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Started changing outlets successfully, thanks to your help, Scott. Much appreciated. Planning on buying some gear from your store to make it up to you. However, I experienced a strange problem today.
The diagram on my circuit breaker panel wasn't mapped clearly. It's very vague and sloppy. For example, two breaker locations are marked "outlet", which could be anywhere. And on the diagram I see "refrigerator" on number 17, but when I look at the numbers on my breaker panel, they only go up to 12. I get the sense that the electrician wasn't feeling very inspired when he wired my house.
So I decided to flip the breakers one by one and make an accurate map of the circuits. I flipped one breaker off and found that three outlets turned off in my dining room. I jotted those outlets down on my new map, but when I turned the breaker back on, I found that only one of the outlets was working.
I decided to examine the three outlets to see if there was a lose connection. I found that all three outlets were backstabbed. I didn't like the sight of that so I decided to change the three outlets to side wiring. But after changing the outlets, I found that outlet two and three still had no power.
If this information helps, outlet one has two sets of hot and neutral wires, I assume for power coming from the circuit breaker and power going to outlets two and three. Outlet two also has two sets of hot and neutral wires. Outlet three only has one set of hot and neutral wires, which I assume is the last outlet on the circuit. These are 15 amp outlets wired with 12/2 romex.
This house was built in 1977. Not sure if any electrical work was done after that.
@DanjustDan this type of failure makes me think there is another outlet that is being fed by this circuit which is a GFCI. I would think power is going into your #1 outlet and then into the line side of a GFCI which might be in another room. Then power is pulled from the load side of the GFCI to Outlet 2 and 3. Thus when you flipped the breaker the GFCI might have tripped and needs to be reset. This might not be your issue but I had something similar where lights weren't working in my bathroom no matter what I tried and found the circuit was being fed from a GFCI in a closet 20 feet away that was tripped.
@scott-a-dixon Thanks for reply. Unfortunately I don't see any GFCI outlet in my house. I went around my house, checking the outlets in every room to make sure. Would any more information help to make sense of this?
