Two garage AC outlets-no longer getting power...help please

[The Wizard]

Guys, as the title states, I have two 120V outlets in my garage which are no longer getting power. They are both the outlets located on the ceiling for the garage door openers to plug in to (one outlet for the two door garage, and the other for the single garage). I have tried the obvious: Checking the circuit breakers on the side of the house - all good. And cruising around the house making sure no GFI outlets were tripped - all good. Tried replacing the outlets - no luck.

Any advice you guys can give me on how to troubleshoot or fix my problem?

Background, if needed: The first outlet lost power about 2 years ago. I was dumb and I sawed through an extension chord plugged into one of the outlets. The second outlet failed just a few weeks ago when I apparently overloaded it with a blow dryer and a heat gun at the same time.

Thanks in advance for any help etc, I really appreciate it.

 

[Steevo]

If they failed when you shorted or overloaded them, then one of two things has probably happened:
1. A protection mechanism (breaker, fuse or GFCI) has tripped.
2. The wiring connection to the receptacle may have sparked/arced and lost connection. Back-stabbed push-in wires on receptacles are known for this. If this is a tract/production home, they likely used low-cost back-stabbed receptacles. You'll have to pull it out of the box in the ceiling to find out.

 

[Innov8tive1]

If this is a tract/production home, they likely used low-cost back-stabbed receptacles. You'll have to pull it out of the box in the ceiling to find out.

Very likely but it could be any one of who knows how many other receps. on the same circuit before it gets to the dead one. Any others not working? Get yourself one of those non contact voltage probes for starters and try to trace back to where you have power. With electrical problems it's a process of elimination. In my garage for example there was one switch on the wall that I didn't know what it did so I left it turned off. Next time I tried to use the garage door openers they wouldn't work.
Took awhile (as I hadn't been out there in quite some time) 'till I remembered the switch on the wall and bingo!
Do you know if both door opener receps are on the same circuit? Do you know which breaker they are connected to? Sometimes (although it is fairly rare) breakers can go bad, you might want to verify that there is power coming out of the breaker.

 

[Aceman]

Take your panel cover off and run down all your breakers with a meter to verify they're all "on".

Meter the dead receps and find out what you lost, either a hot or neutral or both. If you lost both, chances are it's fed from a GFCI that's tripped somewhere. If you lost only one, it's most likely a loose connection on the back of a recep somewhere. Pull the dead receps out of their boxes and take a quick look at the connections. If they look good, plug a trouble light into the one closest to the panel. Then run around the room with an extension cord or whatever and plug into ALL your good working outlets wiggling the cord end in the recep. If you see the troublelight flicker, you've most likely found your bad connection.

That should get you started...

 

[Innov8tive1]

Sounds like he's had them out as he says he replaced them.

 

[Steevo]

As Innov8tive1 stated, if the breaker is hot, it will likely be an upstream receptacle, not the dead one.

 

[Innov8tive1]

Background, if needed: The first outlet lost power about 2 years ago. I was dumb and I sawed through an extension chord plugged into one of the outlets. The second outlet failed just a few weeks ago when I apparently overloaded it with a blow dryer and a heat gun at the same time.

I re-read this part and need some clarification. You sawed through an extension cord plugged into an outlet. It killed the power to the recep and you haven't had power since? And you verified that the breakers were all on? If it wasn't a breaker and now you have a second recep do something similar I'm thinking one of two things.
1. you have a sub panel somewhere that you haven't found yet
or
2. if you can confirm that there is no sub panel and all breakers are on and working properly then you have some seriously flawed wiring in your house/garage and should probably have it looked at by an electrician

 

[Milton Shaw]

Sub panel, back stabbed outlets upstream, bad breaker, hidden connection in attic/crawl space. Really need to get someone out with wire tracing equipment, electrician or buy your own tracing equipment from electrical supply house. I have a Fluke volt meter with volt alert that will trace voltage from about 12 inches away, up wall, across ceiling to light etc. On low sensitivity it has to be within about 2 inches but on high its good for at least a foot. Its a Fluke 117 and other models have it also. Of course it will not work with wire in metal conduit, but will in plastic conduit.

 

[The Wizard]

Guys, thanks a million. I will attempt to fix the problem this weekend. In the meantime, some answers/more info.:

Steevo, Yes, tract home.

Inno., Only the two mentioned outlets have stopped working. i don't know (yet) if the two outlets are on the same circuit. Yes, when I sawed through the extension cord, it killed the outlet and has not worked since. All breakers are on, yes. I'll look for a subpanel but I do not think there is one.

Ace, thanks for the tips/suggestions.

Milton, thank you too.

 

[kenfath]

"I have tried the obvious: Checking the circuit breakers on the side of the house - all good."

Just curious -- how did you check the breakers? Why I ask is I've had one brand of circuit breakers that would trip but the handle would barely move and would easily pass a visual inspection which suggested it was OK but in fact had tripped.

 

[Dakota00]

I had a similar experience a few years back, where I overloaded a plug in the garage knocking out the power to the whole garage. I thought the breaker was tripped which it was. Go to reset the breaker and still no power in the garage.
Scratch my head....
I removed the breaker test it on a different circuit it preformed fine. Use a different breaker for the garage, still no power. End result I had to run a new wire from the panel to the garage which fixed the problem. I figure somewhere in the house the wire blew lucky nothing caught on fire.

 

[Kevin54]

What you will have to do is trial and error but you have to find what else is on that circuit. More than likely the last live outlet is the culprit. Like mentioned above, if they were back stabbed you had one arc out and is now not making good contact. The only way to do it is to start pulling outlets one by one and check those. It will take a little while to do. If you can get above the outlets in the ceiling, see which way the wire is running to give you an idea which wall to start on.

 

[Nova_Guy]

I had this happen once a few years back when the garage lights died. I spent a week trying to figure out what happened. I finally figured out there was a GFCI outlet under the sink in the spare bedroom three rooms over that had tripped. Why the lights and that bathroom outlet were tied together? Who knows.

 

[Innov8tive1]

Update??

 

[-Brent-]

The detail for those that mention the breaker is that one outlet was "out" previous to the other. If they're on the same breaker there's obviously another issue.

 

[MBfreak]

Since the power got lost after a dead short a bit down in the chain, there is an ugly possibility, however remote, that some cheapskate/lazy/dumb installer has made a poor and hidden splice in the conduit to save wire or work or both. At the overload this splice has opened up so you may have power up to a point in the chain but not in the next outlet.
Farfetched, yes , absolutely but I have seen it here in Sweden. ( In plastic conduit)

More likely is a very obvious bad connection in the last working outlet or the first nonworking outlet.

Ola

 

[electricaldoctor]

Those "quick-wire" receptacles are ****!!! Do yourself a favor while you have all of your receptacles pulled out of the boxes. Pigtail the wires using proper wire nuts and terminate them on the screw terminals. That way, if your connections ever do come loose, your circuit will not be interupted.