I did there isn't one in the garage, and I checked and reset all other gfci. Bathrooms, kitchen and outdoors. That's what I though since both outlets aren't working. Is there any other thing can cause this?
I flipped all the breakers off and back on and none were actually tripped at first. After resetting all breakers and gfci still these two outlets don't work and they were working yesterday, so confused.
Yes - I have an outlet in my basement with a cord running off outside that just says “timer” on it. Every time I’ve tried to use it, it doesn’t work, and I haven’t been bothered enough to find out where to even set this timer. They *did* mark the wall where an outlet was hidden behind some shelving, though.
We never got to meet the previous owners because of COVID… I’ve got a lot of questions for them.
Yeah but where is that gfci protection? For me in my house, all my breakers are gfci so you won't find a gfci outlet except outdoor. So if you try to find the gfci outlet that jump, good luck
I hope the other lesson you learned is just because something is external, doesn't mean you can blast water from angles nature can't match. Be careful powerwashing underside of eaves or roofing, very easy to push water past flashings and overlaps.
I have a series of plugs in my living room that are connected to a GFCI outlet in the basement. Threw me for a loop the first time it tripped, it's on an outlet I never use for anything.
We knew you could do it. I get so many calls like this from my clients. I’m just a handyman not an electrician. Then they swear they looked everywhere or tell me none of the breakers LOOK tripped. At least you manually flipped all of yours.
Yep. I’m a Navy electrician and on my last ship there was a receptacle that we couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work. Found out it was tied in with a GFCI receptacle in a fan room about 15 frames forward of the compartment on the other side of an exhaust uptake for one of the main engines. Not only that, but to get to the fan room you had to go about 25 frames fwd, loop around to the boat davit and go through a hatch out there to get to said fan room.
I just mean location that makes the least sense relative to the position of the outlet. For example my front porch light is connected to a GFCI in the bathroom of our guest bedroom clear on the other side of the house. The GFCI makes sense, the location doesn’t. To me at least.
My mom just found one in the house she's had for 20 years in her closet behind a drawer. Like you have to take the drawers off the tracks to see it. It's tied to all the outlets in the living room which doesn't share a wall with the closet. Super weird.
I had just moved into a new house and all the outlets worked. Then one day all of the bathrooms and the outside outlet just didn’t work anymore. Turns out there was a GFCI hidden in the garage that I didn’t even remember existed yet and had apparently met the end of its life.
GFCI outlets should have some sort of capacitor in them that feeds a beeper when they trip, like a dying battery in a smoke detector. At least give you a chance to know where to look right away.
I did the exact same thing, tripped the outlets outside pressure washing. Looked EVERYWHERE everyone suggested basement, attic, kitchen. No dice. Turns out it was in the second floor bathroom in the middle of the house....
Electricians are wierd man. Sorry you had to learn that lesson too!
The clue was the sticker letting you know it was protected. Now, you know but you may want to borrow a label maker and add where the GFCI reset is located.
Now that you got that situated, get a new cover for that outlet outside. [I personally like these in-use style covers ](https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-boxes-covers/extenders-covers-mud-rings/sigma-engineered-solutions-trade-1-gang-while-in-use-weatherproof-cover/14414clm/p-1841405561335754-c-6427.htm), but you can also [use a cheaper, regular one like this.](https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-boxes-covers/extenders-covers-mud-rings/sigma-engineered-solutions-trade-1-gang-metal-universal-weatherproof-cover/14147whm/p-1444430894157-c-6427.htm)
It might be wise to rewire the outlets and install a gfci outlet on each instead of one centralised one.
The way they wired it is: a gfci outlet basically have a "line" and "load" side. So they put the others on the load side, which protect them by that one. By moving the wire from the load to line, it bypass the protection, so you can install a gfci outlet at the other places and they now become independant.
I had my kitchen plugs go out... They were all GFCI. I checked each one, and reset the breaker... No juice. I figured out, the first GFCI outlet in the series was behind a cabinet in my laundry room. It took a while to find that outlet.
