Electrical Question

[Carbo]

Yesterday, both my disposal and dishwasher stopped working. There was no power from the outlet under the sink. I checked to see if the breaker was tripped. It wasn't so I manually tripped it and reset, but still no power at that outlet. I know what I don't know and that would be electricity. Before I call an electrician, anything obvious that I might be overlooking?

 

[echo4747]

possibly a GFCI tripped either at the receptacle or another receptacle from an outlet on the same circuit is the first thing to check

 

[Carbo]

Tested and reset the two GFCI outlets in the house but the problem persists.
The outlet in question was replaced less than 4 year ago when the kitchen was rehabbed. So I don't think it's already gone bad but I suppose that's my final test before bringing in an electrician.

 

[echo4747]

do you have a non contact voltage detector? ( not very expensive from home depot or any reasonably sized hardware store)

Turn the breaker off that feeds that circui....t remove the outlet under the sink and look for any wire that may have lost contact (especially if there are wires joined together with a wire nut)

You can then turn breaker back on and use the non contact voltage tester to see if you have power anywhere in that box under the sink ( you would be looking for voltage in all likelihood on black wires... at least one of the black wires should supply power at that point

 

[Paperdoc]

echo4747 has good ideas above. To reinforce: you must be VERY careful NOT to touch any wires that you expose. Moreover, as recommended, you MUST turn OFF the circuit (at the breaker) BEFORE opening up things. BUT this is made more difficult because you already know there is NO power at that outlet. So how do you test for no power to verify that you turned off the correct breaker? You should do the task of opening and pulling out the receptacle from the box as if the power has NOT been turned off until you can verify that no voltages are present in the box. In particular, just pulling items out of the box risks moving a broken wire so that it touches the box or you and causes a problem! AFTER that is done you can proceed with temporarily turning power there back on at the breaker for further tests. But of course at that point you KNOW you should be dealing with live wires!

This process will get you info on whether the wires in the box, the receptacle device itself, or some junction in the box is faulty. If there is NO sign of voltage anywhere in that box, the problem is elsewhere. So, other places to look:
(a) The box may be fed from another box in the overall circuit from the SAME breaker. Is there another outlet box somewhere (or light switch) that turns on and off with the SAME breaker? If yes, you can use the SAME SAFETY precautions to open and examine inside those for bad connections.
(b) You reset a couple of GFCI's. Do you KNOW that those are actually connected to the outlet with no power? If yes, then can you verify that the GFCI you reset stayed live so that it should be delivering power? If you reset a GFCI that is involved, any fault in the failed outlet OR in the devices plugged in there will trip the GFCI again.
(c) It also is possible that the breaker itself in the panel is faulty OR that the connection to it has failed. Since you say you do not understand electricity well, I strongly advise you NOT to open the main breaker panel and search for faults. The ONLY way to render such a panel safe is to shut down ALL power to the entire house there with the main big breaker, and even then there are still parts in that panel that are live! Besides, then you have no light to work with! This really is where you need an electrician.

 

[Carbo]

Thank you for the detailed replies, echo4747 and Paperdoc. After doing a few basic tests I figured with my limited knowledge and the location of the problem, (beneath the kitchen sink and behind a large disposal unit), I'm better off contacting an electrician. Waiting on a call back.

 

[Greenman]

At 4 years old the dishwasher/disposal should be on a dedicated circuit and marked accordingly.
If the breaker is working, then you've lost the hot lead. That should be one unbroken wire from the sub to the outlet, so the issue should be at the sub panel or the outlet. Both are accessible and serviceable.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would try to figure out where it's fed from and work through the chain. Maybe a wire got loose somewhere along the chain. Ideally this should be a dedicated circuit, but never know until you can confirm. I would start at the breaker box, make sure the wire is tightened to the breaker and did not work it's way loose somehow. Also confirm power at the breaker just to rule out a bad breaker.

Failing that, then turn off breaker and look for other things that might not work like an utility outlet in the basement or something, to see if anything else is on that circuit, then verify each one of those boxes for a loose wire.