how to find the blown circuit in my stupid house

Matthew said:
Was it a GFCI outlet?
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No it was a short.
He went around to all of the outlets testing them w/ a multimeter.
He stuck his leads in one outlet and everything lit back up.

We had the room converted from a living area to a media room.
That involved taking some walls down and relocating some outlets.

Looks like one that was moved was not grounded and one of the wires had worked its way loose.

The electrician said it was just barely touching so plugging and unplugging stuff probably knocked it loose.

I am back to assuming the maid probably knocked it loose when unplugging her vacuum.

The timing was the same as when I threw the power cord in the water so I got to thinking that was the cause.

At any rate I will have the big screen available for football season and porn
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
nah we're hitched for the moment.
Electrician will be here at 9:30

But honestly I have a whole line of things I need to do in the upcoming weeks that will likely shock, drown, crush, or boil me to death so stay in line.
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Don't I recall other threads where your house was trying to kill you with electricity?:confused::lol:
 
technically speaking, that would not be a "short" rather, one of your outlets had an "open". Biggest reason I HATE the practice of wiring leads directly to outlets. I pigtail EVERY outlet, otherwise you set yourself up for exactly this
 
gkainz said:
technically speaking, that would not be a "short" rather, one of your outlets had an "open". Biggest reason I HATE the practice of wiring leads directly to outlets. I pigtail EVERY outlet, otherwise you set yourself up for exactly this
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I've had more issues with wire nuts than going directly into the outlet.


Also - post #17
 
then you're doing them wrong ... :)

most homeowners use the wirenuts to twist the pigtail together ... and that isn't reliable. The wirenut is just to cover the conductors.
 
gkainz said:
then you're doing them wrong ... :)

most homeowners use the wirenuts to twist the pigtail together ... and that isn't reliable. The wirenut is just to cover the conductors.
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12ga wire is also pretty hard to bend back into the box. So, the less I have to mess with the better in that regard. I wire everything in 12 with 20A breakers except for lights. Lights I will go with 14ga and 15A
 
Matthew said:
Did the outlet have the screw terminals on the side, or the push-in type?
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Both but they were using the push in type.
Electrician said the screws were his preferred method.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Both but they were using the push in type.
Electrician said the screws were his preferred method.
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They normally seem to have both options.

Electricians I know also prefer using the screw terminals. Friends of ours lost their house in fire that was traced to an outlet. Refrigerator was plugged into it and whoever installed the outlet used the blade instead of the screws. Fire started on the garage side of the wall at night, so it was pretty well involved before it broke through the inside and tripped the smoke alarms. No one hurt, but the house was a total loss.
 
Matthew said:
They normally seem to have both options.

Electricians I know also prefer using the screw terminals. Friends of ours lost their house in fire that was traced to an outlet. Refrigerator was plugged into it and whoever installed the outlet used the blade instead of the screws. Fire started on the garage side of the wall at night, so it was pretty well involved before it broke through the inside and tripped the smoke alarms. No one hurt, but the house was a total loss.
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The electrician said the exact same thing happened to his house.
 
yep - I never use the stab connector - screw terminals only.

and the pigtail ensures that the outlet itself is never a failure point - ok, more correctly ... if the outlet fails, it only affects itself, and not the rest of the downstream circuit
 
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gkainz said:
yep - I never use the stab connector - screw terminals only.

and the pigtail ensures that the outlet itself is never a failure point - ok, more correctly ... if the outlet fails, it only affects itself, and not the rest of the downstream circuit
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Good points, but since I've done/redone a lot of the wiring in the house and shop, it's easy for me to trace the issue. The outlets I've bought recently have a plate that the screw tightens. Which also allows 4 pairs of wires to go into the plug. Even if the outlet fails, the plate continues the circuit anyway. And when I tighten those down, there isn't any way the wires are coming out.

I think these are the ones I got:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_61241-334-BR20W-L___?productId=1094559&pl=1&Ntt=outlet#img
 
gkainz said:
yep - I never use the stab connector - screw terminals only.
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As long as you aren't doing it like the idiot in my last house who put every single one in backward to the screw. That was a long afternoon redoing all of those.
 
Anyone know a place to get a few outlets that have the USB charging ports.
I want to add about 10 of these to my house but I am a cheapazz and want the lowest price.

I don't want to pay the Fries / Best buy price.

wonder if monoprice has them
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Anyone know a place to get a few outlets that have the USB charging ports.
I want to add about 10 of these to my house but I am a cheapazz and want the lowest price.

I don't want to pay the Fries / Best buy price.

wonder if monoprice has them
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Just don't get the ones that go up in smoke!
 
One house I did some kitchen remodeling in had all the black wires to the neutral bar and the white ones hot. "NICE WORK, MELVIN". :mad2::mad2:
 
Norman said:
One house I did some kitchen remodeling in had all the black wires to the neutral bar and the white ones hot. "NICE WORK, MELVIN". :mad2::mad2:
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Wires are wires. Maybe they went white to brass and black to bright on the plugs and everything is hunky dory. :eek:
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
That is what I want.
I just want someone to be like NO, go here they are only $4.00

I will go to Home depot and look for that though. It is exactly what I want.
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There are probably places you can get them for $4.00. But you'll want to change the batteries in your smoke detectors more often.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
That is what I want.
I just want someone to be like NO, go here they are only $4.00

I will go to Home depot and look for that though. It is exactly what I want.
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If I could find one for $4 I wouldn't buy it. Cheap electrical crap will burn you down.
 
Norman said:
Just the reverse of what it should be and not in compliance with code.
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But then you'd still have hot and neutral to the correct sides of the outlet.

Two wrongs would make a right! :D
 
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