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Re: Another electrical mystery

To: "David C." <cavanadd@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Another electrical mystery
From: "E. John Puckett" <ejpuckett@centurytel.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 17:23:53 -0500
Make sure the connections are tight where the wires attach to the gfci

David C. wrote:

>
> 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
>

-- 
 John
another one of them
*.?-!.* cub owners




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