Posts Tagged ‘Outlet Box Wiring Tips’

Help With A Dead Outlet

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Mike S says,

I just moved into a house & one outlet didn’t work. I used my tester & none of the lights came on. It’s not a switched outlet & it looks like it is hooked up right (black & white wires going to the right places)

So everyone knows what the right places are for the black & white wires are, black goes to the brass terminal & white to the silver, B to B may be easier to remember.

More than likely the problem is going to be the first connection upstream. Pull the nearest likely outlets (with the circuit turned off)- the ones to the left & right as well as the outlets on the other side of the wall. The connections that seem to go bad the most are the ones inserted into the back of the outlet instead of wrapped around the screw & a lot of times when people strip the wires they will use one of the smaller sizes on the stripper & then when the wires are twisted together with pliers one of the wires will break at this point & can be hidden by the wire nut.