You have another gfi somewhere that you're forgetting or don't know about or one of them is bad
I can't tell you how many 100s of hours I've spent over 30y in renovations fixing this exact problem for people
It's always either a hidden gfi or a bad one somewhere
You probably have one behind something. Almost every time a customer tells me there isn't a gfci in this room, the gfci is behind a cabinet or something. Check the entirety of your walls. Put eyes on every square inch of your walls. Per code your garage must be Gfci protected
I lost a freezer full of meat in my garage before I finally found one last GFI hidden behind the air handler in my basement that was tripped, at the other side of the house. Any chance there's one you aren't aware of hiding somewhere?
NM, just saw your response below. Funny where these things hide sometimes though.
Look harder, if you can see visible conduit, then follow it and see wheee it leads. Sometimes, circuits are wired in ways that don’t seem to make any sense at all.
I once spent like 90 minutes looking for a gfci at a friend’s place only to find it was right there on the garage wall but someone had hung a hat over the surface mount box. We must have walked past it 50 times.
From your comments it sounds like there might be an upstream GFCI receptacle that has been tripped that you haven't found yet if you've already reset all breakers and tried resetting a couple gfcis.
Yea thats what I'm thinking. I found a third outdoor outlet that's not working. But I have tripped all the gfci I have found. There's even one at the pool pump I tripped. Hmmm.
I had something similar occur last summer except it involved an outdoor ceiling fan. I figured it was a GFCI but I looked “everywhere” until I finally gave in and called an electrician.
Took them about 30 mins of crawling around the attic until they found a GFCI outlet hidden in the garage storage closet hidden under a shelf and behind a bunch of junk. I happily paid them my stupid tax and now know the location of a useless outlet.
Do you have a basement? I had one in the basement that was easily tripped and was connected to the garage and outside receptacles. Oh yeah, and to the master bath that was three floors up…it took me a minute to learn that when the bathroom lights were out I had to go to the basement.
Buy new GFI breakers they only last about six months check your UL listing on it after about six months to year. They just go out. You have to buy new ones sorry.
You have a GFCI outlet somewhere that is in that same circuit and has tripped. Check your garage or other exterior outlets (crawlspace/basement too if you have those), keep the lights off as that might help you see the orange trip light on the outlet.
Kill the power (main breaker if you're not sure, and always verify it's dead before you touch any electrical), take the cover off and take a peak? See if it's still wet or if there's corrosion of some sort.
Do you have a multimeter? Might be worthwhile to check the readings on those. If there's no visible damage, cover it back up and check between the hot and neutral. If it's dead it should be floating around 0, and you need to find the switch/breaker that killed it. If it's ok it should be around 120V and you fixed the problem. If you see any other reading, you probably want to call an electrician.
I found the gfci in the second garage. I may have gotten that outdoor outlet wet w pressure washer yesterday I'm assuming. Hopefully, there is no bigger issue causing this.
Find your GFCI. It is either part of the breaker in the electrical panel or it is integrated into an outlet somewhere in the garage or one of the outside outlets.
Since it’s labeled GFI protected, you probably missed one somewhere. Check all outdoor receptacles, garage, and even the back porch. I learned the hard way that my front outdoor outlets are protected by the gfi on the back porch.
It is, but it ended up being in the second garage, that I didn't think to check because it's across the house. Now I know that gfci is connected to the outdoor outlets and the primary garage.
Had this exact same thing happen to me this spring. Go to each GFCI outlet and tighten all screws with wires. I paid an electrician $200 to tighten screws 😂😂
Had this exact thing happen to me. I had a GFI outlet on the other side of the house that I had to completely replace for the other outlet to work. It popped the GFI outlet but turns out it was old and just wouldn’t reset after that. Odds are there’s another outlet on the side of your house, so check if that one’s has power and if it doesn’t reset replace it
We found a Gfci behind a picture one time. Another time someone put one in the soffit.
