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Tracing a short - Question for a pro.

2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  joed 
#1 ·
Hi, We have an old house that has some funky wiring in it. I have made a lot of improvements to the main rooms, but some of teh lesser used rooms I have yet to touch.

In any event one of these rooms has GFCI's as recepticals - the wiring is old and does not have a ground.

I plugged our AC (which on its plug has a GFCI) into one of these GFCI receptacals and turned it on.

The power in the room went out and the breaker for that room did not blow.

So, the GFCI's did not blow neither did the breaker but all power is out in that room.

I haven't taken a look yet as this happened late last night. I am assuming that the problem is somewhere between the plug and the breaker.

Perhaps in a junction box - is this a good assumption?

I will start by testing the wires in the receptacle.
 
#2 ·
My first guess would be a GFCI has tripped, just not the one you plugged in to. Look around that room and others that have the GFCIs. The previous owner may have wired multiple GFCIs from the load side of another one.
The next trick would be to determine why the Ac tripped it.
 
#3 ·
How do you know the GFCI plug didn't blow and requires resetting.... sounds like the GFCI plug trip itself, the way a GFCI suppose to work,.... did you try resetting the GFCI plug?....

the answer could possiblly the AC draw too much current at a short period of time exceeding the GFCI plug limit causing it to trip.
 
#4 ·
If not a tripped GFCI then probably bad connection. Could be in any of the non working receptacles or a working receptacle on the same circuit. If any of the receptacles use the back stab connections move the wires to the screw terminals. Back stabs are a common source of this problem.
 
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