Some electrical outlets not working

Some of the outlets in my house stopped working. Outlets on individual walls in different rooms work while others don't. They are associated with different fuses, but the fuses are okay. I double checked them by replacing them anyway and affected outlets still don't work. Any idea what would cause this?

Reply to
al
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It could be that you have an open neutral on an Edison circuit. Check to see if the hot leg is good at the "dead" outlets. If so, look for a common location outlet where the neutral splits off, possibly in a back stabbed outlet.

Reply to
RBM

Another possibility is that the dead outlets are controlled by wall switches

Reply to
RBM

None of the outlets is controlled by wall switches.

However, the lights on those affected locations just came on. I wish I could say that I did something to make that happen, but I wasn't doing anything but sitting reading the paper.

Reply to
al

None of the outlets is controlled by wall switches.

However, the lights on those affected locations just came on. I wish I could say that I did something to make that happen, but I wasn't doing anything but sitting reading the paper.

Sounds like you have a loose connection somewhere in the circuit. I would tap with the back of my hand on each of the affected outlets and see if the tapping causes the lights to flicker or go out again. If it does, the location where you tapped is where the loose connection is. One thing you can be sure of, it will occur again.

Reply to
RBM

.

Also possible that one hot leg of his service is intermittent and he's losing power to the circuits on that side.

Reply to
trader4

It can be a bad connection on the last outlet that works (outgoing side) Plug a radio with the volume all the way up in a non-working outlet and bang on the ones nearby. When you hear the radio squawk you found it.

Reply to
gfretwell

He said it was on different circuits - fed from different fuses.

He didn't say if they were on the same side of the panel. If so, a loose line feed could be the culprit.

Reply to
clare

Yes, if it was different circuits from different fuses the suspect would be a problem on one of the hot legs anywhere between the distribution transformer and the bus in the panel.

Reply to
Pete C.

You can break that tie real quick, does the dryer get hot (or some other 240v appliance)?

Reply to
gfretwell

Neither the dryer nor the hot water heater is heating and the microwave is worthless.

Reply to
al

Neither the dryer nor the hot water heater is heating and the microwave is worthless.

Whole different story. It's not just a few outlets on different fuses. You have a main leg out. It may be a defective main service breaker or a bad connection anywhere from that point back to the utility company transformer

Reply to
RBM

Now it definitely sounds like a problem located somewhere between the circuit panel (fuses? really? Where are you located?) and the utility pole. My guess is that the connection to one of the hot bus bars is intermittent and as the box heats and cools, the connection makes and breaks from the different expansion rates between the wire and the clamping device. I've found those sorts of failures appear often in the spring and fall, when temperatures shift widely. Could be as simple as knowing what screw to twist.

This is where you have to evaluate your competence to work on 240VAC systems and decide whether it's time to call an electrician. I'd be hiring one to install a circuit breaker panel if I were you, and probably to heavy up the whole installation. Last time I saw a fuse panel was in a house that had only a 60A feeder. Way too little for modern life, IMHO.

The only thing good about fuses is that they prevent people from using them improperly as ON/OFF switches the way too many people do with circuit breakers. You can, of course, unscrew the fuse if you want to use it as a switch, but that's not potentially destructive to the safety capabilty of the fuse. At least not the way using a circuit breaker as a switch is.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

And you mean they used to heat and now don't? And they are both are electric appliances? The microwave is 110v so it does not count.

Typical houses are served from the outside by 2 hot wires and 1 neutral. 110v things like wall outlets and lighting are connected to one or the other of the hot wires and the neutral. Big appliances like electric dryers, electric hot water, use 220v and they get that by being hooked to both hots.

When one of the two hots from outside stops working then some of the

110v circuits like lighst and outlets stop working. Also all the 220v appliances stop working.

If your problems are gone now it may have been tha the power company was working on something in your area and now it's fixed. It also may be that you have a loose connection somewhere near the meter or fuse box where the two hots come in.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

Yes they used to work and now they don't. I hadn't checked the dryer or the HW heater until I read the post inquiring about that last night. Lights are also dimming periodically.

60 amp service was upgraded to 200 a few years ago with central A/C install. Electric company inspected yesterday and ruled out their equipment as the source of the problem. Said it is a "neutral" problem. So I stopped tapping outlets and changing fuses and called a contractor who will be here shortly to take a look.

Thanks for all the input.

Reply to
al

Problem solved.

Contractor's estimator checked everything, double-checked the fuses and discovered a main fuse that was bad. Replaced it and solved the problem.

My all to obvious error was not checking the main fuses. I just checked the round screw in fuses. Since moving in here, I've never touched or even thought of touching those red cylindrical fuses. Now those fuses aren't the only things that are red.

Anyway, the estimator said as some of you have that the fuse panel should be replaced with a breaker panel and is preparing an estimate for that job. Breakers are probably a better option for someone susceptible to failing to explore all options before raising the alarm anyway.

Thanks for all the input.

Reply to
al

Yes, the two main fuses suply your two hot legs. Losing one of those will cause loss of all the big appliances and part of the smaller circuits. Estimates for replacing a fuse box can go as high as $1000 so don't be shocked. There is nothing unsafe about fuses and now that you understand what happens when one o fthe mains goes you're really covered at this point.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

Thanks for your closure to this, we all learned something.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Reply to
Robert Green

Smitty Two wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

The only thing missing is an old woman sittin' in the chair with a shotgun and a bloodhound at her side.

Reply to
Red Green

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