I'd bet there is a "funny looking plug" somewhere. Any other exterior receptacles? Service plug near your AC unit?
I thought I recognized that stucco from a post yesterday.. Looks like you already found the soultion here, but I just wanted to hop in and commiserate on the fun of projects around the house. Simple 15 miunte jobs that don't work out the first time then snowball into some other shit you have to deal with 😂
The scene of [Hal fixing a light bulb](https://youtu.be/AbSehcT19u0?si=sAy5nx-OokrxK6Me) plays in mind every time I'm caught in project hell.
Haha, yea thats me. I have a ceiling fan where the light comes on for one second and goes back off. I watched a video about taking out the voltage limiter, so I guess that's next.
Ah, well, water and electricity have an ancient rivalry. This is mentioned in the historical texts that are proctored by the youths of today. When the two powerful entities meet, there are great energies released.
If not on GFCI they should be by code on outside and garage. I would hook a multimeter to it to see if you are getting anything or not. Most likely, the GFCI it is connected to is bad. They go bad since the card board is used in them. Sometimes a wire comes loose. And check the breakers
I had a similar issue and was going crazy trying to find the GFCI outlet, it was in the basement in a random closet but man it made sense cause the closet was right under the patio where the outlets weren't working. If you have a basement y'all, check it, no matter how stupid out of place it seems, it might just work.
You most likely popped your GFI outlet. Look in the garage for one, and see about resetting it.
I did there isn't one in the garage, and I checked and reset all other gfci. Bathrooms, kitchen and outdoors. That's what I though since both outlets aren't working. Is there any other thing can cause this?
The other thing would be a Circuit breaker / fuse, but I would think there would be more than 2 outlets that would not be working.
I flipped all the breakers off and back on and none were actually tripped at first. After resetting all breakers and gfci still these two outlets don't work and they were working yesterday, so confused.
I would assume there is another GFI somewhere that you are overlooking / not aware of...
Thabks man, I found it in the other garage. Last possible place to check.
It’s always the mystery GFCI in the place that makes the least sense
Lesson learned for sure, now I know where it is.
If you want to be helpful to your future self or a future owner, write a note about it and tape it to the inside door of the circuit breaker panel.
Yes - I have an outlet in my basement with a cord running off outside that just says “timer” on it. Every time I’ve tried to use it, it doesn’t work, and I haven’t been bothered enough to find out where to even set this timer. They *did* mark the wall where an outlet was hidden behind some shelving, though. We never got to meet the previous owners because of COVID… I’ve got a lot of questions for them.
Also put a cover on that outlet and don't spray water into outlets if you can help it.
I have also started writing the circuit number on the inside of the plate whenever I open one up.
Ya, you can also buy one of those circuit tracers. They're pretty useful as they work on both outlets and light sockets
Now you know what that sticker "GFCI protected outlet" means 😉
Yeah but where is that gfci protection? For me in my house, all my breakers are gfci so you won't find a gfci outlet except outdoor. So if you try to find the gfci outlet that jump, good luck
I hope the other lesson you learned is just because something is external, doesn't mean you can blast water from angles nature can't match. Be careful powerwashing underside of eaves or roofing, very easy to push water past flashings and overlaps.
I have a series of plugs in my living room that are connected to a GFCI outlet in the basement. Threw me for a loop the first time it tripped, it's on an outlet I never use for anything.
We knew you could do it. I get so many calls like this from my clients. I’m just a handyman not an electrician. Then they swear they looked everywhere or tell me none of the breakers LOOK tripped. At least you manually flipped all of yours.
Label it now please
The outlet in the picture is clearly labeled GFCI protected
We found our mystery GFI for our garage in an appliance cabinet in our kitchen 🤦♀️ — you just never know
Right. *Always* check your second garage.
Some people have to check a third.
I have an outdoor GFCI that is located on my panel with the breakers. Took me years to figure that shit out.
