How do I find out what is wrong with outlets in my kitchen that suddenly dont work?

Question

three on one wall in my kitchen dont work now but work last week.

Answer 1

My guess is that you have a GFI outlet in your kitchen, or somewhere near by. These are outlets that have circuit breakers built into them. If an overload occurs, the circuit will break, and the outlet will no longer work until you reset it. In many newer houses, other outlets will be connected through the single GFI, and so you may find several outlets that are not working. Find an outlet with a test button and a reset button. Press the reset button, then try your outlets. Another possiblility is that you blew a circuit breaker. Go to your electrical box, and look for a circuit switch that seems "soft" when you push it to the on position. Chances are that you will need to switch that circuit completely off, and then back on to reset the circuit. Be careful not to turn off the wrong circuit breaker though...you don't want to shut off power to something you need.

Answer 2

All of the answers above are getting to the right point. You have probably blown a safety mechanism designed to keep too much electricity from going through the outlets and overheating them, causing a fire.

First, unplug everything in the outlets. If you have blown the circuit you can't repair it with all the stuff that blew them still plugged in. You can systemmatically replug stuff in later.

If your house is fairly new you will have "circuit breakers" somewhere in the house or buildling. This will usually be a gray box on a wall. Open it and look for the switch that's flipped the opposite direction of all the others. Flip it back and then go check out your kitchen outlets.

If your house or building is older (like built before the 1970s) you may have "fuses". Again, find a box on a wall and open it. Fuses are glass and metal screw type devices. Look for the one that has a burned out look in the glass part. You will need to remove this one and replace it with a fuse of the EXACT same wattage. You can find these at any hardware store and alot of groceries.

Finally, it could be that your kitchen plugs have "ground fault interupters" built into them. This is a special kind of circuit breaker just for high output plugs like those in kitchens or bathrooms. If one of these has been tripped, push the "reset" buttons on them, as another responder has suggested.

Once you have done one (or all!) of these steps, go back to the kitchen and start plugging things back in one at a time. If you plug something in and they pop off again that's the "straw that broke the camel's back" and you will need to plug at least one of your devices into an outlet on another circuit. Perhaps across the room or you may have to run an extension cord.

If none of these work, then you are out of the league of what an amatuer can do and you need to call an electrician to investigate further.

Good luck and be careful!

Answer 3

If you live in an apartment building call your leasing agent or maintenance person.
In your own home you should know where the electric circuit panel box is. It is gray and square and is sometimes in the utility room or behind a door in the kitchen or in a garage if you have a garage attached to the house.
The gray box will have a metal door with a small finger latch. Pull the latch and the door will open. You'll see a double line of switches. Look for the switch that seems to be a little off. Push it to the off position then snap it back to line up with the other switches.
I hope this helps.

Answer 4

Its going to be either a tripped breaker, blown fuse or a tripped GFI outlet. Check your electric box for a breaker thats somewhere between off and on...if you find it reset it (turn it off then back on). Or if one of your outlets that no longer works is a GFI outlet try reseting it.

Answer 5

More than likely you have thrown a breaker on the outlet. Check your outlets for two buttons, one will say "test" and one will say "reset", push the "reset" button. If you can not find one, check your breaker box for a flipped breaker--if you find one, reset it. And if that doesn't work, call an electrician.

Answer 6

Over the years, I've seen the loss of the neutral connection somewhere in the circuit. Check all the boxes on the run, first one on that loop first, sometimes the insert type connections fail.

Answer 7

You might have blown a breaker. Go outside (or wherever your box is) and look for the switch thats different. Then pump it back over to the other side. If all else fails, call an electrician!

Answer 8

check the "fuse box"

Prolly trying to run too many things at the same time

Answer 9

check your circuit breakers and make sure they are all on. you might have just tripped fuse.