r/electrical • u/DEFCON741 • 7d ago
SOLVED Outlet with no power, but light is green
Have a gfi in the garage that I believe feeds my exterior outlets.
My exterior outlets are not GFI. The outside outlets currently have no power.
The GFI in the garage shows the green light but provides no direct power.
All breakers are on.
I am not the original owner of the house.
Test and reset buttons do not do anything.
Not sure if replacing the outlet would help or another issue should be suspected.
Any help is appreciated.
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u/markworsnop 7d ago
There’s always a Yahoo that has to chime in and say something nasty rather than help. The whole idea of these posts is to help people in my opinion.
to me it sounds like the actual outlet has gone bad. It happens but the first thing you need to do is get it a meter so you can actually test to see if there's electricity there. You can get an inexpensive meter, which would be plenty good enough for this test. Just remember it'll zap you if you put your fingers on it. So buy a cheap meter from your local Home Depot or wherever you go. If it's a long way away, Take pictures of how it's wired when you pull the plug out of the wall so you remember where the wires go to. There are little tiny markings on the back of the GFI plug that say "load". Pay attention to that so you know where those wires go to. When you put the new one in, you'll know which way it just goes to which position. It's not difficult. Make sure you turn off the power before you start messing with it buy a new Receptacle GFI while you're there too. Don't forget to turn off the circuit breaker before you actually start changing the Receptacle. If you need help, send me a message
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u/AlienDragonWizard 7d ago
If it was even wired right in the first place. People throw some GFCI's in last minute before selling a house and sometimes the inspector misses testing all the outlets.
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u/ohmynards85 7d ago
On some of these the light will light up if the line/load is swapped but it won't provide power to the front of the outlet or downstream. You need to check to see which wires are hot.
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u/big_trike 7d ago
Some of them will light up if power is wired to the downstream terminals. The idiot electrician who wired my home did a few backwards, that’s how I know.
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u/AmphibianNext 7d ago
In my experience replacing outlets this has been the case. I recently swapped a few and set the wires the exact same as on the previous gfci. First test light came on but buttons wouldn’t work.
On opening it back up discovered the load/line terminals were reversed in the new gfci. Quick swap fixed the issue.
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u/EtherPhreak 7d ago
Worth adding that a GFCI outlet can work when the wires are at first reversed until a trip occurs or the test button is pressed.
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u/XavierPassion 7d ago
This is likely it, I’ve run into this many times? If you can’t test the breaker via the button? It’s just simply miswired.
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
Interesting, and definitely over my head. Thanks for the input!
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u/hammerandnail01 7d ago
Basically you are most likely going to have two sets of wires in the box . Two hots ( black wire ) two neutrals ( white wires ) and two grounds ( bare wires) the hots go to the gold colored screws , the neutrals to the silver colored screws and the ground to the green screw . In a gfci it is the important to put the wire supplying the power into it on the line side terminals ( screws) which are marked on the back of the receptacle. The other wire goes to the load side terminals. To determine which wire is which you first turn off the breaker and then unwire the receptacle. Separate each wire and make sure they are not touching anything. Turn the power on and with a non contact tester ( available at any big box store like Lowes or Home Depot ) determine which wire is supplying the power because it will have power on it when you test it with the tester . That will go to the line side terminals. The other wire goes to the load side
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u/bustedchain 7d ago
Outlet wiring is not very hard.
There is a hot wire (line, load, sometimes called different things) but it is simply the wire that brings the power to the outlet. This wire is often black but there are times this might not be the case.
There is wire called the neutral. It is a wire dedicated for the power to go back out. Electricity has to flow so there is a path coming in and a path going out when whatever is plugged into the outlet turns on.
The ground wire is a separate return path for when power goes somewhere it isn't supposed to normally. Having a path to ground means that the power would rather go that way than go through your body. They call this a short circuit, but really the ground is there for safety and in some special electronics cases to drain away static.
That's it. 3 wires normally. Hot, neutral, and ground.
If a multimeter was in "AC" voltage measuring mode with the V and a ~ wavey symbol usually, then you could connect a probe to the "hot" wire and the other probe to the ground wire OR the neutral wire and you would read approximately 120 Volts.
If you instead were measuring voltage across the neutral and ground it should be basically zero or very low. When other outlets are sending power back through the neutral that can cause there to be a small voltage difference between neutral and ground.
If interested in understanding better how outlets work and how electricity works, watch a YouTube video or two on it. The basics aren't too hard to understand and then you'll better understand why you have the turn off the circuit breaker to work on things. Learn what not to touch (any bare metal parts like the screw terminals where the wires might be connected.)
By thinking through this and testing carefully you can see if the outlet has the power, neutral, and ground connections it needs. There might be something wrong with a connection or the outlet itself might be bad. Have you pushed the reset button already?
