13amp socket not working, the rest are

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stuartornum

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Morning all,

I have a problem with two of my 13 amp sockets not working at all, they use to work fine and the rest in the house is working perfectly fine - I thought it might of been the faceplate, therefore I replaced it with a new one, still no luck.

I've tried a couple devices in other sockets, like a phone charger, it's definitely two sockets in two different areas of the house that have suddenly stopped working at exactly the same time.

The fuse box has three fuses:

  1. Lights
  2. 13 amp sockets
  3. Kitchen area


I have a socket tester, here are some photos:



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 
Looking at the picture called 'Socket on' , your socket tester is suggesting that the live and earth wires have been put in the wrong terminals. Check the other sockets in the house with the tester and make a note of which ones are the same. Then, make sure you turn the power OFF and check those sockets wiring. One or more of them could be wrong. 

 
sprocketflup said:
Looking at the picture called 'Socket on' , your socket tester is suggesting that the live and earth wires have been put in the wrong terminals. Check the other sockets in the house with the tester and make a note of which ones are the same. Then, make sure you turn the power OFF and check those sockets wiring. One or more of them could be wrong. 
Click to expand...
Hi,

Thank you for getting back to me, much appreciated!

Agree, it looks wrong! However, I cannot explain why these sockets worked perfectly fine for years as "reversed" and then all of a sudden, not... any ideas?

 
Any works at all been done in the house? And I mean anything?

How many times have I gone to a 'mysterious fault', asked the homeowner if owts been done, and get a no in reply. The when the fault is located, they suddenly remember that "Oh yes, we had an electrician/plumber/gasman/painter etc round two days ago....."

Electrical systems generally will sit happily for years, its usually some human** intervention that causes the problems .

** Sometimes rodent, sometimes simian

 
First, be VERY careful, if Live and Earth really are reversed, then you could very well get a serious shock just touching the two screws that hold the socket into the back box. don't attempt to use or even touch those sockets until you turn the power off

I would say this is not DIY teritory. you say you changed the fronts in an attempt to get them working, are you SURE that YOU didn't re connect them wrong?

If the house only has 3 fuses it is likely to be very old and who knows how or where these sockets are fed from. A switched fused spur somewhere may be a possibility?

A much quicker and safer solution is to get a local electrician to sort it out.

 
sprocketflup said:
Any works at all been done in the house? And I mean anything?

How many times have I gone to a 'mysterious fault', asked the homeowner if owts been done, and get a no in reply. The when the fault is located, they suddenly remember that "Oh yes, we had an electrician/plumber/gasman/painter etc round two days ago....."

Electrical systems generally will sit happily for years, its usually some human** intervention that causes the problems .

** Sometimes rodent, sometimes simian
Click to expand...


  • I replaced the bath panel over the weekend... nothing electrical
  • had a new boiler installed in January this year...
This particular twin socket (in the photo) feeds our TV and TiVo box (multi adapter), the other socket is our WiFi router.
 

We have a "smart plug" that turns off the TV side, we were watching TV in the evening, went to bed, next morning.... nothing worked...

ProDave said:
First, be VERY careful, if Live and Earth really are reversed, then you could very well get a serious shock just touching the two screws that hold the socket into the back box. don't attempt to use or even touch those sockets until you turn the power off

I would say this is not DIY teritory. you say you changed the fronts in an attempt to get them working, are you SURE that YOU didn't re connect them wrong?

If the house only has 3 fuses it is likely to be very old and who knows how or where these sockets are fed from. A switched fused spur somewhere may be a possibility?

A much quicker and safer solution is to get a local electrician to sort it out.
Click to expand...


I must admit, this is well beyond me... I want to check on a forum first, but I think it's time for the professionals!

Thanks to all - I'll post when I figure it out if people are interested...

 
I would guess that the original fault is a broken neutral and the sockets are either a radial or a spur off a spur, so sockets stop working. Then you have got your terminations crossed over when trying the new face plates.

So you now have a Live in the wrong terminal, but a broken neutral somewhere else on the circuit, so nothing works but you still have 230v sitting on parts of the circuit.  You need a proper voltage and continuity tester and someone who knows how to use them to do a few dead tests on the circuit to locate the problem.

Doc H.   

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Doc Hudson said:
I would guess that the original fault is a broken neutral and the sockets are either a radial or a spur off a spur, so sockets stop working. Then you have got your terminations crossed over when trying the new face plates.

So you now have a Live in the wrong terminal, but a broken neutral somewhere else on the circuit, so nothing works but you still have 230v sitting on parts of the circuit.  You need a proper voltage and continuity tester and someone who knows how to use them to do a few dead tests on the circuit to locate the problem.

Doc H.   
Click to expand...


Hi,

Just to note, these photos were taken with the old faceplate - before I'd unscrewed anything.

Thank you for the post - we have someone coming out to check it later today hopefully

 
ProDave said:
First, be VERY careful, if Live and Earth really are reversed, then you could very well get a serious shock just touching the two screws that hold the socket into the back box. don't attempt to use or even touch those sockets until you turn the power off

I would say this is not DIY teritory. you say you changed the fronts in an attempt to get them working, are you SURE that YOU didn't re connect them wrong?

If the house only has 3 fuses it is likely to be very old and who knows how or where these sockets are fed from. A switched fused spur somewhere may be a possibility?

A much quicker and safer solution is to get a local electrician to sort it out.
Click to expand...
And PLEASE take on board what Dave is saying in this post .............   it could be potentially dangerous !!    

 
20 minutes into todays 'half the upstairs lights aren't working since I came home from holiday' customer suddenly remembers he attempted to change the bathroom pullcord just before he went away. Problem found twenty seconds later...

 

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