Power out in garage

[Rose]

This morning I went out to the garage to go to work and discovered that we have no power to the outlets. The overhead lights work fine as does everything else in the house. We do have 2 GFCI outlets on the circuit (they are outside the house) and one of them is currently doing work with Christmas lights. This is the same setup, same lights, etc. we ran last year with no problems. My husband has checked the breaker, reset the GFCI outlets, taken the lights off the circuit and still no power. Anyone have any suggestions?

Rose

[John Harlow]

My bet is there is a bad connection to the outlets in one of the boxes. An electrician can have this fixed pretty quickly.

[willshak]

On 12/6/2004 11:16 AM US(ET), Rose took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

Are the Christmas lights lit while the garage outlets are dead? The breaker for the garage in the panel box is 'On'?

[Robert Allison]

Don't you have a GFCI in your bath or kitchen? I would check that first.

If that is not it, then you may have a bad connection in the circuit.

[Rose]

No. They are off.

Yes.

[G M]

Check circuit breakers in box & reset all GFCI.

[willshak]

On 12/6/2004 2:46 PM US(ET), Rose took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

If the christmas lights are plugged in and light up, and the garage outlets are dead at the same time, and they are on the same circuit, and the GFCIs and the panel breaker are reset, then I would suspect a break in the circuit between the outside outlets and the garage outlets. It could be as simple as a broken wire in one of the outlets, either in the garage or in the outside outlet.

[John Grabowski]

Bad GFI receptacle or a loose connection somewhere along the circuit or the electrical panel would be my first choices. You could also have a bad circuit breaker.

I don't know how old your house is or if you are the original owners, but I have seen instances where homeowners have installed GFI receptacles in places that are already protected by another GFI receptacle. For instance the regular outdoor receptacle that is protected by the bathroom GFI is replaced with a GFI receptacle or a GFI was installed in a bathroom that was already protected by a garage GFI. Try reseting your bathroom GFI receptacles.

John Grabowski

[Rose]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. My husband found the problem this morning. A GFCI outlet that is relatively buried in the back of the garage had tripped, cutting off the power to all the outlets. He took your suggestions and began to follow through on them and then found that outlet. Viola, power was restored.

Rose

[Robert Allison]

I have $50 minimum on coming out to do work on homes. I cannot tell you how many times that I have made $50 by pressing a reset button because people refused to believe that there had to be a GFCI that was tripped.

I bet I have made over $500 on those this year alone.

[nospambob]