I just bought a house and there is only one outlet in each of the two bathrooms. These outlets were working but not now. We can't find the circuit breaker that they are connected to. How do we fix them? Install a GFCI outlet?
callipygenous
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It's very rare to see a GFCI in a bathroom on its own dedicated circuit. A lot of times what you see is one GFCI supplying power down the chain to additional outlets and medicine chest or vanity lighting. The overhead fixtures and ventilation fan are usually not GFCI protected. Any outlets or light sources that are protected by the GFCI should have a sticker on the cover plate that indicates that they are GFCI protected, but this isn't a perfect world and they don't always get put on. Locate the GFCI outlet and reset it if that is how the circuit was protected. The other way a circuit can be GFCI protected is with a GFCI breaker (sometimes called a GFCI MCB or an RCBO) located in the distribution panel itself, but the cover plates on all the receptacles so protected should be sporting the "GFCI Protected" sticker as well.
Purchasing a GFCI outlet will not do anything to resurrect power to your dead outlets unless the controlling GFCI has failed. I've never seen such an occurrence but I'm sure that it does happen. If and when you find the offending GFCI device (be it outlet or breaker) and it won't reset, something is probably wrong with the circuit. They don't fail very often, there is usually a good reason why they are tripping.
Anonymous
You may just have a bad connection in the circuit could be anywhere from the breaker to one of the outlets on either a white or black wire .... since outlet circuits are wired from one to another a loose connection affects all the others "down stream" or after that bad one. You need to isolate as best you can by seeing what on that line still works and what does not and that will pin point the area you do that with a simple test lite or meter or you could just pull all covers and try to find a loose wire. Shorts are different what you have is an open circuit and since that does not draw any current it does not trip a breaker... you have to figure what wire goes where and in what order that can be hard because they are in the walls but you have an easy fix in my opinion. Put a test lite or meter on the out going wire of the breaker on that circuit but first make sure they are tight (switch off power to do that of course)then have power on if you get no lite the breaker is bad another way is to switch wires with another breaker that you know is ok (of the same value) and see what happens .... the reason it goes on and off is due to the loads changing and heating and arcing of a bad connection when it cools off something are switch off it works
gordon1212
OK let me get this straight --you have two bathrooms each with a GFI outlet that is not working and you cant find the breaker for them . First it seems likely they are on the same circuit rather than both failed by coincidence, so you also don't have the circuits labeled in the breaker box and your sure none are tripped that means probably a broken connection in between so now you need to know where the wire goes from point to point using a tester/ohm meter device working backwards from the GFI checking connections and continuity after this (or maybe before) I would label all circuits for future reference. Installing a new GFI would not do anything if there is no power coming into it.
Anonymous
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kitchen outlets are usually on whats called a gfci circuit meaning one of the outlets has a couple of buttons(usually red black) that trigger in the event of a ground fault, but if this were occuring you or someone else would have to physically reset it at the outlet by pressing the reset button, there is a chance the gfci outlet is bad and goes in and out on its own. Always disconnect power before replacing though.
manuk
yes they do, but there is a but. If a line is continued from one gfi to a regular outlet it can also trip the other gfi. You might want to first check the test button and then reset if, it is suppose to click if it doesn't than most likly you don't have power going to it, it has to have power in the lines so it resets. then if that doesn't work go to the breaker box and look at each breaker if it is slightly off then take the breaker all the way to off and then move it to on, but you have to take it to off before you take it to on. hope it helps