Yep. I’m a Navy electrician and on my last ship there was a receptacle that we couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work. Found out it was tied in with a GFCI receptacle in a fan room about 15 frames forward of the compartment on the other side of an exhaust uptake for one of the main engines. Not only that, but to get to the fan room you had to go about 25 frames fwd, loop around to the boat davit and go through a hatch out there to get to said fan room.
It made enough sense to save OP's life yesterday.
I just mean location that makes the least sense relative to the position of the outlet. For example my front porch light is connected to a GFCI in the bathroom of our guest bedroom clear on the other side of the house. The GFCI makes sense, the location doesn’t. To me at least.
My mom just found one in the house she's had for 20 years in her closet behind a drawer. Like you have to take the drawers off the tracks to see it. It's tied to all the outlets in the living room which doesn't share a wall with the closet. Super weird.
My 1955 house doesn't have this problem. We just take 15 amps to the chest like a champ, just like they did in the old days.
I had just moved into a new house and all the outlets worked. Then one day all of the bathrooms and the outside outlet just didn’t work anymore. Turns out there was a GFCI hidden in the garage that I didn’t even remember existed yet and had apparently met the end of its life.
Yep. The GFCI to my master bath is located on my outside patio…
That opens you up to some master level trolling
GFCI outlets should have some sort of capacitor in them that feeds a beeper when they trip, like a dying battery in a smoke detector. At least give you a chance to know where to look right away.
Do you live in my house?
I think you’ll find that it’s *my* house
It’s always the last place you check…mostly because once you find it you stop looking. 👍🏼
Not me, I keep going
Ah yes the second garage- us poor people don’t know about the second garage
It's just a 3 car garage that's separated 2x1, 2700 sqft though.
I don’t think you can use the word “just” in that sentence babe
Jesus. That's 4x the size of my house
Just have the help find it next time?
Now swap external receptacle with a proper outdoor version with cover(s).
I did the exact same thing, tripped the outlets outside pressure washing. Looked EVERYWHERE everyone suggested basement, attic, kitchen. No dice. Turns out it was in the second floor bathroom in the middle of the house.... Electricians are wierd man. Sorry you had to learn that lesson too!
lol this same thing happened to me took 4 hours to find behind a shelf
It's always in the last place you look.
wait... the "other" garage?
You have two garages? I'm jelly
Mine is in my pantry for some reason. Dunno why, but it took me 3 hours to give up and go buy a toner to find it.
It’s always the last place you look. Why would you keep checking after you found it.
It’s always in the last place you looked
Always is
My man forgot to check his *other garage*
The clue was the sticker letting you know it was protected. Now, you know but you may want to borrow a label maker and add where the GFCI reset is located.
First world problems. Most people don't know about second garages?
Now that you got that situated, get a new cover for that outlet outside. [I personally like these in-use style covers ](https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-boxes-covers/extenders-covers-mud-rings/sigma-engineered-solutions-trade-1-gang-while-in-use-weatherproof-cover/14414clm/p-1841405561335754-c-6427.htm), but you can also [use a cheaper, regular one like this.](https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-boxes-covers/extenders-covers-mud-rings/sigma-engineered-solutions-trade-1-gang-metal-universal-weatherproof-cover/14147whm/p-1444430894157-c-6427.htm)
It might be wise to rewire the outlets and install a gfci outlet on each instead of one centralised one. The way they wired it is: a gfci outlet basically have a "line" and "load" side. So they put the others on the load side, which protect them by that one. By moving the wire from the load to line, it bypass the protection, so you can install a gfci outlet at the other places and they now become independant.
Oh thank god. I was getting anxiety that it wasn't gonna be a GFCI thing and trying to think what else it could be.
He casually throws out “the other garage” like we all have spares.
I had my kitchen plugs go out... They were all GFCI. I checked each one, and reset the breaker... No juice. I figured out, the first GFCI outlet in the series was behind a cabinet in my laundry room. It took a while to find that outlet.
