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Old 08-23-2007, 03:13 PM
 
Location: SoCA to NC
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We have been in our new construction home for 11 months. The past couple of days I have had four outlets stop working. 2 are in bathrooms and the other two are elsewhere (random places) in the house. These outlets are not connected to a switch so that is not the culprit. I tried resetting the buttons on the switches downstairs (don't know what they are called but they have the buttons on them you push to reset) and hubby has tried the electrical box. I find it strange that out of the blue they stopped working. All stopped working mid activity on them. 2 stopped while vacuuming off them, one while blow drying hair and one with a lamp. Is this something that can be dangerous and I need my builder out here asap? Or can this wait until our 1 year warranty walk through which is Sept. 18th? Thanks for your help!
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Old 08-23-2007, 06:01 PM
 
Location: The Raider Nation._ Our band kicks brass
1,853 posts, read 9,658,058 times
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The ones with buttons are ground fault outlets. You could also have ground fault breakers in the box. Check the outlets outside your house. It's possible that one of them is popped, and may be on the same line.
I also wonder if your electrician used the push in "quick connections" on your outlets, instead of the screws on the sides. Something could have pulled loose. I wouldn't call this a dire emergency, but it sure is annoying.

One other quick story. Years ago at my old house, both outside outlets, and two different bathroom outlets quit working. They were all on the same ground fault breaker. After trouble shooting and almost replacing the breaker, I found that one of the outside outlets had corroded connections on the back of it. A good rule of thumb about electricity is, if you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with it.
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Old 08-23-2007, 06:09 PM
 
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Electrician consultation says: Make sure you turn the breaker all the way off and then back on, not just trying to push them on. As for the bathroom outlets, sounds like a GFCI tripped (especially using a vacuum or blow dryer - sometimes a motor can trip a GFCI). He says to check every outlet that might be a GFCI, including basements, garages, bathrooms, and outdoors. Hit the test then the reset button on all of them.

Also, being new construction, you might have AFCIs (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/afcifac8.pdf - broken link). Residential electricians (like my husband) hate them for nuisance tripping, safety people (like me) love them for preventing fires.

DH says he hates to state the obvious (in reference to turning the tripped breakers off before flipping them on, and resetting the GFCIs), but he gets a lot of calls where thats all it is.

He also points out that hair dryers and vacuums draw a lot of juice, and if you run a hair dryer and something else on the same circuit at the same time, it will probably trip the breaker. Its a safety feature and means you are drawing too much on the circuit. I know we experienced this in my old house where the bathroom outlet and the heater fan were on the same circuit. You couldn't run the heater fan and a hairdryer at the same time or the breaker would trip.

Another thought, with the GFCIs, some brands "fair-safe.: That is, when the ground fault protection stops working, they cannot be reset; however, most don't do that.

So, to answer your question - go check the breakers (off then on) and GFCIs (test then reset). If its still not working, then it is possible you have loose wires somewhere, bad breakers, bad outlets, etc. But he says if you can live without the outlets, your probably ok waiting. Especially if you turn the breakers to those circuit off.
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Old 08-23-2007, 07:59 PM
 
27,225 posts, read 27,290,570 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rubytue View Post
Electrician consultation says: Make sure you turn the breaker all the way off and then back on, not just trying to push them on. As for the bathroom outlets, sounds like a GFCI tripped (especially using a vacuum or blow dryer - sometimes a motor can trip a GFCI). He says to check every outlet that might be a GFCI, including basements, garages, bathrooms, and outdoors. Hit the test then the reset button on all of them.

Also, being new construction, you might have AFCIs (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/afcifac8.pdf - broken link). Residential electricians (like my husband) hate them for nuisance tripping, safety people (like me) love them for preventing fires.

DH says he hates to state the obvious (in reference to turning the tripped breakers off before flipping them on, and resetting the GFCIs), but he gets a lot of calls where thats all it is.

