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I am boggled by 2 outlets and a ceiling fan that just recently stopped working. The outlets are located (both in close proximity to each other) in the kitchen and all other outlets & appliances in the kitchen are working fine and therefore I believe the circuit breaker hasn't tripped. A ceiling fan (which is located in another room that is about 10' away from the outlets) also, suddenly stopped working. Again all other outlets & ceiling lights in the room are working fine and therefore I feel that circuit breaker hasn't tripped. I have gone to the circuit box and flipped all the breakers on and off. The outlets and ceiling fan still do not work. I'm looking for suggestions for trouble shooting this problem or determining if there is a break in the line and if the outlets and the ceiling fan are all on the same circuit. Is it possible that there is another circuit breaker that these outlets and ceiling fan are connected to and the breaker isn't located in the box where all the other breakers are? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Mohit,
Welcome to the forum! What you are describing, a couple of outlets in one room and a fixture in another not working, sounds normal as far as them all being on the same circuit. Particularly in a kitchen, the outlets are fed from different breakers so you are less likely to overload one.
Are you familiar with what a GFCI breaker looks like? It has the usual toogle to turn on and off plus a reset button. More and more of these are being used in kitchens. If you have one or more of these in your panel are they all set properly? Another possibilty is a GFCI outlet (probably in a bathroom) having tripped and this protected circuit continues on to the kitchen. In either case reset the GFCI and you would be good to go.
It is not normal in a modern house to have sub-panels (circuit breaker panels in second area) unless you have added an item that draws a lot of Amps. Your problem is likely a faulty circuit breaker or a break in the wire/loose connection in the circuit.
If you knew which breaker feeds this circuit you could open the panel and with a multimeter test the breaker in question. If you are unsure which breaker then you can test all of them. What you are looking for is probably a single 15A breaker. If the breaker tests good than you have to check each connection on the circuit to see where the problem is.
Please let us know what you find.
Good luck, Jim
'Just a handyman trying to help''Just a handyman trying to help' -
Thanks for the response. I actually took a moment to read the other posts from members and saw a couple cases where people were experiencing the same problem.
I will check the GFCI outlets and make sure that all of them are reset. Also, I have found that the loss of power also extends to a few other rooms in the house (a bathroom in our basement that is hardly used) and I know for sure that there is a GFCI outlet there. I will check to make sure that it is reset hopefully that will be the cause of the problem. This forum has been very informative. I hope the problem that I'm experiencing does in fact stem from a GFCI circuit. I'll keep you posted.Comment
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Jim,
I found a GFCI outlet that cannot be tested because the test button is stuck/can't depress. But when I press the 'Reset' button on the GFCI outlet, nothing happens (almost as though the outlet hasn't been tripped). So I still don't have power to the outlets, ceiling fan or that one bathroom. I wanted to know, are GFCI outlets known to prevent the other outlets/power sources from getting power if they're tripped? Or is it that when they go bad, they're known to prevent the other outlets/power sources from getting power? Thanks.
M. MathurComment
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Mohit,
You have a choice on most GFCI outlets for connecting additional outlets with GFCI protection or not. If you connect to one set of terminals then they will cause a 'trip' in the outlet if you have a problem further down the circuit. If you connect to the other set of terminals then they will not effect the GFCI and will instead only trip the circuit breaker in your panel if they have a major fault.
Do you have power at the GFCI outlet? If you have a GFCI outlet that cannot be tested I would strongly recommend replacing it. For the $10-$15 it costs it is not worth the risk of it not providing the protection when you need it.
Please keep us posted on what you find,
Jim
'Just a handyman trying to help''Just a handyman trying to help'Comment
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Jim,
I removed the GFCI outlet as well as another outlet that has no power (and is not a GFCI) and in both locations, I'm reading 120 volts AC on both the black and white wires. My understanding is that, of the 3 wires in an outlet, only one wire will have 120 volts, the other will be neutral and the ground is the exposed wire. I think somewhere, there is a short/cross where the white and black wires are touching. Have you had any issues like that? And I'm not sure if it is the GFCI outlet that is causing the problem because when I removed the GFCI outlet and took a reading, I was getting the same voltage readings as I got on the other outlets (that are non-GFCI) - which was both black and white wires have 120V AC on them. Any suggestions? I checked the circuit breaker box as well and all the terminals to the actual breakers were fine and they all read a 120V AC, so I think the circuit breaker box is alright. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.Comment
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Mohit,
This sounds interesting!!! If you have a shorted black and white the breaker should have tripped.
Using a multimeter could you test the voltage again. Test black to ground, test white to ground and then test black to white and post the voltages please.
You are right that the bare copper wire is ground. White wires that are used to supply power in cases like returning power to a light fixture from a switch are supposed to be marked with black, otherwise they are assumed to be neutrals.
Waiting for your numbers, Jim
'Just a handyman trying to help''Just a handyman trying to help'Comment
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I know this is an old topic but, did you figure out what your problem was? I was going to say that if the fan is on the same circuit as the gfci outlets you have a bigger problem. The thought is that the slight initial current imbalance of the fan motor will cause the gfci outlet to trip. So, if the fan is on, the outlet cannot be reset. Make sure the fan is off then try resetting the outlets.Comment
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Chris,
Welcome to the forum.
I had never heard of a ceiling fan causing a problem with GFCI. Thanks for the tip.
Jim
'Just a handyman trying to help''Just a handyman trying to help'Comment
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