no power to an outlet please help?

Question

I just bought a house and yesterday the septic people came by for a routine inspection. (while i wasnt there) According to his report, the blower and pump doesnt have any electricity running to it. There is a outlet there that has both items plugged in, but it apparently has no power to it. I checked all breakers at the box and there are not any that are tripped. How can i check to see if the outlet has power running to it or if the outlet is just there for looks.

Answer 1

Take a drill, table lamp, etc to the plug. Plug in the unit and test. If the appliance you use doesn't work, your outlet has no power. If you can see the wire feeding in to the recepticle, follow it back and see if there is a switch, or another fused box in the line. If it goes directly to the breaker panel, you may have a faulty breaker.

I suggest you bring in an electrician with a meter to troubleshoot the recepticle. It is a simple call, and he can take care of it rather quickly.

Answer 2

When in doubt , best to call in a pro.
However, the lamp test as mentioned will confirm whether there is any power at the outlet..
If you,re up to it ,the reasonably safe thing to do
would be to to "flip" the breakers & see if the one feeding the outlet is "soft' it should click into the on position firmly.
Also, with the breaker off , check the connections to the receptacle in question & any others that may be feeding it.
Might just be a bad connection in the circuit .
Wirenut connections & receptacles can look OK but still be faulty.
Reset the breaker & try the lamp test again.
Cheap enough to replace the receptacle if the feeds to it are good & the connections are solid.
If power is present ,look for breakers on the pump & blower that may have tripped.
Best regards

Answer 3

It's probably on a loop that includes a GFCI (ground fault circuit interruptor) outlet. A GFCI outlet has a circuit breaker integrated into it that trips when a ground fault is detected. If the dead outlet you describe is connected in line with a GFCI outlet that has tripped, you will have to find and reset the outlet. These are installed to supply outlets that will be in an area that could get wet (bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, and external outlets) and be a shock hazard.

A GFCI outlet has two buttons on it: Test and Reset. When you find a GFCI outlet, press the Test button. If it hasn't tripped yet, the Reset button will pop out a bit and it will make an audible click (like a circuit breaker tripping). Press Reset to reset the breaker.

If you press Test and nothing happens, this GFCI outlet has tripped. Press Reset to reset it and try the suspect outlet again.

Answer 4

If there is a pump in your septic tank, you must have a mound type system. In that case you should also have an alarm in the basement to let you know the power has failed to the pump. I would call an electrician to check those circuits. This is to important to try and save money by doing it yourself.

Answer 5

Obviously you can take a small lamp and plug it into the outlet to see if the circuit is energized.

In addition, I would recommend that you physically cycle all the circuit breakers that could be supplying power to that outlet. It is not uncommon for a circuit breaker to fail such that it looks closed, but in fact is actually tripped. This is not uncommon for old circuit breakers.....yes they actually do wear out.

Also check to see if the equipment itself has any kind of ground fault interruptor. This would not be unexpected for equipment that is running outdoors or could be exposed to water, such as a pump.

Answer 6

You should call an electrician. If there are no breakers popped, then there may be a break in a wire that could injure you.

Answer 7

If there is a GFCI test it to be sure it is working and that it is not tripped.

Bert