Last night the power to the kitchen outlets went out. No unusual loads
were plugged in, and none of the breakers in the panel were showing
tripped. I pushed on all of the breaker switches to see if any were
actually tripped and not showing, and the power came back on again. I
never did actually reset anything.
It happened again this morning. This time I reset the breaker marked GFI
and the power came back on (it didn't show tripped). I then went into the
kitchen and pushed the trip/test button on the GFI outlet and it tripped
and I saw a noticeable arc in the upper half of the outlet. It reset fine,
though, and everything is working again. The only thing that gets plugged
into the GFI is the stand mixer, and my wife was using it last night, but
was finished when the power went out.
Other details: the appliances on the circuit are the fridge, two
microwaves, a toaster oven, a coffee maker, a heavy duty stand mixer and
the phone. It's not at all uncommon for us to have both microwaves, the
coffee maker and toaster oven all going at the same time, and the fridge
cycles in and out. IIRC it's a 20 amp circuit, and the house is about five
years old. The fridge is about 20 years old. In addition, the kitchen
outlets (and several others) feed through a sub panel connected to the
generator. I've never had problems with breakers tripping before.
So should I check and tighten all the main and sub panel
connections? Replace the GFI? Replace the breaker? Buy a new
fridge? Call an electrician?
Thanks
Dave C
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