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Home Wiring Oddity
2

Home Wiring Oddity

Home Wiring Oddity

(OP)
This makes no sense to me, but maybe someone else will shed some light on the situation.  

About a month ago, three wall outlets in our dining room went out and I could not trace the problem.  Then, a week later, three more wall outlets went out in our downstairs family room.  A week later three more in the kitchen.

Apparently all were on a double 20 amp breaker (40 amps total) and the situation was cured by replacing the double breaker.  One side would not re-engage.

What makes no sense to me is that with TWO breaker circuits, why would the circuitry fail in THIRDS?

I'm baffled.  

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

So, when you say the outlets "went out", you mean they stopped working but neither of the two breakers were tripped?  

Normally when a group of outlets become non-functional, the neutral or hot connection has been lost somewhere along the way.  Loose wire nuts or loose connections on the receptacles.  

Without knowing how it was wired, it's hard to say. If you are certain that only part of the outlets on one of the breakers stopped working, then it can't really be the breaker.  If there are multiple hot wires connected to either of the breakers, then it is possible there was loose connection.  Or a loose neutral connection in the panelboard that got "fixed" when you replaced the breaker.  

I wouldn't be surprised if the problem returns.   

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

(OP)
Thanks.  I will check the connections too.  I'm partly color blind, so pray.  

The power was lost to the outlets and one of the breakers tripped, and resetting would not restore the power to the outlets.   

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

So the breaker did reset?  

Any aluminum wiring by any chance?  

 

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

I commonly see the screwed down wires on outlets having gotten loose.  Then the outlet and all the outlets on down the circuit fail to work.

When I see what you see happening I pull every outlet and re-tighten the screws.  If they're very old completely replace them all. This prevents fires caused by age weakened prong grippers.

I have a couple of outlets in the house that I replace every few years because they get so much use they become noticeably easy to plug and unplug from.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

Or worse, they used the quick connect plug-ins in the back of the receptacle.  I once worked for a guy who would have fired me if I had used them!

Alan

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

Do you have aluminum wiring? Aluminum wiring caused a lot of problems such as this. A new appliance with a fairly heavy load on the circuit may be the immediate trigger to the problem especially if it is a cyclic load.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

If you are in the states and your house was built in the early to mid 70's, you may well have branch circuits using aluminum wire.

Alan

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

(OP)
The house was built in '78, after the aluminum wire scare.  Well familiar with that as the house we sold prior to that did have an aluminum wire feed from the pole to the breaker, being built in the late 60's.  A year after we sold it, had a fire that started in the panel from a loose main feed that started arcing.  Yea...  ya gotta keep those connections tight.

I'll check the wire connectors and outlet connections too.

Oh. and dpc, the breaker appeared to close to me.  But I could have been wrong.  When we took it out though, it would no longer close.  The new one works fine.   

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

Just so you know "drops", the wire from the pole to the house, are almost exclusively aluminum. That's not a problem.  The problem was branch wiring in aluminum.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: Home Wiring Oddity

(OP)
May be so, but it was the primary aluminum feed to the main panel that arced, not after that.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

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