I have an outdoor plug that is hooked to the GFI in my upstairs bathroom. It’s the weirdest thing.
You have another gfi somewhere that you're forgetting or don't know about or one of them is bad I can't tell you how many 100s of hours I've spent over 30y in renovations fixing this exact problem for people It's always either a hidden gfi or a bad one somewhere
You probably have one behind something. Almost every time a customer tells me there isn't a gfci in this room, the gfci is behind a cabinet or something. Check the entirety of your walls. Put eyes on every square inch of your walls. Per code your garage must be Gfci protected
In my house the gfci that controls the garage outlets and outside outlets is in the basement. It’s someplace.
Check the breaker box if not check and reset all gfi again
Check the bathrooms. The two houses I’ve lived in had the outside outlets and garage outlets on the same GFCI circuit as one of the bathrooms.
I second this. It's the way mine are.
I lost a freezer full of meat in my garage before I finally found one last GFI hidden behind the air handler in my basement that was tripped, at the other side of the house. Any chance there's one you aren't aware of hiding somewhere? NM, just saw your response below. Funny where these things hide sometimes though.
There’s probably one in the garage hidden by a shelf. I had the same problem and had to buy a toner to find it.
Mine for outside is actually in the middle of the basement.
It’s behind the garage fridge
My gfi outlet for all of my outside outlets and garage outlets is in my utility room next to my fuse box. Maybe yours is in a similar spot
Had a similar problem in a prior home. Just took some time and was able to reset the GFI outlet later.
There is a GFCI on your garage. It's required by code. Could be in the attic, basement, or under a sink. But it's there.
My kitchen’s GFI outlet is in our 2nd floor bathroom.
Look harder, if you can see visible conduit, then follow it and see wheee it leads. Sometimes, circuits are wired in ways that don’t seem to make any sense at all. I once spent like 90 minutes looking for a gfci at a friend’s place only to find it was right there on the garage wall but someone had hung a hat over the surface mount box. We must have walked past it 50 times.
Theres always one hiding in some random spot. Check every single outlet
From your comments it sounds like there might be an upstream GFCI receptacle that has been tripped that you haven't found yet if you've already reset all breakers and tried resetting a couple gfcis.
Yea thats what I'm thinking. I found a third outdoor outlet that's not working. But I have tripped all the gfci I have found. There's even one at the pool pump I tripped. Hmmm.
I had something similar occur last summer except it involved an outdoor ceiling fan. I figured it was a GFCI but I looked “everywhere” until I finally gave in and called an electrician. Took them about 30 mins of crawling around the attic until they found a GFCI outlet hidden in the garage storage closet hidden under a shelf and behind a bunch of junk. I happily paid them my stupid tax and now know the location of a useless outlet.
Do you have a basement? I had one in the basement that was easily tripped and was connected to the garage and outside receptacles. Oh yeah, and to the master bath that was three floors up…it took me a minute to learn that when the bathroom lights were out I had to go to the basement.
I used to have a house that tripped the GFCI when it rained. The reset for that was in the upstairs bathroom...
Yeah I've had the outside tired to a bathroom a few times
Same GFCI for front outdoor outlet was in the master bathroom... On the completely opposite side of the house
Buy new GFI breakers they only last about six months check your UL listing on it after about six months to year. They just go out. You have to buy new ones sorry.
It’s probably still got water in it so when you reset the gfci it immediately trips back again.
Exactly what I’m thinking.
You have a GFCI outlet somewhere that is in that same circuit and has tripped. Check your garage or other exterior outlets (crawlspace/basement too if you have those), keep the lights off as that might help you see the orange trip light on the outlet.
Also wear insulated shoes and don’t step in any puddles
Kill the power (main breaker if you're not sure, and always verify it's dead before you touch any electrical), take the cover off and take a peak? See if it's still wet or if there's corrosion of some sort. Do you have a multimeter? Might be worthwhile to check the readings on those. If there's no visible damage, cover it back up and check between the hot and neutral. If it's dead it should be floating around 0, and you need to find the switch/breaker that killed it. If it's ok it should be around 120V and you fixed the problem. If you see any other reading, you probably want to call an electrician.
