Any electricians around?

[mrblond]

OK, I need some advice here. I went to do a little smoking this morning and when I puged in the smoker, nothing. Now it took a little bit to know nothing was happening. now this is the same outlet my microwave was on as well. I moved the cord to another and it tripped the outlet right away, I reset it and it tripped again.
I decided to use the smaller smoker and all went well but now the first outlet will not power and it seems to have cause my fridge not to come on either. I have reset the breakers for the kitchen and still nothing. so I reset the whole box and the outlet will still not come on.
Any advice that does not have someone coming out and working on it? I can live without the outlet but not without the fridge.

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[Kruel J]

Check your GFCI and see if its tripped permanently. They do fail. Easy to replace if that's the case.

BTW, not an electrician, but I've spent some years in the field diagnosing electrical issues on RV's. I've seen a lot of GFCIs fail.

 

[mrblond]

this outlet is not on a gfci. there are 4 outles here in the Kitchen, 2 are and 2 are not.
PLus, I have no idea where the GFCI would be in this house.

 

[Kruel J]

this outlet is not on a gfci. there are 4 outles here in the Kitchen, 2 are and 2 are not.
PLus, I have no idea where the GFCI would be in this house.

The GFCI is built into the outlet itself. It's got two buttons on it, a test and a reset.

 

[DirectDrive]

GFCI outlet


GFCI breaker


So your smoker's burner must be burned up and shorting out causing the breaker to trip.

 

[mrblond]

I see, yeah. the outlet the smoker is running on is GFCI

 

[Kruel J]

So if you press the reset button and it won't click to reset, the GFCI may be fried. GFCIs typically don't like extended use of heating element type appliances.

 

[mrblond]

Oh happy day! The fridge is running, its the outlet it was on was dead. so thats 2 of them that are out, both are non GFCI

 

[Kruel J]

Also, typically a GFCI is wired to protect several outlets. If you do have to replace it, pay attention to the line and load sides of the outlet. Make sure you replace it the same way as the old one was wired. And shut the breaker off at the panel before you start the work.

 

[mrblond]

This house was built just after the War so most of the outlets are 2 prong, non grounded ones. several though have been redone some to 3 prong and othewrs to GFCI. I have a feeling I will need to get someone here and rewire everything at some point..

i'll tell ya, the dishwasher went all FUBAR last week and now this..

 

[filsonhand]

It might be your heating element on the smoker also, or glow rod if its a Traeger .

 

[Cardoff]

Just because an outlet doesnt have a GFCI button on it to reset doesnt mean it's power doesn't come from an outlet that does have it. I would check every outlet in and out of the house. If any of them have a reset button, push it. Then go back and check your outlets that aren't working.

My BIL house had an outlet in the basement this summer that wasnt working. The culprit was in the upstairs bathroom...

Pushed the reset and all good. All it cost him was a couple of beers.

 

[Caveman Jim]

My house was built in 1990 and the contractor built it so cheap with cheap electrical outlets plugs everything you can imagine must have been bought at Walmart for the cheapest price. That's sad the outlets they used had both connectors the screw connection and the plugins in the back. Well they use the plugins in the back throughout the house I started having problems in an outlet in a bedroom (they are Daisy chained by the way) and found the problem in another bedroom Outlet.....

 

[Larrytpdx]

Check your GFCI and see if its tripped permanently. They do fail. Easy to replace if that's the case.

BTW, not an electrician, but I've spent some years in the field diagnosing electrical issues on RV's. I've seen a lot of GFCIs fail.

And you did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a while ago!

 

[Kruel J]

But you did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a while ago!

Darn right!

 

[Aispuro]

They work like christmas lights if the first outlet is out the following outlets will also have no power, figure out which one has no power then replace it. If you're useing a traeger you may need to replace your hotrod an fuse .

 

[ron]

Residential wiring most of the time use the cheapest parts and it is all
about speed. Common problem with Residential receptacles failing is
the quick and dirty stab in connections on the back of the recep. Also
the in and out power wires are not "pigtailed" as is done in commercial
work. If not pigtailed the load of the entire circuit feeds through the recep.
Common problem with cheap residential receps.they burn up when connected
to heavier loads like hair dryer, curling iron, coffee makers, micro...
I would recommend changing out all the receps. with a better
commercial grade recep. And pigtail the power connections. And use
the screw terminals. Retired Electrician
Bad


Good



Be safe and use a ticker. No contact voltage indicator.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

It might be your heating element on the smoker also, or glow rod if its a Traeger .

yep and ive gotten bad brand new glow rods for my traeger too. that'll throw ya for a loop. ive found the easiest way to diag a traeger that is trippin breakers is to unplug one component at a time till it stops trippin

 

[mrblond]

It was a big chief that for some reason was never a problem until today. the little chief now is smoking like crazy which, in the past, it never really did.

 

[clearconscience]

One of the first things I did in my house was replace most of the outlets.
Half of them wouldn't even hold a plug in. Plug something and it would just fall out.

Wtf


But yeah if your tripping the gfci, your element is probably hosed