Eventually, if the problem persists and affects other parts of the system, you might need a project called a heavy-up, an upgrade from 100 or 150 amp service to 200 amp service. The charging adapter might have gotten dirty or damaged. Welcome Reddit's International Electrical Worker Community. Have you tried something that doesn't have a power supply in the problem outlet? They all show power with a meter. There is no way your meter can show power at the socket and it not work when you plug in something. Since you have already tried a separate power adapter (one that was confirmed working), and it does the same thing you most likely have … One name for that consumption is phantom power. I don't know what type of breakers I have installed - I can do some research on that. The meter will read voltage even if there is high resistance in series with the meter. !11) and power still wouldn't come back to the outlet. There was a loose wire and it was arcing: Being new to this Reddit that was going to be my first suggestion. Yes it does consume some energy. When something is plugged in, you should use a … If I'm on my PC in my finished basement, after a relatively short period of time, the electrical outlet that my PC is drawing power from will lose power. If that fixes your problem, wonderful, if not, continue to troubleshoot from there. If you check each pole to the ground, you should have 108-120V. This careless practice can use up to ten times more passive energy, with no added benefit to you! That is, until something is plugged in. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Then reset the designated (and hopefully labeled) kitchen breaker in the breaker box by turning it off and then on again. you may be on to something about the outlet on the island being eliminated. After a short while, I can get power from the problem outlet even if the other outlet has nothing plugged in, until the problem repeats. In Gerners’ case, the problem was a switched plug. The most common electrical outlets are 15-amp duplex receptacles — 15-amp outlets are designed to accept standard plugs for most small appliances and lamps.. you maybe getting voltage but no neutral due to a bad connection. … Switched Plugs. Another common way to lose energy is to leave a device plugged into a charger after it has already been fully loaded. Sometimes, devices plugged into an outlet cause a circuit breaker to trip. That may have been a junction where the wiring to you problem outlet came from. Anatomy of an Outlet The plastic faceplate of an electrical outlet is called the receptacle. When testing an outlet it is best to use a 2-wire tester or a plug-in circuit analyzer which will produce a display of three lights which will reveal the condition of the electrical circuit at the outlet. Please advise. In many homes, if a room does not have an overhead light, most builders will install a switch that controls half of the outlets in the room. When one outlet is not working while there seems to be no problem with the other outlets in the house, you could have a dead outlet. Investing in an upgrade electrical outlet or unplugging some items in your home might also keep the circuit … Plug something different into the outlet. How old is the home and the additional work? Check for high resistance. I'm guessing you have a loose wire in one of the outlets. When you plug anything into the first outlet it then has no power. Then, we could see just how many chargers it takes for the meter to be able to measure some noticeable electrical draw. Help your fellow Redditors crack the electrical code. Sometimes a breaker will look like it … In the couple of times this has happened, I wasn't getting power to the power strip, and a power outlet on an adjoining wall wasn't getting power either - in that outlet I had a power strip plugged in with only a lamp plugged into the power strip. i would try to find that box and check the connections there. It is really beginning to frustrate me! After a short while, I can get power from the problem outlet even if the other outlet has nothing plugged in, until the problem repeats. Sparks coming from your outlets can mean different things depending on where the spark comes from. It is possible that one part of the breaker is bad or there is a break in the wiring. I thought it was the breaker so I turned it off then back on again, still, devices do not work. They all show power with a meter. In these cases, some outlets could have more troubling problems than the others, so you can check your electrical panel and reset any breaker that has been shut off. We started … Here, then, is a list of wiring problems you might encounter by simply peering into an outlet or switch box with a flashlight. To understand why electric outlets aren’t all the same, you need to know how a plug works. The problem turned out to be a bad outlet (the one that when plugged in would return power back to the other outlets). the cheap … Meter will show voltage, but the second you put a load on it, it drops out since the bad connection can't pass the current. The power adapter has a built-in shut off switch that disables all power when a surge, overload, or short is detected. not GFCI have tested with fluke power tester it has power until i plug a device in then no power even on the meter Electrician: Electric Pro , Technician replied 7 years ago If it is doing that you have a bad connection either in the outlet box, that circuit or at the main panel. If it doesn't work then you don't have power to the sockets. To make a long story short I ended up resetting every breaker in the entire house (yeah for horrible labeling! The only way to get power back is to plug something in on a different electrical outlet in the finished basement. When the power is on, an outlet can't discharge electricity until a plug is fully seated in the clamps. There are times when we just have to plug a couple of power strips into a 4-way outlet adapter to make one outlet into enough plug-ins for all of our gadgets. If the problem is that your wall outlets are just out of reach and you need something to bridge the gap while also adding more receptacles, a power strip … It is possible to have several outlets not working for various reasons like when a GFCI outlet won’t reset or a larger one when you have a circuit breaker on but no power to outlet. With this issue, it might be a simple case of lightening the load on a circuit. Unless you plugged in a plug that was damaged and it has ruined the contacts of all the sockets you tried. There is a light switch by the door of the room that I thought was to control the outlets(due to no ceiling fixture) but flipping the switch has affect on the outlets. Get the amp rating off the outlet and pick up a replacement with that rating and the same configuration and number of holes. Replace the outlet, a standard 15amp receptacle is <$1. You should have 215-240V. If you have a meter, check across the two poles of the outlet. If you want to replace an outlet, simply turn off the power to the outlet and remove it. Press J to jump to the feed. Do you have arc