Outdoor receptacles not working

I just bought a house 1-1/2 weeks ago and everything was working fine. I mowed the backyard with an electric lawn mower, no problems. Last night I was out with the electric weed wacker, and about halfway thru the yard, the receptacle stops working. At first I thought it was the weed wacker, but it works fine. I have one outdoor receptacle in the rear of the townhouse, and one in the front. Neither works now. I checked the fuse box, and everything seemed ok. I flipped the breaker off and then on for the circuit labelled for these receptacles (just in case), and they still don't work. I believe the breaker is 15 amps. Anybody have any suggestions on what else to check? I can't mow without these working. I can't believe there would be a problem with the wiring as the house is only 3 years old. Any way to test for a short in the wiring itself?

Thanks,
Neil

 

The experts will be along soon and may/will give you better/more advice, for now you most likely have a GFCI tripped somewhere, in the garage or in the basement, if you have one. On a house that new,the outdoor receptacle(s) should be protected with a GFCI.

On the GFCI there are two buttons, one is a test the other is a reset, look for a reset that needs to be pushed back in.

Let the hunt begin.

 

The outdoor receptacles do not have the reset buttons in between the outlets. The are simple outlets covered with the flip-up protectors. I have only found two other GFI receptacles, located in the kitchen (they are a whole other problem also). I checked and reset both. I am going to look in the garage to see if there is a GFI in there, but I think it was a regular outlet. I am going to search out and reset all of the GFI's I can find in the house and see if that solves the problem. I am also concerned that a weed whacker would trip it, but the lawn mower never did.

Thanks,
Neil

 

Start the hunt. The GFCI is lurking somewhere. Look on the interior walls on the front and back of the unit, or in the basement if you have one.

 

Found the offending GFCI receptacle. It was in the garage. Everything works fine now. Thanks for the help!!

-Neil

 

I can almost guarantee that it is a tripped GFCI receptacle somewhere in your home that serves these recepts outside.
Check the garage, bathrooms, kitchen, etc for a little button on the recept to push in (reset).