Hi, the other evening one of the strangest things happened..... the wall outlet in both my bathooms stopped working... they are not beside one another or close to one another.....the bedroom separates them... and all the outlets in the bedroom work.... they were working earlier in the day, and later that evening both were completely dead.... What could cause this?

HELP!

Thanks..

 

Not strange at all. You need to reset the GFCI. Most likely it is in the garage. Press the reset button.

 

Hi..... I checked the breaker box in the garage... There was no reset button, only the breaker switches, so I just flipped everyone of them in the box off.. left them off like 30 seconds and then back on, thinking this might reset something, but nothing happened.... Any other suggestions? if so please let me know... Thanks

 

I have also noticed that not only the outlet in each bathroom has stopped working, but also the outside outlet on the deck... it seems to be completely dead all of a sudden as well..... This is so frustrating... anymore suggestions? Please. Thanks

 

The GFCI isn't in the panel. It is a receptacle with two buttons on it. Most likely it is in the garage, but it also could be in any of your bathrooms, your basement, your kitchen, your porches, or really anywhere else too.

But check the garage first, especially hidden behind all that junk out there.

 

Found it..... hit the reset and bingo, they work again.... Thanks!... Appreciate the help.

 

So exactly where was it?

 

Regardless of where that GFCI outlet is you can have it rewired so these other outlets that don't need to be GFCI protected won't loose power when the GFCI does. GFCI outlets have two sets of terminals. The ones on top (or bottom as sometimes they're oriented upside down) are meant to be where power is supplied to the outlet. The other set is meant to go to outlets you want protected by the GFCI outlet (in other words they'll loose power if the outlet trips). If you ignore this second terminal, and run power to your other outlets from the first terminal they'll always have power. Only the GFCI itself will trip.

Just a thought. You may like having these other outlets protected, but it depends on what the other outlets are being used for.

What tripped it by the way?

 

Cobalt, as you can see, that's not an option here.

 

You can wire GFCI outlets so one doesn't depend on the other, but independently they're GFCI protected.