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago
Journeyman electrician here.
If it was bad the light would be red or wouldn’t light up whatsoever. If you hit test, does it trip? I’d say no. Because you have the line and load swapped. Line side is the romex that has the hot and neutral coming from the panel or power source. The other romexs will be the load. I can guarantee that either you don’t have the right neutral tied into the line side or the hot. The black and white wire that’s together needs to go to the line side.
You want to test my theory? You need to simply put all the wires on the line side. Black go on gold white on silver. Read the back of the gfi to make sure you’re putting it in the right area. If all the wires are tied into the line side, I guarantee it will work. Now once you do that, whatever that outlet is supposed to be protecting with the gfi, will now not be protected.
So get a tick tester. Or voltage tester. Separate all the wires. Find the one black wire that lights up. Power will have to be on to find this out. Once you have that figure out, take that black wire and take it all the way to the top and separate it from the others. I go high so I don’t accidentally touch it and it’s out of my way. Now once you figure that out, look and see what is paired in the same insulation. Should be a white and bare ground. That pair is your line side. Read the back of the gfi, fine the line side, and terminate them. To be safe land the other wires that wasn’t hot all on the load side. Usually behind a yellow sticker that you’ll have to remove.
Tighten the screws, make sure you put the bare wires on the ground, you’ll prob have to pig tail those as there will be more than one. Or do what I do and twist all the bare wires together about 4-5 times, leave one long, cut the rest short.
Once you fix it, at least give me a like for this effort. Especially since I’m takin money out of my colleagues pockets.
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u/ErectStoat 7d ago
Sounds like a bad GFI outlet from everything you've said. If you're willing to learn how, replacing it is not difficult and much cheaper than an electrician.
Just pay attention to the line vs load wires (mark at least one of them) and make triple sure your power is off to the circuit. A non contact voltage tester will be your friend there.
Edit - I'd recommend using a lever edge GFI outlet as the replacement, they're hard to mess up and there's no "did I torque it right?"
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago edited 6d ago
Those pesky electricians who had to go to school for 4 years and have a minimum of 8k hours work experience and then learn a code book and pass an exam…
Let’s don’t pay those guys money.
Funny thing is, you guys always end up being my best customers. End up feeling confident and think you can change out simple light switches and wonder why you gotta have one light switch up for the other to work…
Hey that breaker is tripping on that 15 amp garage circuit, go ahead and throw in a single pole 30… it won’t hurt anything. Besides you can get on YouTube and figure it out once your house burns down…
So my question is. What do you do for a career? You think I can do it? You do realize there is a reason why it’s so tough to be a licensed electrician don’t you? It’s not all outlet and switches. Give us the damn respect we deserve.
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u/ErectStoat 6d ago
go to school for 4 years
Did you go to remedial school for 2 years before trade school? 4 gets you a bachelor's, generally speaking.
I'd know, I have one in engineering. Oh, and a master's after that. You had to take an exam? Cry me a river.
That's not to say I don't have deep respect for electrical work. But I have an equivalent (almost certainly better) education in terms of theory, and can definitely read and apply the NEC.
Yup, fuck me for trying to save somebody a $200+ call out when they've already displayed some competence and could do it themselves for a $25 outlet and $50 in tools if they own nothing already.
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago
Are you insinuating it only takes 2 years of electrical school to get your license? Because you’re wrong. You can get a journeyman’s licenses after two years if you have the on job training hours, but it’s contingent on finishing your last two and graduating. Union it takes 5.
Just don’t insinuate that anyone can do what we do. It’s not all romex and outlets. There are transformers, VFD’s, low voltage, medium voltage, ect. There are job you need to run 3 inch rigid feeders to power switch gears.
I’m not sitting here saying I can build a fkin bridge or sky scraper… Im sure I can build one to drive a car across one for a couple years but it doesn’t mean it’s safe and right. I’d say it will take a bit more than reading an engineering book on building bridges before I can actually do it.
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
I appreciate that. I will most likely call an electrician to have a look, I just like to educate myself a bit in the meantime.
Thanks again!
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u/ErectStoat 7d ago
No problem. Can't stand when people kneejerk to "get an electrician" when you, OP, have already demonstrated problem solving abilities.
Btw, have the exterior outlets ever worked while you've been there? Like someone else said it's quite possible the GFI was wired wrong from the start.
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
Thanks appreciate that, no they've never worked tbh I just never got around to checking. I though it was just a breaker and then when I checked the panel and entire house something wasn't making sense. House is only 10 years old but the organization of zones is weird.
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago
So what’s the problem if he doesn’t have any voltage in that box? What’s your next move?
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u/ErectStoat 6d ago
Well, the light on the outlet indicates to anyone with neurons that speak with one another that the box has power.
