Exterior Outlets Not Working

Recently, I accidently (out of stupidity) caused a spark/flash at one of my exterior outlets. As a result, all of the exterior outlets have no power. I've already flipped every single one of the circuit breakers, including the main breaker, at the electrical panel but there is still no power coming out from the exterior outlets. Interestingly, I can't find any circuit breakers that label for any of the exterior outlets. My house was built in 1999. Does anyone know waht I should do short of calling an electrician?

 

Sure. Reset the GFCI that tripped. This is a duplex receptacle with "T" and "R" buttons on it. Push all the "R" buttons you can find. Look first in the garage and exterior receptacles, but look everywhere else if this fails.

I just searched this forum for "GFCI" and got 422 hits. You will find everything you would ever want to know about GFCI in these posts.

Post back and tell us where you found the GFCI that fixed your problem.

 

Judging from the build date of the house I would assume the outside outlets are GFI protected. If the outlet you shorted doesn't have the test/reset button on it - it may be wired in series with one of those GFI outlets somewhere else in the house. You may only have to go around hitting the reset button on the GFI receptacles until you find one that is tripped (that was supplying the GFI for the rest of the outlets in the series). Some electricians use GFI breakers, then you would have to reset the GFI portion of the breaker, and simply pulling the breakers off and on might not reset the GFI on the breaker depending on the manufacturer. Hope this helps...

 

I found the GFCI receptable that connect to the exterior outlets of my house. After I reset the GFCI, the power is back. The GFCI receptable is hidden in my garage.

There is another GFCI receptable outside my front window and the "RESET" button would not pops out. Originally, I thought I've to replace that GFCI receptable in order to get the power back.

Thanks for your advice.