We have an outlet that we think we blew this afternoon plugging a drill into it the power turned off. When we tried to reset the breaker box everything turned back on but that outlet. We changed the outlet. It registers that it has power, but it won't run anything. It is like it does not have enough juice to run something. What causes the power to decrease in an outlet to where it is there, but now running?
Is this a GFCI receptacle? Mine are reset from a GFCI located in the garage.
-- Oren
"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."
- It registers that it has power
What does this mean?
There are any number of possibilities. Do all the other outlets in the kitchen work now? How old is the house or at least the kitchen wiring? Do any of the kitchen outlets have GFCI protection? It could be a tripped GFCI or it's possible that you have an open neutral. If it's an open neutral, you'll likely find the loose connection in an adjacent "working" outlet
If there is a GFI and it does not test out correctly when you hit the test and reset buttons, turn off power to that circuit and replace it. GFI's sometimes go bad.
You've got a "loose disconnection" somewhere in the circuit feeding that outlet, possibly at an outlet upstream from it, particularly if "back stabbed" connections were used.
As you seem to think there's "power" registered there, the poor connection is probably on the neutral conductor.
Good hunting!
Jeff
Have you checked the voltage WITH the load connected?
Loose connection on an old outlet? The hot wire is close enough to induce 120V when the circuit is very lightly loaded, but connecting any significant load makes it go to 0.
I'm putting my hands on the monitor. I can feel the power. Amen!!
But seriously, how does it register this power for you? Why do you say it has power?
If it had power, it would run things, so what do you mean?
On or about Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:30:09 -0700 did snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com dribble thusly:
I had similar symptoms with an outlet a while back - it would register
120V with a meter, but turning on the light fixture on the same circuit didn't work.The cause was a loose neutral wire in the breaker box. It was resting against the other wire sharing it's hole on the neutral bar, so each time load was applied, the wire melted a bit. After trimming, stripping, and re-tightening, the circuit was fine.
Since you're looking at a single non-functioning outlet, as opposed to an entire circuit, I'd guess that outlet is the end of the run, and one of the wires leading to it (from another outlet, fixture, or whatever) is loose at the other end from the non-working outlet.
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