- #1
turbo
Gold Member
- 3,165
- 56
Glad I was home!
This afternoon, I was in the kitchen cleaning blueberries when the air conditioner and refrigerator both quit at once. I checked the breakers, and couldn't find a tripped one, nor would those appliances power up. I got out my DMM and checked outlets - there was power to every outlet in the kitchen except the outlet feeding those two appliances. Then I started to check the outlet over the kitchen stove and sparks and flames shot out of the outlet. I only had gotten one probe into the neutral slot - I hadn't probed the hot slot yet. I ran out to the panel, shut off the breakers to the kitchen outlets, grabbed a screwdriver and took off the trim plate only to see a very badly burned outlet-box with scorched, damaged wires. This was a problem more complex than a simple outlet replacement, so I called my electrician brother-in-law and he came right over and helped me sort out the problem. If I hadn't been home AND paying attention to details, the place could have burned down. As it is, we have a little burned wallpaper and an increased wariness about poor connections in our outlets. I'm going to have to check the connections at our outlets for integrity.
This afternoon, I was in the kitchen cleaning blueberries when the air conditioner and refrigerator both quit at once. I checked the breakers, and couldn't find a tripped one, nor would those appliances power up. I got out my DMM and checked outlets - there was power to every outlet in the kitchen except the outlet feeding those two appliances. Then I started to check the outlet over the kitchen stove and sparks and flames shot out of the outlet. I only had gotten one probe into the neutral slot - I hadn't probed the hot slot yet. I ran out to the panel, shut off the breakers to the kitchen outlets, grabbed a screwdriver and took off the trim plate only to see a very badly burned outlet-box with scorched, damaged wires. This was a problem more complex than a simple outlet replacement, so I called my electrician brother-in-law and he came right over and helped me sort out the problem. If I hadn't been home AND paying attention to details, the place could have burned down. As it is, we have a little burned wallpaper and an increased wariness about poor connections in our outlets. I'm going to have to check the connections at our outlets for integrity.