I'm not sure if this forum is for non-electricians, or only pros, so if this question doesn't belong, please forgive me.
We had an unusually heavy rain this weekend and the power to the outlets in the downstairs southwest quadrant of our house is out. This includes part of the kitchen and the adjoining dining room. The power is also out on the deck that abuts the dining room. So I figured it was the GFCI outlet on the outside, which is just on the other side of a wall with a plug in our dining room. That GFCI won't reset. But then I noticed there's a conduit from that outlet to another one that's on a pergola a few feet away. This one has the RESET button sticking all the way out, and I can't reset it, so I figured this is the one that's mucking thing up. There are no other conduits running anywhere outside.
My question assumes that the above logic is correct and I've identified the correct plug. I went to the circuit breaker panel, and turned off all of the breakers, because I couldn't identify which was for that specific circuit (we weren't here when it was all installed). After shutting everything off, I took one of the voltage tester pen-like things to the outlet, and it was still registering power. If you haven't gathered already, I'm a complete rube when it comes to electrical stuff. I didn't want to switch out the GFCI if it was still registering power. Is there some kind of delay from the time I shut off the breaker to the time that it stops showing hot on the detector? If not, then I'm at a total loss.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks very much.
We had an unusually heavy rain this weekend and the power to the outlets in the downstairs southwest quadrant of our house is out. This includes part of the kitchen and the adjoining dining room. The power is also out on the deck that abuts the dining room. So I figured it was the GFCI outlet on the outside, which is just on the other side of a wall with a plug in our dining room. That GFCI won't reset. But then I noticed there's a conduit from that outlet to another one that's on a pergola a few feet away. This one has the RESET button sticking all the way out, and I can't reset it, so I figured this is the one that's mucking thing up. There are no other conduits running anywhere outside.
My question assumes that the above logic is correct and I've identified the correct plug. I went to the circuit breaker panel, and turned off all of the breakers, because I couldn't identify which was for that specific circuit (we weren't here when it was all installed). After shutting everything off, I took one of the voltage tester pen-like things to the outlet, and it was still registering power. If you haven't gathered already, I'm a complete rube when it comes to electrical stuff. I didn't want to switch out the GFCI if it was still registering power. Is there some kind of delay from the time I shut off the breaker to the time that it stops showing hot on the detector? If not, then I'm at a total loss.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks very much.
