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Dead outlet

364 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  freddyream
I’m a newbie and this might be a dumb question, I tested the outlet about 3 weeks ago. I tied it again and the tester threw a few sparks and now it doesn’t work at all. Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix this
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Turn off the breaker for this circuit and then remove the receptacle from the wall. Post a picture without disconnecting the wires. If any of the wires fall off you likely found your problem.

Your (receptacle?) tester might be cooked.
A picture showing the rear of the receptacle would help. It may be the all to common case of a receptacle that was connected by the "back stab" holes provided for that purpose. It causes a lot of failures and isn't recommended.

Be sure to turn off the breaker to kill the power to that circuit before pulling the receptacle for inspection. Post a picture of the rear of the receptacle and also of the inside of the wall box would also help to make sure you aren't working on a multi-wire circuit before disconnecting the receptacle, if that becomes necessary. It's a safety issue.
Thanks for the response guys, I’ll take a picture of the back of the outlet when I get home from work. Thanks again!
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