fault, ground fault or normal breakers installed? On the off-chance that it’s not the electrical outlet but rather your cell phone charger that’s not working, plug something else into the same outlet, … And after a while, the two outlets would work without anything plugged into the 3rd outlet. I went ahead and replaced the breaker with one that is 30amp. A friend thinks that something is overheating and causing a gap in the electrical circuit. Does shaking the outlet help? Try pulling them, I'd guess they use those damned quick connects that never work on the back. In my house a series of outlets are reading 120V on the meter but when I plug something into any of them the device does not work. For now, I have my main power strip plugged into the other problem outlet (as it's the only other outlet within reach) and I'm only keeping my modem / router on and keeping my computer off until I can get an electrician out to take a look. I have this weird electrical problem that just started yesterday. If you mainly charge using the Nintendo Switch's Dock, then the Dock my have gotten damaged. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Several Outlets Not Working. When an outlet does not have power you have several options, from checking tripped circuit breakers to replacing faulty outlets. The other two outlets only have power to 1 of the 2 pluggins but do continue to have power when things are plugged in. We are planning on having an electrician take a look, but I would appreciate any extra advice I can get. At this point, we usually wonder “how many things can I plug into one outlet… If the power outage messes with water systems and causes a boil-water alert, you’ll want to have safe drinking water on hand. I have three outlets on a circuit. The power strip itself—despite its red LED light—registered 0.0 watts when we plugged it in. When you plug anything into the first outlet it then has no power. The average person can do many of these repairs but should call a qualified electrician he does not feel confident in making these repairs himself. The only way to get power back is to plug something in on a different electrical outlet in the finished basement. Sometimes, a subtle movement of the outlet can cause the connection to "make". Electrical outlets don't draw power until you plug something in, so a 20-amp circuit should theoretically be able to handle as many outlets as you want without overloading the breaker. Occasionally a loose connection or defective wiring may cause arcing or overheated metal, and this in turn may cause the plastic casing to melt. Source: Windows Central Instead of continuing to suck up power when at full capacity, the battery in your laptop should be bypassed even if it remains plugged in. bossymom50 High resistance connection. Ran into this all the time on the railroad as a signals and communications engineer. Whichever the case, you will need to establish the actual cause, fix the problem yourself, or call a qualified technician. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the electricians community. A transformer draws very little energy when there is no demand on it. With that in mind, we had a new idea—plug a power strip into the meter, and then plug multiple chargers into the power strip. A transformer is remarkably simple. Easy place to start. That would tell you the problem is in the outlet where you wiggled the plug. As for the house, it (and the finished basement) are about 17 years old. (Such as a lamp)? Not so much the cord, but the plug, right at the outlet. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the HomeMaintenance community, Press J to jump to the feed. The contact points within the Nintendo Switch's USB-C charging port might have gotten dirty or damaged. If the outlet is old, and no longer holds a plug … In both cases, after I plugged in something to the 3rd power outlet on the other side of the basement I would get power back to the two problem outlets. The other two outlets only have power to 1 of the 2 pluggins but do continue to have power when things are plugged in. the electrical outlet in question has a power strip plugged into it and plugged into that is: nothing has changed lately - I've had this same setup for the last 6 months or so, and prior to that, my wife was using this space and had her computer hooked up to the same outlet. In reality, a spark happens every time you plug an appliance into an electrical outlet-you usually just don’t see it. A wire could be broken but touching at a terminal. there is no circuit breaker that is tripping as far as I can tell, I can't find the circuit breaker that controls the finished part of my basement (the other side of the basement is unfinished and contains washer, dryer, furnace ...) - I flipped every circuit breaker except the main one and nothing makes the lights in the finished part of the basement to go out. Many times there may be a short with either the black or the white wire at the outlet connection or somewhere else in the circuit. I am getting the same result. Talk shop, show off pictures of your work, get general help, and ask code related questions. You see, behind your outlets are live electrical wires that basically sit waiting to feed any appliance that’s plugged in. If the wires are poked through those little holes on the back of the receptacle release them and wrap them on the screw. Even the humble electrical outlet or light switch can have numerous things that can go wrong, most of them resulting from faulty installation. Beat me too it... by a lot. Circuit Breakers Circuit breakers are protect an electrical circuit and will trip if too much current … 240V is actually 120V x 2, since you have some power to the outlet but nothing works, I would suspect that one side of it is not working. You might be using an incompatible … Not doing so can be a fire hazard and will break your electrical outlets. Sometimes, a visible spark at the outlet is normal. Answer: The first thing to do is to unplug everything that is plugged into all the outlets that do not have power. Cable boxes, Apple TVs, Xbox consoles and any other modern application of that sort also results in a constant drain on your power. However, most of the time we end up tripping the breaker and finding out that you can only plug so many things into a pair of electrical outlets. There might be something wrong with the outlet, like a burnt fuse. There is no amperage at your AC outlet - only voltage. the only way as mentioned earlier to verify voltage is with a meter. Turning off the power, pulling the outlet out of the box and securing the connections will solve that problem. We don’t know how important electrical outlets are until the power in our homes goes off. Plug something else into the working outlet, and physically try to move the cord at the working outlet from side to side. A dead outlet isn’t only annoying, but it also is a fire risk. I have used other voltmeters … Remember to check these breakers well, because the flips of some of them could get stuck in the middle. 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