Why do my outlets not work?

[Galek]

For those of you with more experience with electrical work I came home to a new problem:

We have 3 outlets that have the Test and Reset button on them, one for each bathroom. None of them work today. They are spread between 2 floors, 2 circuits (if not 3), the light switches next to them all work, nothing on the circuit breaker has been tripped, it all worked this morning, and all other outlets in the house work. Tried hitting reset and test on all but nothing helped.

Are these subject to failing for some reason? A power surge not big enough to trip the circuit breaker?

They look like this:

http://www.homelectrical.com/15-amp...trwwb.1.html?gclid=CMiW89bsl9ACFRtMDQodMXkGmw

Thanks for any help,

 

[day_trippr]

The only GFCI outlet I've ever had die was outside the house (had to be 15+ years old where I assume moisture eventually took it out). With the other half dozen of them inside the house still alive after 30+ years (and we regularly get some hellacious lightning hits on our municipal power grid here) it seems unlikely to me that two GFCI outlets would die at the same time.

How sure are you that the baths are on separate breakers? If they're actually sharing a breaker that's where I'd look. And don't rely on any visual clues that a breaker has tripped, it's not uncommon for there to be enough slop in the breaker plastic mechanicals to be tripped but show no evidence of same...

Cheers!

 

[m1k3]

I had this problem once the 1st-floor half-bath had a GFI that when tripped the 2nd floor stopped working.

I feel your pain.

 

[PLOVE]

I got a "bad batch" from Home Depot a few years back. Literally, 4 GFCI 20A outlets from the same model/batch failed within a year. There's some cheap (likely chinese) crap out there; then again there's some good quality (likely chinese) stuff out there too. . .
sorry for you loss?

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

FYI at my old house I had outdoor outlets that were tied to a GFCI that was clear on the other side of the house in the garage. If the outlet on the back patio stopped working, I had to go into the garage to reset that circuit.

You may want to look if there is another GFCI somewhere that triggered it.

 

[Galek]

FYI at my old house I had outdoor outlets that were tied to a GFCI that was clear on the other side of the house in the garage. If the outlet on the back patio stopped working, I had to go into the garage to reset that circuit.

You may want to look if there is another GFCI somewhere that triggered it.

Yup that was it. About 5 minutes after putting kids to bed and being able to think about it without them screaming, it dawned on me. All my GFCI are on a separate circuit with the out door receptacles. Sure enough that circuit was tripped. A real face palm situation.

Thanks for everyone's quick responses!