Forgive me this is long. Writing it out helps me think it through. Now I'm stumped. My husband is a pretty good handyman but he's stumped. I'm a complete novice but he's too busy to write this up. Perhaps also a little too proud to ask for advice. With Christmas right around the corner I want to exhaust every possibility before having to spend $000 calling out a pro. I live in the US, house is 20 ish years old. Maybe 30? Anyways pretty young as far as houses go.
So yesterday I was going about my day vacuuming. I plugged it in, turned it on and boom, it dies. I figured it's the breaker, so I went to flip it. As I was trying to figure out which of the dozen keys unlocks the breaker box it started pouring rain so I retreated inside to wait out the storm. Probably not relevant but my gradeschool son is full stop certain the storm broke something, regardless that the problem started right before the storm and we haven't ever had weather related electrical problems in this house.
I figured out that downstairs, only one outlet is dead. This is the outlet that I plugged the vacuum into. It's connected to a light switch on the stairs. All the other lights on the stairs and in the hall are also dead. Upstairs, room 1 is completely dead. Room 2 is completely live. Room 3 is completely dead. Room 3 feeds the attic which is dead. Rooms 4 and 5 and the rest of the downstairs are live.
Then the rain stopped. Right after the rain passed I found the correct key, got into the breaker box and...! Nothing is flipped. I flipped it all just to be sure, but power doesn't come back on. I reset the 2 GCFI outlets, they click fine and happy.
My husband tested the breakers with a multimeter and found them all live and feeding power successfully into the house. We tested the breakers individually and found that all of the dead areas seem to originate from 1 of the breakers. It's all fine at the breaker box but with breaker 1 off, kitchen lights don't work, breaker on they're fine. Breaker 2, nothing dies that wasn't already dead.
Next he tested the outlets. All the live outlets read all clear. Props to the electrician who did the work. The non working outlets are completely dead, no reading. No reading on a multimeter either.
He opened the outlets, found a bunch of daisy chaining, and replaced all the outlets in the dead zones, and verified all capped ground wires.
It could be worth noting that we've had some trouble with one of the now dead light fixtures burning out bulbs. One of the light switch panels which controls that light and the outlet that I plugged the vacuum into reads 0 ohm resistance up and down. It even has bits that look melted! So he replaced it... but still no power.
Swapped the dead zone breaker with a working breaker, still no power. No dimming or flickering everywhere else. It's been a day and it hasn't come back spontaneously. Everything seems 100% fine or 100% dead. Hmm. Hmm.
Could a working outlet cause others to die? He only replaced dead outlets so far. Or could the breaker box somehow read power but not deliver it even with a fresh breaker? Could that melty light switch somehow still be the culprit? What else could be the cause? Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.
So yesterday I was going about my day vacuuming. I plugged it in, turned it on and boom, it dies. I figured it's the breaker, so I went to flip it. As I was trying to figure out which of the dozen keys unlocks the breaker box it started pouring rain so I retreated inside to wait out the storm. Probably not relevant but my gradeschool son is full stop certain the storm broke something, regardless that the problem started right before the storm and we haven't ever had weather related electrical problems in this house.
I figured out that downstairs, only one outlet is dead. This is the outlet that I plugged the vacuum into. It's connected to a light switch on the stairs. All the other lights on the stairs and in the hall are also dead. Upstairs, room 1 is completely dead. Room 2 is completely live. Room 3 is completely dead. Room 3 feeds the attic which is dead. Rooms 4 and 5 and the rest of the downstairs are live.
Then the rain stopped. Right after the rain passed I found the correct key, got into the breaker box and...! Nothing is flipped. I flipped it all just to be sure, but power doesn't come back on. I reset the 2 GCFI outlets, they click fine and happy.
My husband tested the breakers with a multimeter and found them all live and feeding power successfully into the house. We tested the breakers individually and found that all of the dead areas seem to originate from 1 of the breakers. It's all fine at the breaker box but with breaker 1 off, kitchen lights don't work, breaker on they're fine. Breaker 2, nothing dies that wasn't already dead.
Next he tested the outlets. All the live outlets read all clear. Props to the electrician who did the work. The non working outlets are completely dead, no reading. No reading on a multimeter either.
He opened the outlets, found a bunch of daisy chaining, and replaced all the outlets in the dead zones, and verified all capped ground wires.
It could be worth noting that we've had some trouble with one of the now dead light fixtures burning out bulbs. One of the light switch panels which controls that light and the outlet that I plugged the vacuum into reads 0 ohm resistance up and down. It even has bits that look melted! So he replaced it... but still no power.
Swapped the dead zone breaker with a working breaker, still no power. No dimming or flickering everywhere else. It's been a day and it hasn't come back spontaneously. Everything seems 100% fine or 100% dead. Hmm. Hmm.
Could a working outlet cause others to die? He only replaced dead outlets so far. Or could the breaker box somehow read power but not deliver it even with a fresh breaker? Could that melty light switch somehow still be the culprit? What else could be the cause? Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.