What would cause a receptacle to quit working?

Question

My bathroom receptacle has been working fine but when I went to plug the blowdryer in this morning it would not work. I knows its not the blowdryer because it worked in another room. The problem is none of the receptacles in the house has a reset button so what else can I do?? The lights in the bathroom are working fine.

Answer 1

First check other receptacles in nearby rooms. You proabbaly just tripped a breaker. Its not uncommon for the receptables and lights to be on two seperate circuits. If you think the receptable itself might be bad, take off the cover plate and carefully look at the back of the receptacle, looking for loose wires or evidence of smoke or heat. Some homes may also have a remote GFI in another location.

Answer 2

I have the same problem with one of my bathroom GFI receptacles. I think it's just a faulty receptacle, and I plan to replace mine in the near future. You don't need to use a GFI receptacle with your blowdryer elsewhere in the house, by the way - any kind will do. It's only in bathrooms because of the danger of electric shock from the plumbing. Which makes me wonder why they don't require GFI receptacles in kitchens or laundry rooms. Go figure!

Answer 3

A wire on the back of the receptacle is loose. It is making enough contact to be energized but looses the power when a load is put on it. Shut off the power and carefully remove the receptacle, there should be a loose wire in the box. If not then either the hot or neutral is loose in the panel.

Answer 4

if your house is newer the gfci receptacle for that outlet might be in the closet that is connected to your bathroom. if not check the outlets next to your front and back door of your home. then check for any tripped breakers in your panel were all of your breakers are at. some times it looks like a breaker is on when it is really tripped.if this does not cure the problem then you are forced to pull the gfci receptacle out of the wall, to look fro problems.

Answer 5

1. Reset the breaker.
2.Any sparks come out of the outlet??
3. If #2 is an no answer see # 1 answer.

Answer 6

you may have a GFCI reset button in-line somewhere in one of the switches or breakers and you need to reset or the wire snapped off inside the receptacle.

Answer 7

Probably the circuit breaker in power distribution panel. Normally lights and outlets are on different circuit breakers

reset the breaker

Answer 8

You have one of two problems. You have a remote GFI outlet, it could be anywhere, the basement, garage, outside and it has tripped or you have a loose connection or broken outlet it the box with the not working outlet in it.

Answer 9

not all gfi outlets are located in the room itself.try going to your main circuit panel and see if the breaker itself is the ground fault interupter{gfi}