He also points out that hair dryers and vacuums draw a lot of juice, and if you run a hair dryer and something else on the same circuit at the same time, it will probably trip the breaker. Its a safety feature and means you are drawing too much on the circuit. I know we experienced this in my old house where the bathroom outlet and the heater fan were on the same circuit. You couldn't run the heater fan and a hairdryer at the same time or the breaker would trip.

Another thought, with the GFCIs, some brands "fair-safe.: That is, when the ground fault protection stops working, they cannot be reset; however, most don't do that.

So, to answer your question - go check the breakers (off then on) and GFCIs (test then reset). If its still not working, then it is possible you have loose wires somewhere, bad breakers, bad outlets, etc. But he says if you can live without the outlets, your probably ok waiting. Especially if you turn the breakers to those circuit off.



Bedrooms generally shouldnt be on a GFI but...they could be on an arc fault, which pretty much acts as one from the service panel.
A lot of times, too, in the 'cookie-cutter' homes, the electrician just want to get the job done faster, so instead of using the wrap-around method of installing recept's, they simply use the 'quick-install' and depending on the brand of plugs they use, these wires can (and have been known to ) come disconnected from the back of the recept. There could be several reasons for this, but I was simply adding a few of my own thoughts.
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Old 08-23-2007, 08:39 PM
 
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Power Surge View Post
Bedrooms generally shouldnt be on a GFI but...they could be on an arc fault, which pretty much acts as one from the service panel.
True, but she said some of these outlets were in bathrooms. Hence the discussion of both GFCIs and AFCIs.

Quote:
Instead of using the wrap-around method of installing recept's, they simply use the 'quick-install' and depending on the brand of plugs they use, these wires can (and have been known to ) come disconnected from the back of the recept.
Good point. DH just nodded his head and said "oh yeah, thats a really good possibility. [bleep] lazy electricians. But that was included it 'loose wires.'" LOL
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Old 08-23-2007, 08:41 PM
 
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
1,501 posts, read 11,722,846 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rubytue View Post
Another thought, with the GFCIs, some brands "fair-safe.: That is, when the ground fault protection stops working, they cannot be reset; however, most don't do that.
DOH! That was supposed to be "fail-safe"

I can't type tonight
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Old 08-23-2007, 10:02 PM
 
1,174 posts, read 6,922,139 times
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I'll confirm that it sounds exactly like the quick-install, push-in, connections on the plugs. Of course, first check the GFCI's and circuit breakers, but I think you'll be led back to the wiring at the plugs.

I had the same thing happen in a production house I owned.
Various plugs would stop working. Sometimes they turned out to not be the ones with the poor conncetions. They turned out to be upline in the circuit.

Basicly I had to pop out each and every plug, pull the wiring out of the quick-install slots, and wire it to the screws on the plug. In all cases, there was no visible indication that the wiring had come loose or disconnected. However, after the exercise was done, all the circuits worked properly and continued to work properly.
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Old 08-27-2007, 01:50 AM
 
Location: Fairbanks Alaska
1,677 posts, read 6,417,979 times
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Make sure the things you plugged in are not at fault then call the contractor for a warrenty call. This should not be happening in a new home. Don't wait the year.
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Old 08-28-2007, 01:01 PM
 
Location: SoCA to NC
2,183 posts, read 7,970,749 times
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Well thank you everyone. A couple of them started working again and then failed again very quickly. We pushed all re-set buttons etc. with no luck. This is a custom spec home. The quality of everything has been amazing thus far (our independent inspector said it was one of the best built homes he had been in) so I would find it shocking that the problem was cheap plugs/outlets just based on everything else in the home. I have a call into the builder. Hoepfully it is nothing major or dangerous! Thank you again for all of your suggestions!
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Old 08-28-2007, 05:18 PM
 
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
1,501 posts, read 11,722,846 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CAKD View Post
A couple of them started working again and then failed again very quickly.
DH says "Now that really sounds like a loose wire of some sort."
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