short in house wiring

One dupex outlet is not working. No breakers have tripped. How do you track down a short with so many outlets in the house?

citigyz

in Electricians 11 years and 9 months ago

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mikj | 11 years and 7 months ago

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citigyz | 11 years and 9 months ago

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Great advice on tagging circuit breakers, but so much work.

shahnandersen

in Electricians 11 years and 9 months ago

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Excellent, But now might be a good time to maps your circuits (if you have not done so already) so to know which breakers supply what devices. Turn off your breakers one at a time and see what lights and outlets (and wired-in appliances like the dishwasher) go off. Note that you may reset the GFCI after turning the breakers back on.

citigyz | 11 years and 9 months ago

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Seems to be kitchen GFI. Thx. Bob

shahnandersen

in Electricians 11 years and 9 months ago

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Also, are you sure that a breaker did not trip? When a breaker trips it does not go to the off position. Rather it just moves a little bit. To attempt to reset the breaker you have to move it to the off position and then turn it back on. Lastly, I assume this outlet is not a GFCI (with buttons on it). If it is, press the reset button.

shahnandersen

in Electricians 11 years and 9 months ago

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Firstly, you do not have a short (where the hot and neutral wires touch each other). Rather you have an open circuit. A short would definitely blown a breaker. If only one outlet is out, are you sure that that outlet is not controlled by a wall switch? Often a switch you never turned off before controls an outlet and someone inadvertently turned off the switch. Otherwise, you have an outlet at the end of a run that is the problem. Do you know what circuit it is on? If you have not mapped out the circuits and can turn off the breaker to this circuit to work on it, I would suggest that you are over your head and should call an electrician.