My bathroom outlets don't work

[ssaamm]

I need some help please. Turned on the fart fan in the bathroom this morning and the fan and the light didn't work. After work I took out the bulb, and it worked in another fixture in the bathroom. I then realized that all of the outlets in the bathroom don't work--hooked the clock radio up to all of them w/ no luck. All but one of the lights do work. I checked the breakers and all seem to be in order. I would appreciate any advice. I was almost ready to go buy a new fan until I checked all the outlets. Thanks for any help, Sam

[jstirewalt]

SSAAMM,

Have you checked the ground fault plug in to see if it has tripped. It is the outlet with a reset/test button between the recepticles.

Jeff

[CAMAN]

Yep, find the ground fault outlet and reset it.

[ssaamm]

I pushed the buttons but they did not bounce back like one in the other room did when I tested it. The one in the other room is new and has a red light that lights up. The old one has a red and black button. If this is not working, I assume this could foul the whole system?? I am not the handiest, and my wife would like this fixed pronto. If I replace this, could that straighten things out? Thanks again. Sam

[jstirewalt]

ssaamm,

Most likely the Ground Fault is the source of your problem. Switching it out is not that difficult. Make sure you have the breaker tripped before you attempt to remove/replace the outlet. The two buttons on the front should be test and reset. One will trip the outlet and the other will reset it. Good luck.

[CAMAN]

Yes, if the GFCI is bad or tripped it will shut off all power in the bathroom. You may have something like a loose connection or a bad GFCI outlet.

I would shut the circuit breaker off to the bathroom and pull the GFCI outlet out and see if there is anything noticeably loose. Tighten up all connections and test again. If it still doesn't work then it is most likely the actual GFCI outlet has gone bad. And those are fairly simple to replace, just make sure the you place the wires in the same spots they came off.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

and have ample lighting in there, not just a simple flashlight. you have no power and need to be able to clearly see. Learned that one the hardway in a bathroom outlet change out years back

[ssaamm]

Thanks, I will give a shot. Should be interesting. Have to hit a hardware store and give it a whirl.

[Tom7227]

FYI I bought a GFCI that had a light in the middle of it. I thought it was sort of goofy but bought one anyway. It really does light things up and I would give some thought to putting one in the bathroom. I don't think it was that much more expensive. Got it at one of the big box.

Also I had a problem when I tried to hook up some old wiring onto the bottom of a different GFCI. I kept on tripping. The electrician that checked it out said that it was some minor issue with something down stream and since everything was working it wasn't worth nailing down. Probably some outlet hooked up wrong or something like that. He just hooked the line up so that the downstream stuff wasn't protected and called it quits. All you pros out there don't get your undies in a bundle, sometimes practical has to be used.

[BobT]

All you pros out there don't get your undies in a bundle, sometimes practical has to be used.

Sorry, but I will get my undies in a bunch. That "electrician" should not be licensed. Your GFCI is detecting a ground fault condition. This means that somewhere in your circuit some of the current is going to ground and most likely its happening in a faulty piece of equipment downstream and an accident is waiting for you to touch it one day. A GFCI is used in the bathroom for a reason. In the event of a ground fault it should trip immediately. In fact, it should trip so fast that you might not even feel the shock. You're standing in a room that contains sources of water and steam and these don't play well with electricity.

Being a former prosecutor I'm surprised you would even suggest this.

[SkunkedAgain]

ssaamm,

Hopefully the GFCI is the issue. However, you may want to check the overall condition of the wiring in your bathroom. Is it the old cloth wiring or knob and tube? You may have bare wire contacting a metal box somewhere that is causing the ground. This can happen in any house, but especially the older that they get.

[JohnMickish]

Some interesting reads here, that's for sure.

All I'm going to say is GFCIs are there for a reason, and that there are things you do and do not protect with them.

[Tom7227]

Bob - it wasn't a bathroom. The downstream outlet is in a wall in the dining room and I think it's been used about 4 times in the past 25 years. But given your expression of concern I will check it out to make sure the problem isn't dangerous and also see if I can repair it. Thanks for your nudge. Tom

[ssaamm]

Hello, I replaced the outlet, and everything works like a charm. There is a small green light that I assume means things are good. Oddly enough, I found some GFI tester in a drawer in the garage. It has lights that show if it's installed properly. It said I'm in good shape. Is there anything I could have screwed up or made a fire hazard at this point? Thanks for the help. All this "wasted time" spent on this site according to someone else in the household just saved me some cash. Thanks again. Sam

[JohnMickish]

When you push the test button if everything that is protected loses power it is done right. Good job.

[BobT]

Bob - it wasn't a bathroom. The downstream outlet is in a wall in the dining room and I think it's been used about 4 times in the past 25 years. But given your expression of concern I will check it out to make sure the problem isn't dangerous and also see if I can repair it. Thanks for your nudge. Tom

After rereading what I wrote I probably came off a bit stronger than I intended but GFCI protection can be a good thing. All electric current should be flowing through the ungrounded (hot) and grounded (neutral) conductors only. There should never be any current flowing through any grounding conductor (bare wire). The way a GFCI works is it monitors the current flowing through the ungrounded and grounded conductors to be sure it is always the same. Any difference beyond a minimum tolerance indicates that some of the current must be flowing through the grounding circuit and so it immediately trips the GFCI to stop the current flow. Appliance circuits in the dining areas are also required to be protected so you’re making a smart choice to have that circuit rechecked. If the GFCI is not defective then it is detecting a current on the grounding leg which means you may have a short-circuit condition.

It concerns and irritates me when I hear about professionals that work around safeties rather than doing the job right, especially for a customer or client. It’s a disservice to their customers and their profession and can leave a potentially harmful condition behind. In my line of work we have encountered too many instances where safeties are bypassed resulting in crushed hands, severed fingers, electric shock, etc. We design our equipment with mechanical and electrical safeguards in order to do our best to protect workers from themselves but it’s never 100% foolproof. There’s always someone that will bypass safety circuits, leave guards removed, or ignore safe operating procedures only to find out the hard way that it was the wrong thing to do. They get away with it the first time, second time, etc. so they figure they’ve got it covered and then one day…..

[SkunkedAgain]

Is there anything I could have screwed up or made a fire hazard at this point? Thanks for the help. All this "wasted time" spent on this site according to someone else in the household just saved me some cash. Thanks again. Sam

That little tester tells you that you hooked up the wires correctly. As someone said, if the outlet shuts off the power when you push the test button then you are in great shape.

Mrs. Skunked Again is now a big fan of these forums because of the great advice that I've gotten....and money that we've saved!