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Posted to alt.home.repair
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electrical question
In article , albee wrote:
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:29:44 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:
In article , albee
wrote:
OMG. Simple enough. Indeed, they were backstabbed, and after getting
done with re-wiring them (BTW: coincidence or not, turns out the best
thing to use to disengage those suckers is the prong of a cord! Tried
about 10 things before I came up with that). Anyway, got done with
it... and nothing. Nothing. So, I decide to test other outlets in the
room, stick my multimeter in another one, and as soon as I do, all
lights and power come on throughout the room?! Including to the one I
just re-wired. Yet, this was an outlet that was behind a dresser and
hadn't been used in eons. What happened? I decided not to take it
apart to check it, since we're not using it and it's working now.
Bad idea.
You KNOW there's a problem there. You know, too, that the problem is a loose
connection. What you may not know is that loose connections can start fires.
Fix it.
BEFORE you go to sleep tonight.
Thanks for all the replies (and Rich, no, they're not aluminum). Can
anyone explain what happened after I re-wired the one outlet, and
suddenly I wasn't getting any power to it, and then tested the other
outlet, that hadn't been touched in years, and all of a sudden it
appears to have a loose wire? Did the wire come loose from turning the
breaker on and off?
Most likely, there's been a problem there for a couple years. You just found
it.
Guess I'll go in and replace it/both with new
outlets, but then shouldn't I be doing that throughout the house,
Like I said below... YES. You have a potential fire hazard.
if
these are all original, and all backstabbed, and two in one room have
gotten loose at the same time? Jeez, sounds like a fun week ahead!
Thanks again for all the help!
Stumped... But problem solved.
Stumped? Why? The symptoms are identical. It's almost certainly the same
problem -- and the outlets are telling you that it's time to at least re-wire,
if not replace, ALL of them. In the entire house. As soon as possible.
While you're at it, check all the switches too (chances are they were done the
same way).
--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.
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