HELP Outside/inside outlets stopped working

[flyinhi31]

OK, Please help! I have 4 electrical outlets that just stopped working. Two (2) are on the outside and 2 are on the inside of the house located in the bathrooms above the sinks. They just stopped working, but I think I may have a clue as to the cause. I am having my house repainted and the guy doing it had pressure washed my house about 2 days ago. When he went to plug into the outside power for his spray gun, he let me know the outlets did not work. It was later that day that I noticed the bathroom outlets did not work either. I know these outlets normally work as I use the outside one all the time for yard work and the inside ones all the time for charging shavers, hairdryers, etc. I am thinking that his pressure washing may have done something to the outside outlets and shorted them. I pulled the outlets out this morning (carefully) and didnt see any moisture in the caddy boxes, (maybe they got wet in the outlets themselves?). I also could not find any breakers that were tripped on my panel. The bad part is I have about half of the breakers labeled as I have been gradually trying to go through them and I.D. them, but I do not have the breaker for these outlets located. I NEED HELP- what course of action should I take. I am a broke student and cant afford an electrician unless its a last resort.

[greg6755]

It sounds like the GFCI outlet tripped.

It is probably in the bathroom.

Find it and press the reset button.

[RBM]

Depending upon the age of the house, outside outlets and bathroom outlets are required to be GFCI protected. It would make sense that the power washing tripped the GFCI circuit. You need to find either a circuit breaker with a "test" button on it or a GFCI outlet, which will have "test" and "reset" buttons on it, and reset it. If it is an outlet you need to find, the logical locations for it are: next to the circuit breaker box, in a garage, outside, in a bathroom, or in a basement. It is not likely to be attached to any GFCI outlets you may have in a kitchen.

[flyinhi31]

Thanks,

I found a GFI behind a storage cabinet in my garage. I thought I had found all the outlets in there, but you guys made me think again about it. I appreciate it- thanks for pointing out the obvious this early in the morning!

[Mark Lloyd]

I wish they wouldn't hide those things in other rooms, but they do.