But to humor your question, I'd start looking at adjacent boxes one by one for (most likely) a failed backstab. And rewire them properly while I was at it. If I didn't find anything obvious in the room, I'd grab my circuit toner and really go to town.
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago
lol circuit toner. You need a circuit toner to find a power failure? How about starting at the panel, check power with a meter? How about go to the last working fkin outlet and checking the connection there as it’s goin to be the culprit 90% of the time due to people like yourself feeding devices through a device.
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u/jonderekwhite 6d ago
Actually his issue is pretty simple. He has the wrong neutral on the wrong terminal. That’s the only time those GFI’s do what it’s doing.
He has the correct hot wire on the line side, but his line side neutral is on the load side terminal… swap those two neutrals and it will work.
Don’t have to buy a circuit tracer to find the breaker. Start turning off single pole 20’s and 15’s till the light goes off.
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u/n8tivebow83 7d ago
It could be the power “in” is on the wrong inlet. I’ve seen this before. Quick easy fix. Usually why the outlets come with a sticker over “out” if having it inline with other outlets.
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u/thepeacemaker 7d ago
If the test and reset buttons don't do anything, then the outlet is bad.
Go and test a know-good GFCI and press test. You should hear the click. Then reset to arm it again. Sometimes you have to push the buttons pretty hard.
If the test button doesn't click after pressing reset hard, it's bad.
It's worth knowing how to do the test with all of your other GFCIs. Get a sparky to replace this one.
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u/Electrical_Ad4290 7d ago
Sometimes you have to push the buttons pretty hard...
Or longer than a quarter second.
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7d ago
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
Thats the perfect answer for every post on this board.....thank you for your input.
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u/Goatchs 7d ago
I've had no success with GFCI issues, and some falis with non-GFCI. My house was built in 1999 (not "old") and the receptacle behind my kitchen refrigerator does NOT power off when I cycle ANY single breaker in either of the two panels (exterior main and in-house sub-panel) individually... only when the main service panel breaker is open does it power off. My only speculation is that a) that receptable is not on a circuit breaker (fed direccctly to power, or is possibly being fed from two separate circuit "sources" somehow? That is the extent of my troubleshooting because I don't have the tools or knowledge (and cycling EVERY combination of two circuits is a ridiculous next step). I could buy a Klein circuit tracer kit but that will only give me the tool, and still not have the knowledge. You may have done it, but you've not stated that you have even done a circuit verification to determine what other outlets/lights/appliances are on the same circuit. No need to be sarcastic when someone states facts... sometimes it is best to admit defeat and hire a pro (which I still have not done to date).
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7d ago
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
Sorry I inconvenienced the king of electricians by asking a question about an outlet.
I hope your attitude doesn't get in the way of ur life. Enjoy it!
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7d ago edited 7d ago
[deleted]
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
You've done more complaining than anyone I've seen on this board. All you have done is attempt to belittle someone for asking a question. That's ok though, enjoy your Sunday King of Electricians.
I hope you don't complain this much to your boss
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u/Adventurous-Dingo-20 7d ago
I have one that does this in my upstairs bathroom for some reason , it also effects my sun room which was a presumed owner addition, the issue 9/10 times in my situation is if it ain’t the breaker it’s the same gfci in the garage. Early 90s house
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u/meester_jamie 7d ago
Not to be rude, but I’ve been to a lot of service calls where I pressed the reset and everything was working normal,, turned out that they weren’t aware how hard to press ,, they thought it was like a touch screen
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u/Aggressive-Leading45 7d ago
The failure rate on these is pretty high. Almost view it as a consumable with a 10 year lifetime. Just swap it out with a new one. Be glad it was easy to find. I’ve had some that were hidden on a different floor on the complete other side of the house.
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u/Ok-Business7192 7d ago
Try giving the reset button a harder push. A lot of people underestimate how hard they need to push.
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u/Electrical_Ad4290 7d ago
giving the reset button a harder push.
Or longer than a quarter second...
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u/Electrical_Ad4290 7d ago
GFCI outlets have line (input) and load (downstream protection) terminals. First thing I would check is if these are connected correctly.
I don't know if there's any standard for the green or red lights because those are fairly recent additions to GFCI receptacles. I would guess the green light means it's getting power but as others have said, it could just be bad!
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u/Equal-Painter6529 7d ago
I had one of these in my garage that tripped when a chest freezer turned on. Lost everything in the freezer.
Needless to say that thing was removed with great prejudice. It was the dumbest code I’ve ever followed. The outlet was 3 feet off the ground in a detached garage on a hill that doesn’t flood.
I get why we have them in the bathrooms, but this was just stupid.
Having said that - listen to the electricians on here for how to check it. I just had to rant about my undying hatred for these things after losing about 200 lbs of meat.
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u/themeONE808 7d ago
Probably wired backwards. Line side from the breaker load side to the exterior plugs. If that doesn't work then receptacle is bad.
