I have a hallway receptacle that was working fine up to today. My wife plugged in a vacuum cleaner and informed me the vacuum did not run. I am assuming this may have caused the problem but am not sure. I did plug in a couple of other electrical devices and received no power. This receptacle was tied in via a junction box a while back and it worked fine up until today.

I did check the receptacle with a tester plug and no indicator lights came on. Are there other areas I can look in to find this problem. I also checked the breaker box and it appears that nothing has been tripped. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Just because it APPEARS that no breaker has tripped does not mean that it hasn't. Many circuit breakers have an intermediate position when they are tripped. Try turning off the breaker for this circuit and then turning it back on.

You DO know which breaker is for this circuit, right?

 

Do you have an analog voltage tester, neon light, multimeter etc.? If the breaker is not tripped pull the receptacle and test the wires to the receptacle. If back stabbed move to the screws. If that doesn't work test for voltage at the Jbox and redo the connections.

Always turn off the power before removing a receptacle to test. After it is pulled and nothing is touching re-energize.

 

I will test the Jbox connections and respond how I make out in this forum. This will be done tomorrow. Thanks.

 

I will check the breakers as you said and verify whether one has tripped thus causing this problem. I will do that later this evening or tomorrow. Hopefully this will be an easy fix and I won't have to fish new wire to the outlet. I'll post the outcome. Thanks.

 

If the breaker solution doesn't work, you might look for a near-by GFI. Some people will often tap into a nearby outlet for power not realizing that the circuit is GFI protected. Not a good practice, but may be a solution to the mystery.

 

Not only check the junction box but also backstabbed receptales as well.,, That is the most common curpits with " open circuit"

once you find them move the backstabbed recpectales to the screw and tighten them down.


Keep in your mind the backstabbed and backwire are not the same they have diffrent function on this set up the backstabbed is spring loaded clip to hold the wire in the place. The backwired mean it have clamp to hold the wire in place by plate and screw combation to clamp in the wire.

Merci,Marc


Quick side note if you have alum branch wires in there please let us know we have a proper way to do this.

{ don't get confused with copper tinned wire which it will look silvery colour but it will have copper wire in the middle that is normal for most older home have this type of wire it will have rubber coating with cloth overlayment., But alum wire is all silvery colour and genrally will have plastic coating on the wires.}

Merci,Marc

 

I back traced from the non-working outlet to a junction box and found a loose wire. After turning off the breaker I removed the electrical tape around the wire nuts, the wire nut and reconnected all once again. After flipping the breaker and confirming all was well I wrapped electrical tape around the wire nuts and up the wire a little and gave a sigh of relief. Mission Accomplished! Thank you all for your able assistance.

 

Glad you got it. Just don't ask about electrical tape on wire nuts.