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Wall outlet turns blow dryer off?

We bought a 29 year old house 10 years ago. Everything is working fine. Tonight my wife was blow drying her hair in the bathroom and the blow dryer turned off after about 1 minute. I went to check it out and the little trip switch on the blow dryer was tripped so I reset it and turned it back on and it did it again. We then plugged in another blow dryer and that one tripped too. Whats going on with the wall outlet?

4 Answers

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  • 10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    If both blow dryers have 3-prong, stocky plugs with a RESET button, they are GFI protected.

    Try the dryer on another outlet in your house and see if it does the same thing. If it does, then the wiring in your house is in question. If not, then the bathroom outlet is in question.

    If the problem is only with the bathroom outlet, one or more wires (if it was wired properly) are not making good contact, causing a hot-neutral current imbalance which will trip the GFCI outlet or your hair dryer.

    Unless you are familiar with safe electrical practices and code, I suggest you call in a licensed electrician on this.

    The implication that this is a new problem says that your wiring was either not done properly or the outlet has failed (burned contacts, corrosion, etc.).

    Source(s): Experience
  • 10 years ago

    The blow dryer has a GFCI built into the cord. For some reason, the GFCI is tripping, it's detecting the current is going somewhere besides the neutral line of the power wires. For some reason, some current must be going to the ground on the receptacle. Perhaps the outlet in the bath is not wired correctly. You may need to hire an electrician to trace this out. You need to do it *** it is a safety issues.

    Astrobuf

  • 10 years ago

    The little "trip" should be a ground fault circuit interrupter (gfi).

    Sounds like it is near moisture.

    Try another DRY location and see if it happens again.

    If it does, make sure the outlet is properly polarized

    and that your circuit voltage is within tolerances.

    If voltage is low, check the rest of the houses voltage.

    If it is entire house, call power company to make repairs.

    If it is only certain outlets, make sure hots, neutrals

    and grounds are properly connected, also at panel.

    SHUT OFF POWER WHEN WORKING ON ELECTRICAL.

    Source(s): 35 years Electrician
  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    You could check that the wires are tight on the plug. Make sure to shut off the main breaker first. Take the wall plate off and examine the wires. A wire may be loose or shorting out on the box.

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