Open Hot

[DTro]

I've never had this happen before, so maybe I'm overlooking something obvious.

This winter I had an outlet in the garage stop working "Christmas Lights".

Anyways, I just forgot about it and figured I tripped a ground fault or something.

Well just a bit ago I was out troubleshooting it and can only come to the conclusion that there is an open hot somewhere.

I checked all the breakers and ground faults. I cannot find any outlets or lights that are not functional. Just this one outlet.

I opened up the box and tested the bare wire coming in thinking maybe the outlet went bad. I don't see any juice.

Anything else I can try, or where to look. I really hate to tear apart the wall and start following it back

[cjac]

I had the same exact scenario last year. Down to the Xmas lights in fact.

Turns out it was an exterior outlet, still functional, that had an exposed wire. It was enough to make the other outlet in the garage not work. It took opening each outlet up on the line to find it though. Check any exterior lines first, it's a possible cause.

$6 later with a new outlet and I've been good since.

[JohnMickish]

 Originally Posted By: dtro

I opened up the box and tested the bare wire coming in thinking maybe the outlet went bad.

You tested the bare wire for what? The bare wire is the ground, and should not have any electricity on it, if it does you have bigger fish to fry. On your receptacle, you should have a black, white and bare wire if you have romex in your house. The black (or red) is the "hot" (properly called the ungrounded conductor), the white is the "neutral" (properly called the grounded conductor) and the bare or green wire is the ground (properly called the grounding conductor).

I would start by purchasing one of those receptacle (it's not an outlet, it's a receptacle) testers that has three lights on it. That should tell you if you have an open neutral, an open hot or an open ground. It could very well be a bad receptacle (especially if it's one of those $.25 big box store brand specials). If you are competant with a meter check between the white and black, (should be 120 or so) between black and bare (120), white and bare (0). If you have anything other than these readings you have trouble.

Is this a regular receptacle or is it a GFCI? If it's a GFCI and you have an open ground that can cause some pretty goofy things to happen as well.

To bad this didn't happen before Xmas as I was doing a job in Belle Plaine and used to travel right thru Jordan. I could have checked it out.

FYI, an outlet is any place where electrical energy is taken from. A light box is an outlet, as is a receptacle.

[cjac]

 Quote:

Is this a regular receptacle or is it a GFCI? If it's a GFCI and you have an open ground that can cause some pretty goofy things to happen as well.

Exactly what my issue was........the outlet not working was the GFI not working from an open ground.

Thanks for the "electrical" speak!

[dakotakid31]

Yeah and when you take a crump-you use the water closet not a toilet..lmao

[JohnMickish]

 Originally Posted By: dakotakid31

Yeah and when you take a crump-you use the water closet not a toilet..lmao

Dude, it's pretty hard to be technical with slang especially when we might not be on the same page. It's kind of important with electricity to be on the same page.

[dakotakid31]

Settle down sparky it was a joke-i am sure you knew exactly what he was saying since the majority of non-trades people call them outlets.Dude

[cjac]

dakotakid31,

I even got your joke, as a non-sparky! I thought it was funny!

Yes, I'm non-trades as you stated, but I do appreciate mnfishinguy helping us non-sparkys out. From now on I'll refer to it as a receptacle, and not a plug-it-in thingy!

[DTro]

Thanks for the tips.

For the record, when I said bare wire, I meant the bare black/white. Instead of testing the outlet only I put a multimeter to the stripped end(s) and ground.

I have the three light tester as well. No lights on (Open Hot)

It's not a GFCI, and like I said, no juice coming to outlet.

[sparcebag]

dtro is it the receptical at the end of a run? No others beyond it? If so go back to the one ya think is behind it,pull it out and check incomming power and out going...That receptical may be bad or a bad connection on outgoing power.Check wires not a plugin check.

Have you nailed anything on the walls since it was working?

[Surface Tension]

What sparce said. I'll bet this job was done without pigtails.

[DTro]

yeah, it must be at the end of a run as there is only one set of wires coming in.

Now I just need to figure out what is feeding it.

I never thought about that, I bet the upstream receptacle was "staked" and it popped out or something.

[Roofer]

The wire may have come out on the previous receptacle in the run or maybe the receptacle is bad. I've had that before. With these cheapo receptacles and wire nowadays, it could have easily just came apart or simply quit working. I think you will find the problem quickly now with the suggestions made here.

[JohnMickish]

 Originally Posted By: dakotakid31

Settle down sparky it was a joke-i am sure you knew exactly what he was saying since the majority of non-trades people call them outlets.Dude

I got it too

[JohnMickish]

 Originally Posted By: dtro

For the record, when I said bare wire, I meant the bare black/white. Instead of testing the outlet only I put a multimeter to the stripped end(s) and ground.

The reason I did get a little testy though was because of this. A person can get into trouble real fast with things like this. A bare wire to me ( and others in the trade) is a ground and only a ground. For the record, more people are killed in the USA from voltages under 120 than over 120.

[JohnMickish]

If the house is older than 30 years I'm going to say there is a real good chance that a wire has broken off right at the receptacle upstream, either that or it was backstabbed and came out.

Is it 12 or 14 gauge wire?

[PerchPounder]

 Originally Posted By: mnfishinguy

If the house is older than 30 years I'm going to say there is a real good chance that a wire has broken off right at the receptacle upstream, either that or it was backstabbed and came out.

Is it 12 or 14 gauge wire?

Thats an extremely common problem. Its a very unreliable way to wire whether new or old even with good parts.

[DTro]

Actually the house is less than 10yrs old.

I'll be out looking here in a bit. Hopefully I'll report back with some success.

[DTro]

 Originally Posted By: sparcebag

go back to the one ya think is behind it,

This is proving to be a bugger. Tried the usual suspects, but who knows where they pulled power from.

Here's my garage setup.

Switches

(2) Next to door to house and next to utility door.

Outlets

(3) Bad one on shared wall to house. One overhead for garage opener (actually just thought of that one didn't check) and then a GFCI near the utility door.

Also a sub box that powers an unused 220 box.

Now I have to go check that overhead outlet.......

[DTro]

Ok that was a dead end of run.

I found another overhead outlet, also an end of run and then I checked the one outside outlet (weatherprooof, not GFCI) and that was also an end of run.

I just find it odd that the outlet that the Christmas lights were plugged into, just mysteriously quit working.

[JohnMickish]

If you know exactly what circuit it is, turn only that one off then you know which boxes to dig in.

[DTro]

Brilliant

It is just one circuit.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

Thanks again

[Farmboy1]

Darren,

Are you sure that this receptacle is not feed off of a GFI receptacle? Many times they will run numerous receptacles off of one GFI to save that expense. I would open up the GFI and verify that the both the line and load side have power to them. This should be labeled on the back of the GFI.

GFIs in garages cause a ton of problems when they feed through.

[Shack]

Ok, I got it!

Your neighbor is remotely controlling the power this receptacle from his house. He did some eclectically Tom foolery and he is laughing as we chat on line. Plus, he is calling this in to a local radio station and laughing on air about it also.

Its gott’a be this

[Shack]

If you have a sub panel for the 220, how many breakers are in it? You said sub box, is this a receptacle or a small panel.

It would not be the first time I have seen a garage have a sub panel, with some receptacles still feeding from the inside house main panel and other feeding off of the sub panel in garage.