All receptacles on a circuit not Working

[Little Bill]

Here is an interesting problem I was called to check a few years ago. Call was outside receptacles not working. I checked all the receptacles that I was shown and all were dead. It was kind of confusing as to where they were fed from. Most of the receptacles were on the side of the house but some were on the side of the garage about 10' from the house. There was a house panel and one in the garage. So I checked both panels and there were no breakers that didn't have power on the load side. So I was pretty sure there was a GFCI tripped somewhere.

I took out one of the receptacles and confirmed my suspicion that they were fed from a GFCI receptacle as there was no continuity between the neutral and EGC. So I started my search by going to all the receptacles that I was shown. Still no GFCI found. So I started looking behind things both in the house and garage. I finally found a GFCI in the garage behind some shelves and it was tripped. Great, I found the problem! I checked all the receptacles inside and outside the garage and they were all now working. Good, job well done!

Not so fast! Job not finished as the receptacles on the house are still not working. Went back and checked the GFCI in the garage and it was still working. So now I've determined that I was dealing with two problems and two circuits. I checked another receptacle and found the same as before, no continuity from neutral to EGC. So I knew there had to be another GFCI. I checked again and still saw no GFCI or one that was tripped anyway. After more searching, I finally found the problem and it was mostly what I thought, a tripped GFCI. But I bet no one can guess what caused it.

I will wait a bit to give the solution to this but I want to see what some of your thoughts are before revealing it.
One clue, it was not a ground fault causing the trip, nor a faulty piece of equipment.

 

[sameguy]

Mouse, lighting,

 

[Michael15956]

Interfering radio frequencies

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Ants....I have had more trouble with ants than anything else...

 

[LarryFine]

Ants....I have had more trouble with ants than anything else...

 

[al hildenbrand]

You seem to say that the interruption of the second (remaining) group of receptacle outlets was at a GFCI. Given that is the case, I submit the cause of the final milliamp trip current was a missing part of weather resistant receptacle cover. Over time enough dirt, slime and oxidation built up on and around the receptacle energized and conductive parts to allow the excessive ground fault ( > 5 milliamp) to develop.

 

[LarryFine]

Multiple GFCIs on one circuit? I once had to do a troubleshoot that turned up three tripped GFCIs on one circuit, all connected feed-through. The silliest part was this was an interior circuit.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

That won't work as these are outdoor ants...

I had replaced to time clocks in less than 2 weeks because of ants. We sprayed and did what we could. I final told the customer we needed to move the clock somewhere else. That solved the problem.

 

[LarryFine]

That won't work as these are outdoor ants...

They have outdoor products, too.

 

[Little Bill]

All good ideas but none were even close.
What I discovered was this. After confirming that the dead receps was indeed fed from a GFCI, I started searching again. I decided to trace the wiring with my toner. I went to a receptacle outside that had a weatherproof cover on it and started to take it apart to get to the wiring. When I took the weatherproof cover off I saw what was happening. In the package that the WP covers cone in there are several different adapters to use depending on the device, such as switch, duplex, GFCI, etc. This receptacle turned out to be a GFCI, which wasn't apparent by just raising the cover and looking. What someone had done was they used the duplex adapter on the GFCI receptacle and the little strip of metal between the top and bottom outlets for a duplex was covering/touching the test button on the GFCI. All was good until they plugged something in that outlet. The force of plugging the cord in put pressure on the adapter and in turn hitting the test button.

Now I had checked that receptacle with my plug tester earlier but didn't notice it was a GFCI due to the wrong adapter being used. You couldn't see the test/reset buttons. If you just raised the lid and looked, it looked just like a duplex.

 

[K8MHZ]

All good ideas but none were even close.
What I discovered was this. After confirming that the dead receps was indeed fed from a GFCI, I started searching again. I decided to trace the wiring with my toner. I went to a receptacle outside that had a weatherproof cover on it and started to take it apart to get to the wiring. When I took the weatherproof cover off I saw what was happening. In the package that the WP covers cone in there are several different adapters to use depending on the device, such as switch, duplex, GFCI, etc. This receptacle turned out to be a GFCI, which wasn't apparent by just raising the cover and looking. What someone had done was they used the duplex adapter on the GFCI receptacle and the little strip of metal between the top and bottom outlets for a duplex was covering/touching the test button on the GFCI. All was good until they plugged something in that outlet. The force of plugging the cord in put pressure on the adapter and in turn hitting the test button.

Now I had checked that receptacle with my plug tester earlier but didn't notice it was a GFCI due to the wrong adapter being used. You couldn't see the test/reset buttons. If you just raised the lid and looked, it looked just like a duplex.

Good one!! I would give that 2 likes if I could.

 

[LarryFine]

What someone had done was they used the duplex adapter on the GFCI receptacle and the little strip of metal between the top and bottom outlets for a duplex was covering/touching the test button on the GFCI.

That was gonna be my second guess. :roll:

 

[Little Bill]

That was gonna be my second guess. :roll:

Oh, well sorry I didn't wait longer to reveal the results.:slaphead: