Re: Problem with sockets

["Tim Hawes" <timsyahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Stuart,

First the necessary disclaimer =96 I am not a qualified electrician and
you try this at your own risk :-)
Obviously you need to make sure you work safely and that any live
equipment is properly isolated =96 check & double-check that what
you're
working on is dead. I often use a small plug-in lamp to be certain
power is off as it's easier than stuffing multimeter probes deep into
a wall socket. If in doubt call a competent electrician etc.

# Have you confirmed the new fuse you put in is OK?
# Is the socket that the faulty ones are plugged into working ok?
(could be a fault with that one)
# Did anything change which could've caused the now-faulty sockets to
be overloaded? (something else plugged in etc.) or did they just
"stop"?
# For completeness I would check the immersion fuse, just to rule it out.

You could also unscrew all of the faulty faceplates and see if you can
find where they are fed from i.e. additional wires feeding one of
them. If they're in a line then it's perhaps likely they're fed from
one end and the final socket in the run may only be fed with one
cable.

As for tracing where they're wired from =96 how happy are you poking
around in the fuse box? My guess would be that you'd need to properly
isolate the mains voltage from the downstream circuits, then
continuity-test either the earth or neutral between the wires in the
fuse box and the string of faulty sockets. If you're working in the
fuse box it may not be sufficient to just turn off the main switch
there, it might be advisable to pull out the service fuse too (the
supplier's fuse on the incoming cable). It's likely you would have to
fully-disconnect each circuit's wires from the MCBs/fuses & terminals
to avoid false readings (label everything well!) You could try the
live too (again once power properly isolated) but if another fuse has
blown you may not see anything.

The above should help find which circuit they're in, but to find the
exact connection point you'll have to trace/test the wires from socket
to socket.

Failing all that, you can probably get some fancy test gear for
tracing mains cables, like you can for Cat5, I'm not sure where you'd
start looking for it though=85

Good luck :-)

Tim.


On 8/26/08, Stuart Grimshaw <stuart.grimshaw@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Ok, now I don't expect a "your problem is X" answer to this,
but
> hopefully some ideas might help.
>
> The previous owners of the house converted the garage into a playroom
> for the kids, as well as fitting some sockets into the drywall. In
> total there are 8 sets of double sockets, grouped into 2 groups of 4.
>
> When we bought the house, he ran through what was was, and i could
> have sworn he said the 1 bank of 4 was actually plugged into the other
> bank.
>
> Over the weekend one of the sets (the one with the freezer, washer,
> dryer & my server plugged in stopped working. I changed the fuse
on
> the socket I thought fed the 4 that had stopped working, but that
> hasn't solved the problem. The other bank of 4 still works. I've
> checked the main fusebox, and they're all OK, except I haven't checked
> the immersion heater fuse.
>
> I'm at a loss where to go from here, I need some ideas what to test
> next, how can I test if the 4 sockets actually are fed from the socket
> as I remembered? If that fails, how to I try and trace where they are
> fed from?
>
> --
> -S

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