Three outlets out, fuse ok, fence installed

Cassidy336

We had a fence installed today and the guys had all sorts of things plugged into our outside outlets. Right before they were leaving our Internet went out. The ISP told us that their modem in our garage was not getting power which led us to realize that three garage and laundry room outlets don't have power, nor do the outside outlets. The light in the garage and garage door opener work fine. We tried many fuses and that didn't do anything. We tried the switch reset on one of the ones that isn't working and that didn't help.

Could the fence guys have done something when pulling everything out of the outside outlets?

Jim Port

They may have tripped a GFI in the circuit. Look for a receptacle with the TEST and RESET buttons.

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Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.

Cassidy336

We tried that several times and it didn't work. There could be some outlets in the garage that we don't know about but we tried that several times on one that is not working and it didn't help.

Any other ideas?

diyorpay

Jim Port has provided you good advice. The GFI outlets may be in series. When one trips, all those 'behind' it go dead, as designed. Look for the outlets with the red and black spring loaded mini test switches. That is the likely scenario.

Worse case is that somehow the circuit run also is outdoors and it was cut while digging to install the fence.

joed

I agree. GFCI is tripped somewhere. Typical places to look are bathroom(all of them), garage(behind pile of boxes), outside, basement, laundry room. I even heard of one in an attic one time.

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Cassidy336

We used the reset and got it to work with just a radio plugged in, but this was after hitting reset several times. Then, when we plugged the normal things back in it went off again and we tried resetting 20 times and it would not work.

Now what?

AllanJ

There could be a connection that worked loose or caused a ground fault inside the outlet box when the workmen were using that receptacle. Other receptacles downstream from that location could be affected.

If you can get it working again with just the radio, try plugging in the other things one at a time to see if one particular thing causes the problem (by having a ground fault).

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diyorpay

I have one outdoors GFI outlet that can be frustrating at times, but it's my own fault. It is ok 99.9% of the time.

What causes similar effect as is happening with you is: it gets wet. I've done garden work right around this particular outlet, a few times, and clean up with garden hose. That outlet trips and will reset for a few seconds and trip again until it is dry. That could take a day. Then it's fine.

If your fence workers used water near your outlet to clean themselves, the work area or to get drinking water, that could be your issue. The outlet will probably be fine today.

Let us know if it recovers by itself.

joed

Do you have any power away from the building, like in a shed or lamp post? The workers could have hit the underground cable.

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