In houses, you know the 'safety trip' that will trip to prevent you from being hurt--it's in the 2 Bathrooms. Anyway, It was tripped when I woke, and I went to untrip it at the circuit box, but it kept tripping, so I unplugged everything from those bathroom plugs as usual, and it STILL won't untrip. I works everytime in the past...

Is the fuse blown maybe? if so, can I replace it? Do you need to turn off the main power switch before you replace the plug?

Thanks!

Dan, are they ground fault interruptor outlets (GFI)? They'd have a pair of small black and red buttons in the middle of the outlet (or at least ONE would). If so, press the red one all the way in, then press the black button in. THEN go try your circuit breaker again.

Did you maybe get water in one of the outlets? That might keep it from resetting.


edit: Most cities require GFI outlets in bathrooms and near any water source or outdoors, so most likely you have them. There may be a black/red switch on one of the outlets or it may be on an outlet at your breaker box, I've seen both ways of doing it.

[ 08-28-2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

Yep, thats what I meant, the little red button I pushed, and nada.. :( I'll ask donna if she splashed water by accident when she get's home.. ugh. This never happened before either.. The fuses have NEVER needed to be replaced since we bought the house in 1989.

Any ideas? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Check the fuse. No, I don't think you have to power down the whole house to replace it. If you're lucky, the fuse will have a visible indicator as to whether it's "blown" or not.

I've never replaced one, but I'm guessing they have a limit to the number of times they can 'pop' so maybe it's just time to get a new one, but if you can't figure it out, call an electrician! We don't want a fried webmaster! :D

A bad GFI outlet will default to the "off" position. Might need a new one.

To replace it you do need to shut the circuit off at the breaker box. The wires are still live even though the plug isn't.

Generally the plugs are cheap enough, so go new. If the new one trips, then you have much bigger wiring issues. Anything changed in the last few days that may cause a voltage spike?

Guys, it's in both bathrooms, so it likely isn't a bad outlet. Chances are both outlets would not go bad at the same time.

I vote circuit breaker until you confirm it's otherwise.

Well, we had some lightning (again) today. [img]smile.gif[/img] I will take the hairdryer and blow air into the plugs and see if that helps--she could have plugged in a wet plug or something..

I'll power down everything before I even touch it.. I have come to be VERY Respectful of electricity after a few STATIC shocks from my power supply. LOL!!

Nevermind, It finally stayed in the untripped notch. Maybe it had some condinsation in the plug or something.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, all is well. Now I can see to read while I... :D :D :D

Dan, is there a seperate set of black/red reset plugs in EACH bathroom or just in one of them? I have two bathrooms and only the downstairs one has the reset buttons, so if we trip either one we have to reset from the downstairs bathroom. If that's the case it could be one or the other outlet is bad or wet or something. If not, then it may be TL is right and you need to check the main breaker for both rooms. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/toilet.gif[/img] Errrm....no comment on that last one! :D :D

But glad to hear it's working! If you have more trouble with it, call the electrican!

Hey! I just got my PC Gamer! Now I have a reason to go!! :D :D lol!

Great. We went through all this trouble so Z could gander at Juggs Magazine while he shat. :rolleyes:

One wonders what Choc has to say about this. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

Interesting wiring you have there Miss Cloudbringer. They must've wired both bathrooms on the same circuit.

Interesting wiring you have there Miss Cloudbringer. They must've wired both bathrooms on the same circuit. </font>[/QUOTE]Yep, that's what the builder told us. Did that on purpose for some reason unbeknownst to me! But the ones in the kitchen are on their own circuit and all the ones in the basement, save the newest we had added, are on one circuit. THAT is annoying! I always forget they're gfi's so when the guy came to clean the heating ducts and couldn't get electricity.....took us a while to realize what it was!

One GFCI protects a circuit, so if two bathrooms happen to be on the same circuit, it's no problem. Kitchens are usually wired twice, with top and bottom plugs in an outlet of separate circuits. Learned that one the hard way, I did :D

That kind of behavior generally indicates that whatever triggered the GFCI to trip was still present -- condensation, a short, or whatever. Keep that in mind and consider trying to identify where there was something nasty. Nothing worse than finding out the hard way later that it really was something... :(