[TAG UR IT]

I'm not sure what the heck the problem is, but if there's anyone that might be able to give me an idea, I need to try to get this crap fixed...

I wired up a ton of Christmas lights the last few days.

The plugs for all the fronts come up to one standard double plugged exterior outlet. The plugs for the back of the house do the same....one standard exterior double plug.

It rained last night and I tried plugging in the outside lights.

I saw a quick flicker on the front lights and they went out. The exterior plug doesn't work for some reason. I plug them in inside the house and voila....they work.

I go to the back of the house. I do the same and plug them in. Not working. I run the plugs to an interior outlet and they work fine.

WTF.

I check the breaker box. All the switches are on....working fine. Nothing has been tripped. So, I turn all the switches off and back on just for the heck of it. They still don't work.

I try plugging them in again tonight outside. Nothing.

This happened a while back with the rear exterior plug and it didn't work for about 4 months...then suddenly, one day, it worked. Now it's not working again.

Any ideas?

Can the plug itself "short out?" or have some sort of problem maybe due to the wet weather? they are the sealable exterior plugs, so no water should have gotten into them....I'd think.

I'm ready to buy one exterior plug and replace it just to see what happens. If that's all it needs, then cool. But.....not sure....

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

[Bangarang]

I'm an electrician and I'll try to help as much as I can over a forum.

First, is the plug a GFCI? If it is it'll have 2 buttons on the front of it saying "Test" and "Reset". This may seem like a no-brainer to some but lots of people don't know to press the "Reset" button.

Second thing I would do is check the panel for tripped breakers, but you already did that. I would check it again now that it's had time to dry out inside the plug. A little bit of moisture on the prongs can be enough to trip some breakers.

Third, I would be pulling the plug off, checking for bad connections. If it seems fine but the problem persists, I would just replace the plug and keep the old one in case that doesn't solve the problem.

Anything after that it could be bad splices somewhere else in the house. I would probably switch the breaker to see if that changes things.

Also, are the lights in good condition? If not maybe a new set of lights.


Hopefully one of those things helps you out with your problem. Usually when I come up to a problem like this I'll approach it in these steps, easiest/cheapest progressively getting into more complex/expensive options.

[gml1998]

I might also check any other GFCI outlets that are in the house to see if they tripped.I ran across one house that had an outside outlet that was protected by the GFCI outlet in their powder room.

[MMC]

Tripped GFCI, the rain is all it would take to trip one off when you plugged the lights in. Check for a GFCI near the breaker panel, often they are installed there so they protect what ever else is on the circuit. They also make GFI breakers and they would have a yellow test button on them. New house I bet. You just need to find where the GFCI is.

[JETG]

Originally Posted by Bangarang

I'm an electrician and I'll try to help as much as I can over a forum.

First, is the plug a GFCI? If it is it'll have 2 buttons on the front of it saying "Test" and "Reset". This may seem like a no-brainer to some but lots of people don't know to press the "Reset" button.

Second thing I would do is check the panel for tripped breakers, but you already did that. I would check it again now that it's had time to dry out inside the plug. A little bit of moisture on the prongs can be enough to trip some breakers.

Third, I would be pulling the plug off, checking for bad connections. If it seems fine but the problem persists, I would just replace the plug and keep the old one in case that doesn't solve the problem.

Anything after that it could be bad splices somewhere else in the house. I would probably switch the breaker to see if that changes things.

Also, are the lights in good condition? If not maybe a new set of lights.


Hopefully one of those things helps you out with your problem. Usually when I come up to a problem like this I'll approach it in these steps, easiest/cheapest progressively getting into more complex/expensive options.

What he said

[Scott@Bjorn3D]

Yep sounds like a GFI to me also. My breakers in the house actually have the GFI on the breaker on some of them. A little grey button to push in. But you could have one like other parts of my house do. One set of our outside outlets hook to the 1/2 bath wall outlet. Since we never plug anything in there it took us a while to figure out what tripped when that outside outlet did not work.

[skuttduck]

I have a wierd problem with my microwave. It will trip the GFCI, strange occurances of opening the door do that. The old microwave I had never did that.

After awhile the plug that is wired to the GFCI will stop working. From here I have to take out the outlet, and sand off the corrosion on the romex that is feeding the outlet from the GFCI outlet.

So in addition to all of this, perhaps that outlet you have is corrodded, or the place in which the outlet is wired to is corodded, like it is in my case of the microwave.

[01pewterz28]

Yep sounds like a GFI to me come to find out the builder covered one up behind the drywall in the garage the electricians spent 3 hours trying to figure the problem out.

Sean

[f5journal]

GFCI. Mine is like that and the outside plugs are GFCI'd off the GFCI in my downstairs half-bath

[CamaroSkooter]

I believe elctrical code requires each circuit to have a GFCI plug wired in. Usually, the GFCI will pop before the breaker does.

Now you just have to search around the house to see which GFCI plug is in which circuit

It's pretty easy to pinpoint sometimes, because the Christmas lights will pop the plug and all of a sudden the lights in the kitchen don't work

[rydahog]

At times someone will put the GFCI inside or not at the location you are having probs with.. also after you find the problem...take some of them lights off the circuit, and use another receptacle to plug into. Have fun!

[skuttduck]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

I believe elctrical code requires each circuit to have a GFCI plug wired in. Usually, the GFCI will pop before the breaker does.

Now you just have to search around the house to see which GFCI plug is in which circuit

It's pretty easy to pinpoint sometimes, because the Christmas lights will pop the plug and all of a sudden the lights in the kitchen don't work

I'm not sure when the code was updated but you'll find that in older homes they don't have GFCI.

For example a house built before 1984 will not have GFCI outlets in the Kitchen or bathroom.

Arc faults were added to the bedrooms most recently, and outdoor circuits by GFCI were added before that.

[TAG UR IT]

No GFCI on that particular outlet. But, I'll go around to the other plugs and light switches to see if everything else is working. They should be.

[TAG UR IT]

Found a tripped GFCI plug in the garage. Front lights work now! SWEET!

But...for the life of me...I can't find a GFCI plug for the rear of the house! The plug is on the outside of the house. I checked all the plugs in the living room (right on the other side of the plug) and all work. I went to the master bath and those plugs work too (and none have the GCI plugs living room or bathroom). I checked the bedroom and all those plugs work just fine too. I'm at a loss just like I was years ago back there when it didn't work.

I can't find a GFCI plug back there or anywhere on the back of the house....

UGH