Doug White wrote:

Somewhere in my house, I have a broken electrical connection. This is
the second time a circuit has developed a fault in the middle in the last
6 months. The first time, a neutral connection let go where some idiot
had used a "back stab" (great name, considering how they fail) connection
in an outlet. Years of wiggling the outlet did it in. I was flat out at
work & had to pay several hundred bucks to get an electrician to chase it
down.

This time, I can probably fix it myself, but I'd prefer not to ruin the
entire weekend looking for it. Part of the circuit is live, and then
someplace, it ain't. The house is a 1952 vintage ranch, and the wiring
may run in the attic, or through the basement ceiling, when it isn't
going short distances in walls.

I have a cheapo Greenlee circuit tracer, but it's designed to plug into a
live outlet for mapping out breakers. I know they sell ones that put a
strong enough signal on the wires that you can track them in walls,
presumably battery powered for dead circuits. One catch is that the
basement ceiling is expanded metal lath. I don't expect to trace things
there, although a really good on might work up through the wood floors.

The electrician who fixed the first break had some kind of tracer, but
didn't have much luck with it. Apparently even a small load (a night
light in an outlet we didn't know was on the circuit) was enough to kill
the signal. I'd prefer something that was a bit more reliable.

Any recommendations? Something I can pick up at Lowes or Home Despot
would be good.

How much time don't you want to spend? Get an outlet checker for about
three bucks at the home store, then one at a time, starting at the panel,
check each outlet on that circuit; when you get to the one that's not
working, open it up and fix it. If when you open it to fix it, you find
that it's OK, then back up one and fix the output side of the outlet
that's previous to it (closer to the panel) on the string.

Have Fun!
Rich