On Monday, July 15, 2019 at 9:29:39 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sunday, July 14, 2019 at 9:37:10 PM UTC-7, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 14 Jul 2019 23:28:08 -0400, micky


This is one of the two GFCIs in the kitchen. The other one is working fine. GFCI that is dead is on a separate breaker which I have isolated. GFCI is protecting four other outlets. And they are all dead.

So it's the breaker, not the outlets.

I didn't read the above line closely, and my conclusion was unwarranted
by the statement above. However there are still lots of tests described
already to narrow down the problem and I doubt it's in the walls.

After 5 minutes, his next step should not have been to open the walls
like he claimed.

I opened up all 4 outlets and pretty much checked each of them for loose wire/ connections etc and they all seem to be fine.

Thanks all for the valuable suggestions. So far this is what I have done:

1. Called electrician - which verified no issues with breaker box but no power at GFCI. He did not do anything else like what others have suggested in forum. Wish I knew about forum before calling in electrician.

2. Tested all outlets in kitchen and surrounding area with and without breaker off for dead GFCI. All outlets are working except the ones on the dead GFCI.

3. Opened up and visually inspected all outlets protected by dead GFCI for any issues related wiring. They all seem fine.

4. Measured voltage at GFCI line - all pairs of hot / neutral and hot / ground measure 52V. Seems like phantom reading.

We did not have any renovations etc or any electrical work done. House was built in 2011.

My next step is to trace path from breaker box to GFCI and see if anything obvious is on the way.

Is there a basement that's unfinished? If so, I'd just start with a non-contact
tester and see if you can find the cable where it goes into the kitchen.
No need to trace it all the way to the panel if it's live there. Same
idea if it feeds from an attic, etc.

Since it's new construction, the possibility of a nail or similar damage
being done to the cable inside a wall increases greatly. Not likely
there is an illegal splice inside a wall, though I suppose a construction
guy could have screwed it and patched it illegally.