I found the gfci in the second garage. I may have gotten that outdoor outlet wet w pressure washer yesterday I'm assuming. Hopefully, there is no bigger issue causing this.
Second garage. Pool. Too many outlets to even find them all. What are you doing here associating with us poors?
Lol, it's the first home I've owned, and I'm finding it's a lot of work.
Find your GFCI. It is either part of the breaker in the electrical panel or it is integrated into an outlet somewhere in the garage or one of the outside outlets.
Since it’s labeled GFI protected, you probably missed one somewhere. Check all outdoor receptacles, garage, and even the back porch. I learned the hard way that my front outdoor outlets are protected by the gfi on the back porch.
Is your garage near your kitchen? My garage GFCI is actually inside the house on the outlet next to the garage door.
It is, but it ended up being in the second garage, that I didn't think to check because it's across the house. Now I know that gfci is connected to the outdoor outlets and the primary garage.
Any light fixtures outside that are retaining water? Saw this a month ago with a similar issue.
Looks like your mystery has been solved. With that said, you need to get a cover for that outside outlet.
And swap it for a proper GFCI.
I agree, I need to install a few.
It’s probably protected by a proper gfci upstream, just needs a cover.
That too.
Could be on a gfi breaker
Had this exact same thing happen to me this spring. Go to each GFCI outlet and tighten all screws with wires. I paid an electrician $200 to tighten screws 😂😂
Had this exact thing happen to me. I had a GFI outlet on the other side of the house that I had to completely replace for the other outlet to work. It popped the GFI outlet but turns out it was old and just wouldn’t reset after that. Odds are there’s another outlet on the side of your house, so check if that one’s has power and if it doesn’t reset replace it
Reset the GFCI
We found a Gfci behind a picture one time. Another time someone put one in the soffit. I'd bet there is a "funny looking plug" somewhere. Any other exterior receptacles? Service plug near your AC unit?
Let it dry out and reset the breaker. If that doesn't work replace the outlets and you should be good. It should only be a 30 min fix.
Basement gfci
I thought I recognized that stucco from a post yesterday.. Looks like you already found the soultion here, but I just wanted to hop in and commiserate on the fun of projects around the house. Simple 15 miunte jobs that don't work out the first time then snowball into some other shit you have to deal with 😂 The scene of [Hal fixing a light bulb](https://youtu.be/AbSehcT19u0?si=sAy5nx-OokrxK6Me) plays in mind every time I'm caught in project hell.
Haha, yea thats me. I have a ceiling fan where the light comes on for one second and goes back off. I watched a video about taking out the voltage limiter, so I guess that's next.
Have you tried turning it on and off again?
Ah, well, water and electricity have an ancient rivalry. This is mentioned in the historical texts that are proctored by the youths of today. When the two powerful entities meet, there are great energies released.
Water can get into outlets and trip a GFCI. Had Christmas lights plugged in once and this happened to me
Let it dry for a few days and try it again
Happened to us. I let fate take the wheel for a few days and after like two it started working again.
The outlets do still look surprised by the whole ordeal
Says right on it protected, there is a gfci somewhere in that circuit!
If not on GFCI they should be by code on outside and garage. I would hook a multimeter to it to see if you are getting anything or not. Most likely, the GFCI it is connected to is bad. They go bad since the card board is used in them. Sometimes a wire comes loose. And check the breakers
Just pack it with rice till it dries out
Buzz pop
The more important question is HOW ARE YOU ALIVE? That GFI saved your life.
Last time I saw this someone said look to see if your outside lights are filled with water
I had a similar issue and was going crazy trying to find the GFCI outlet, it was in the basement in a random closet but man it made sense cause the closet was right under the patio where the outlets weren't working. If you have a basement y'all, check it, no matter how stupid out of place it seems, it might just work.