Any electricans in the house?

[IRQVET]

Need advice as I’ve got a head scratcher here. All my exterior wall electrical outlets are non-op and have no power going to them and I cannot figure out why. I do not have a label in my electrical panel that clearing says “Outside Outlets” so I’m asuming it runs off the garage breaker? Here is what I’ve done:

- Checked the main breaker panel to see if something was thrown. No Dice.
- Checked every GFCI to see if one was tripped. No Dice.
- Flipped the main service disconnect on, off, and on again. No Dice.
- Checked the GFCI test devices on every breaker in the panel. No Dice.
- Flipped each and every individual breaker on, off, and one again. No dice.

I don’t have a sub panel. What am I missing? Is there something stupid I’m overlooking?

I’ve had no recent work done to the house. Outlets were working fine yesterday, then today, nada.

 

[ArcReactorKC]

How many outside outlets do you have? In my previous life as an electrician from what your describing I would suspect an outlet failed at the connections. It's very possible they were "backstabbed" and a connection has failed. If you have multiple like 3+ I would start with opening up the closest one to your breaker panel and pull it out and see if the wire has voltage on it.

 

[sparky 1971]

I'm going to guess a stab wired receptacle, a gfci that you don't know about is tripped, or a gfci has failed but still seems to function at the gfci itself. Turn off the outside outlet breaker and see if it kills power to any gfci receptacles inside the house (usually in the garage). If it does, bypass the gfci with a couple of wire nuts and check the exterior receptacles. If they work, change the gfci.

 

[240sxguy]

I'm going to guess a stab wired receptacle, a gfci that you don't know about is tripped, or a gfci has failed but still seems to function at the gfci itself. Turn off the outside outlet breaker and see if it kills power to any gfci receptacles inside the house (usually in the garage). If it does, bypass the gfci with a couple of wire nuts and check the exterior receptacles. If they work, change the gfci.

I'm just quoting you because you said what I was thinking.

 

[IRQVET]

You are correct, I have three exterior outlets. I’ll pulled the one outside the garage door and see if the wires were live and no dice/ no power. Pulled the breaker panel cover just to see if I could see any fried wires or melted wire jackets, and everything looked fine.

 

[IRQVET]

I'm going to guess a stab wired receptacle, a gfci that you don't know about is tripped, or a gfci has failed but still seems to function at the gfci itself. Turn off the outside outlet breaker and see if it kills power to any gfci receptacles inside the house (usually in the garage). If it does, bypass the gfci with a couple of wire nuts and check the exterior receptacles. If they work, change the gfci.

What do you mean when you say to turn off the outside breaker? If I did that, wouldn’t it be a moot point as nothing would have power? Sorry, I’m confused by what your meaning.

 

[nadogail]

Good hunting, you might get luck and find it easily, but again you may not. Go to the receptacle closet to the panel and see if you need to look further.
Is the wire connected to the breaker being energized? You might have a bad breaker.

 

[sparky 1971]

What do you mean when you say to turn off the outside breaker? If I did that, wouldn’t it be a moot point as nothing would have power? Sorry, I’m confused by what your meaning.

The breaker that says outside outlets. See if it kills the power to a gfci inside the house.

 

[IRQVET]

Okay crisis adverted, I figured it out.

Turns out I had two GFCI outlets in the landry room instead of just one like I thought. Flipped the reset button on the unbeknownst GFCI and eveything came back on.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

 

[rburke65]

GFCI outlets….GGGGh. a PITA

 

[joseywales]

GFCI outlets….GGGGh. a PITA

I quoted you, because that's exactly what I was thinking.

 

[u3b3rg33k]

Okay crisis adverted, I figured it out.

Turns out I had two GFCI outlets in the landry room instead of just one like I thought. Flipped the reset button on the unbeknownst GFCI and eveything came back on.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

put a note on the breaker that feeds that GFCI so someone doesn't have to hunt next time.

 

[SlappyWhite]

Funny, we had another thread where people were aghast that a GFCI was located at each point and not connected off the first one. This is a prime example why putting one at each location might cost more but saves guesswork in the future.

 

[Knight511]

Funny, we had another thread where people were aghast that a GFCI was located at each point and not connected off the first one. This is a prime example why putting one at each location might cost more but saves guesswork in the future

Or the reason it is cheaper to put in a single GFI breaker instead of multiple GFI outlets.

 

[nadogail]

I had a problem in a rental that had three bathrooms that were all protected by one GFCI Receptacle, there were three young ladies sharing the house, every one of them would be getting ready for work in the morning and using their hairdryers.
I reconnected the GFCI Receptacles so that none were "daisey chained" and each girl could reset her receptacle if her dryer happened to cause the GFCI to trip.

 

[SlappyWhite]

I have four 20A outdoor outlets. I used a dual function (CAFI/GFCI) breaker but if I didn't, each outlet would have its own GFCI receptacle to avoid all this troubleshooting/hunting. The breaker solution is obvious enough IMO as it should be one of the first places someone will look, when I bought it the DF was actually cheaper than the 20A arc fault only (COVID supply chain...)!

Sure I know how it is wired as I did it but others do not, present of future. The only thing someone else needs to figure out is each outlet is on a switch (page out of BCEC code, not required here)...very convenient this time of year!

 

[SlappyWhite]

Or the reason it is cheaper to put in a single GFI breaker instead of multiple GFI outlets.

It is now but it wasn't back in the "olden days" when we needed GFCI in "wet" locations but only cheapo standard breakers (and GFCI breakers were more $$$$s than now). Now that arc fault is required pretty much everywhere might as well go dual function for new build where GFCI is also required and it will usually be cheaper than the CAFI breaker + GFCI outlet(s).

Canadian code is not as GFCI happy as the NEC. I only have one GFCI outlet in the entire house now, beside the kitchen sink because of some panel layout OCD it is not on a DF breaker... Everywhere else it is required it is on a DF breaker with regular outlets. Also makes it easy to say have an entire bathroom protected without feeding the entire room through the outlet.