Rented carpet cleaner seems to have killed a bunch of outlets/lights in my house. Any ideas?
June 26, 2012 3:39 PM Subscribe
Rented carpet cleaner seems to have killed a bunch of outlets/lights in my house. Any ideas?
I rented a rug doctor the other day. Left it plugged in (but off of course) overnight and the next day the outlet it was plugged into as well as some random lights/outlets stopped working.
I turned off all the breakers and turned them back on with no change.
It could be totally unrelated, but have been in the house almost a year and the electrical has been solid.
Any ideas on what happened and how to fix? I am thinking to check the wiring on each outlet but not sure what else I could try.
I rented a rug doctor the other day. Left it plugged in (but off of course) overnight and the next day the outlet it was plugged into as well as some random lights/outlets stopped working.
I turned off all the breakers and turned them back on with no change.
It could be totally unrelated, but have been in the house almost a year and the electrical has been solid.
Any ideas on what happened and how to fix? I am thinking to check the wiring on each outlet but not sure what else I could try.
You may have tripped an GFCI somewhere...look for a socket with "test" and "reset" buttons and hit the latter. They are often at the start of a circuit to provide downstream protection in case of earthing irregularities.
posted by nicktf at 3:45 PM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by nicktf at 3:45 PM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
Nthing the GFCI suggestion. I had the same thing happen while I was housesitting last month. After two days of having no power in half the living room and the adjacent bathroom, resetting all the breakers to no avail, etc., I finally thought to push the "reset" button on the plug in the bathroom. Bam, power was back. Talk about feeling like a genius and an idiot at the same time...
posted by QuickedWeen at 4:29 PM on June 26, 2012
posted by QuickedWeen at 4:29 PM on June 26, 2012
The GFCI doesn't even need to have been the one into which you plugged the machine, just so long as it's on the same circuit. Look around.
posted by valkyryn at 6:14 PM on June 26, 2012
posted by valkyryn at 6:14 PM on June 26, 2012
Do you have an Arc-fault circuit interrupter somewhere?
posted by procrastination at 7:27 PM on June 26, 2012
posted by procrastination at 7:27 PM on June 26, 2012
If the GFI suggestion isn't it, have a look at the actual breaker in the panel. I had one flame out not too long ago. Simple to replace.
posted by sanka at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2012
posted by sanka at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
If so, check to make sure that the breaker on the outlet doesn't need to be reset..
Do you know which breaker serves the outlets in question? It is one breaker or more than one? More than one call an electrician. If it's one breaker then see if you have any live outlets served by this breaker. If not it's probably the breaker. If so then it's probably the wiring...
posted by NoDef at 3:45 PM on June 26, 2012