Glad you got it. Good job. What "foil thing"?

 

Well, it was a hidden GFCI...but why they would ever put it up there????

 

I agree , What Foil Thing ?

God bless
Wyr

 

It's funny how/where GFCIs can"hide". One of my coworkers had a similar problem to the one in this thread-dead receptacles seemingly without cause. I mentioned the possibility of a hidden GFCI. He searched, and finally found it- mounted to the side of an exposed stud, but located in such a way that it was hidden by the open door of the circuit breaker box.
Want to bet where I looked when he told me that!

 

Sometimes the most obvious solution is right in front of your eyes. I had a similar situation at a home of one of my customers. The outside outlets tripped off; all breakers were set to "ON" meaning no tripped breakers. So I had to assume that first I will check for GFCIs that may have tripped. Now this house is about 10 years old and very expensive. So after searching and finding every GFCI I could possible find and reset all of them and many trips to the main circuit breaker panel I was stumped; stood back, took a breath and all of a sudden, right in front of my face on the board where the main panel was mounted was a GFCI which is by code. Yup, that had tripped. I reset it and the outlets worked outside. The builders used the panel GFCI which is supposed to be individual and only to the panel to protect all the outlets outside. The wire going from the Load of the GFCI went back through the EMT nipple to the main box and was wire nutted to the outside circuit; duh!! how stupid did I feel. That's what happens when you overthink things I guess.

 

OK - it was in the garage, where the AC and water heater are located.


the foil thing is basically some sheet that has some foil covered look. two walls were covered with that sheet. the GFCI was basically behind that.

 

Classic code violation. Did you fix it so it is now accessible?

 

I'll bet it was either a foil covered ISO sheet of insulation or radiant barrier. Prob not installed by the builder.

 

You are lucky you ever found it !

God bless
Wyr