covered wire, consider removing the box and tape-wrapping the wires before reintroducing them. Once inside the box again, I'd splice them with wire nuts onto new, plastic-coated wire, and reconnect to the outlets.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:01 PM on February 21

Whoops, didn't see that you replace the receptacle already. At least you don't need to check that for corrosion...
posted by IAmBroom at 1:02 PM on February 21

I'm suffering from this exact problem right now. My multimeter reads at about 45-50V, it says there is continuity, and I've checked (though not replaced) the receptacle and even scraped the wires.
posted by adipocere at 5:40 PM on February 21

Strangely enough, I have the same problem also - two kitchen outlets. Replaced the plug-in outlet in both cases and it still doesn't work.
posted by storybored at 7:33 PM on February 21

Wow, that's so crazy, adipocere and storybored. Well, I'll try IAmBroom's suggestion and failing that, I'll call an electrician and see what he says. I'll report back here - maybe he can offer some insight that will help you guys...

Thanks to all for your comments, but keep em coming if you got more!
posted by bitteroldman at 9:14 PM on February 21

I would be worried, since you don't seem to be getting more than partial voltage at the receptacle, that the cumulative effect of having a baseboard heater over time (and not nearly so much your unplugging of it) may have stressed the wiring where it connects back to the prior receptacle in the chain.

If your wires leave the receptacle box and go right, that's the direction to look (or vice versa). Open up that next box and see what you have. Something may have loosened or (yikes) arced and sparked inside that one, without affecting the power to the plug itself. If those wires get power and seem fine, but the receptacle at the other end doesn't, you may need to have new Romex pulled (by an electrician).
posted by dhartung at 10:09 PM on February 21

First off, do as range says, check into the GFCI possibilities - kitchen and bathroom receptacles are supposed to be on GFCIs. Do you need to reset the GFCI somewhere down the line? Some newer homes have GFCI breakers in the panel. Did you check the GFCI issue?

If you have done that, then figure out the circuit. Is the dead receptacle the last receptacle on the circuit? If so, check the receptacle immediately before it on the circuit - perhaps that receptacel is not feeding power down the line.
posted by Flood at 12:30 PM on February 22

I had a similar problem. I started going back up the power line (back toward the circuit breaker), and checked out the first upstream junction box (happened to be a light switch). Found a completely burnt up wire nut.

Probably should have bought a lottery ticket at that point, but I swapped it out and kept the old one to remind me not to take shortcuts.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 3:35 PM on February 24

Everyone is mentioning GFCI switches, and you should definitely check into that. Be aware, though, that only newer houses are going to have these outside of the bathroom (and slightly older houses, not at all).

Do an image search for GFCI if you aren't sure - they're unmistakable.

No GFCIs = discount all those warnings. If you don't have them, and you've scoured the wires free of corrosion, and they still read low on a voltmeter/multimeter - call an electrician. Somewhere that voltage is being eaten up, heating up a junction, and it could be within your house.
posted by IAmBroom at 4:24 PM on February 24

So I called an electrician and guess what - the chandelier did it!
The electrician noticed that there was voltage but no circuit, so he deduced that the problem was with the neutral.

So checking all the connections on the circuit, he noticed that there was a bad connection in a chandelier that I had installed (with a ton of difficulty) a few years back.

He fixed the connections and voila! The faulty receptacle works again!

Thanks to all for your comments!
posted by bitteroldman at 7:03 AM on March 20