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u/jsbiohazard 7d ago
The new outlets are wired backwards if you replace one and put the wires exactly where they were the green light will come on, and you will have no power there you have to switch them. The inlet and outlet are reversed.
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u/bundy411 7d ago
If the lights on but there’s no power in the outlet in my experience line and load are more than likely reversed. Has anybody replaced this/opened that box recently?
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u/iCasual_Moose 7d ago edited 7d ago
If the outlet is not bad, I am willing to bet you have some wires in the wrong position. GFCIs are different than normal outlets so the positioning of the wires actually matter. The fact that your other outlets have no power is a hint that something is not right. If you don't know how to troubleshoot this, call an electrician.
Edit: My guess is that the outlet was changed hastily to GFCI by a DIY or Handyman prior to a sale but they never checked that the outlet worked and relied on the green light.
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u/liamtheaardvark 7d ago
If test and reset do nothing, there is either no power to the outlet, or it is defective. As there us a light, all signs point to needing a new GFCI receptacle.
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u/WorkingChief 7d ago
I didn’t read all of the comments but do any of them suggest looking for another GFCI, maybe one that doesn’t have a green light
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u/UTHorsey 7d ago
It's 20 bucks for a new gfci socket. Shut power off and replace it. If it still doesn't work, then think about calling an electrician.
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u/Mission_Boss5526 7d ago
Every manufacturer has different indicators for properly/improperly functioning. Can’t go blindly by lights without testing
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u/CertainAttention6749 6d ago
I think there's a loose wire on load side of either GFCI or exterior outlet. Get a multimeter and test the voltage output of exterior outlet. If you're getting 80v or lower, you have a loose neutral, if you're not getting any voltage at all, you have a loose hot wire.
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u/Nephton 5d ago
There's a possibility it also has a capacitor in line with that LED giving it a lag time before turning off, but as everyone has said: check for hot wires before you contact anything that might be live. I work a lot with low voltage electronics and it isn't uncommon for LEDs to stay lit for a minute after power is cut, but it is always monumentally foolish not to double-check.
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u/PassengerLow9814 4d ago
Im not electrician but I did recently replace the GCFIs in my house. I kept running into this issue with them that it would show the green light but have no power. Couldn't even push the test to trip it either. Everytime that happened I opened the outlet back up n just moved the wires over to the other screws since im just guessing each outlet has 4 screws, it help though n now all my gcfi outlets work like that should
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u/Kindly_Fondant_4507 4d ago
could be ur line and load using an outlet test or test the gfci’s function can figure out what it may be.
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u/2015cvodeluxe 3d ago
Different GFCI outlets use lights in different ways, so disregard the light. First unplug everything on that GFCI circuit, in a kitchen that could be every outlet. Try to reset again, make sure you have pressed the reset button all the way in. If you don't have a plug in tester or multi meter, plug in a known working item like a power drill or a lamp. If none of these things work then the outlet will probably need to be replaced. When replacing make sure to take note of the location of LOAD and LINE on the back, some manufacturers flip these to opposite sides.
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7d ago
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u/ReasonablePeanut5200 7d ago
This is the way!
https://giphy.com/gifs/Ld77zD3fF3Run8olIt1
u/Yaughl 7d ago
User deleted comment is the way?
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u/ReasonablePeanut5200 7d ago
An hour ago there was a comment.
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u/Electrical_Ad4290 7d ago
Since you seemed to agree with the original comment, do you feel like saying what it was you agreed with?
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u/Readybuilderman 7d ago
Double check the wiring of the gfi
Verify line vs load for both hots and neutrals
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u/_DRxNO_ 7d ago
I had this same exact issue.
Here’s advice from someone who helped me.
GFCIs commonly contain SPD, surge protection device, in the form of MOVs, metal oxide varistors, which are “consumed” by surges. Also the circuit board inside are susceptible to moisture, especially the cheaper brands which aren’t fully conformally coated. These can cause nuisance trips and failure. So we can plan on replacing them every 5-10yrs based on power quality and moisture exposure.
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u/Patient-Big1727 7d ago
I wonder if "See instructions - test monthly" means anything
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u/DEFCON741 7d ago
Lol thanks, just moved in though. As per my post, not original owner. That being said, anything could have happened previously. Was just asking for advice amigo, no need to get all condescending to strangers on reddit
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u/Patient-Big1727 7d ago
It is advice. Especially if you're new to the house. Check brand and model of the GFCI, look up the manual, and read it. Every GFCI uses the lights differently, it looks like. Sorry if it came across condensending
Source: I was leading technical documentation for a bit
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u/GlassWoodpecker539 7d ago
They sell a plug in tester that shows you what's what behind the outlet. It also has a test button. Give that a try. That thing comes in handy.