Receptacles failure/circuit breaker help...

[Beenalongtime79]

I came home to find a dark tank and no water moving. No worries, because everything is fine now (I doubt it was down for more than a couple of hours) since I switched all the equipment to another electrical outlet, but I am concerned because I thought that it may have been too much power draw which may have tripped the circuit breaker.

However, upon checking the main breaker box, nothing was tripped. So I tried to reset the circuit breaker for the receptacles in question, turned it off and then on, but three of the outlets in the room will not work, but the rest of the receptacles will work.

Is it possible for some receptacles to be shorted or somehow destroyed, yet leave some receptacles on the same circuit untouched?

There are three receptacle outlets that do not work, but I only used one outlet and that was the one all of my equipment was plugged into.... the equipment had all been running very well for at least a month on the circuit without previous issues (no additional equipment was recently added). Also, there is a slight greyish haze on the outlet of one of the receptacles (the one all my equipment was plugged into), now could it have shorted and caused the other receptacles to go down... would a simple fix be to simply replace the bad receptacle (if it truly is the culprit) or should I look into seeking the services of an electrician?

Thanks for any and all help!
John

[Poeticlydead]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15326423#post15326423 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rufio173
However, upon checking the main breaker box, nothing was tripped. So I tried to reset the circuit breaker for the receptacles in question, turned it off and then on, but three of the outlets in the room will not work, but the rest of the receptacles will work.

Is it possible for some receptacles to be shorted or somehow destroyed, yet leave some receptacles on the same circuit untouched?

Yes, depending on the wiring in your home and the age of the home those outlets in that room may be chained together so effectively any recepticle after the burnt one wouldn't have a complete circuit but the recepticles ahead of the burnt one would still have a complete path. Another possibility is that you have more then one string of recepticles in the room.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15326423#post15326423 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rufio173
There are three receptacle outlets that do not work, but I only used one outlet and that was the one all of my equipment was plugged into.... Also, there is a slight greyish haze on the outlet of one of the receptacles (the one all my equipment was plugged into), now could it have shorted and caused the other receptacles to go down... would a simple fix be to simply replace the bad receptacle (if it truly is the culprit) or should I look into seeking the services of an electrician?

Thanks for any and all help!
John

Ok the greyish haze bothers me since this is the sign of something burning (potential electrical fire) in the recepticle/box, combined with the fact that it apparently didn't drawl enough to throw the breaker it had the potential to get really bad.

You really should be operating on GFI outlets. If you can't upgrade your recepticles to GFI look into a GFI adapter (next best thing). Secondly make sure everything has a drip loop and no water can get to the outlets (water + 115v outlet = bad day).

Yes a simple fix would be to replace the recepticle, get a GFI adapter, verify proper drip loops and verify proper operation of the home electrical system.

Now my standard disclaimer: ).Electricity can be very dangerous (it can kill you) and all electrical work should be preformed by a licensed professional. If a home owner is uncomfortable with any level of electrical work no matter how simple it seems they are all ways better off calling a licensed professional first).

To sum this all up; yes, it is most likely just that one recepticle that needs to be replaced but there are other things that should be done too. If you are not familiar with electrical work then yes you should call an electrican.

I would still like to have some idea of the load your putting on this recepticle (what all is plugged into it).