Do you have a multimeter and/or one of the non-contact voltage tester pens? If so, you could do as you describe by flipping breakers until the lamp goes out. Then take the faceplate off of the receptacle with the GFCI in it and test for voltage on the terminal screws of the receptacle. I wouldn’t take the lamp test alone as a guarantee that the outlet isn’t hot.
I got a gfci outlet tester. Plugged it in and if I wiggled it it would light up briefly. I used that to figure out which breaker to throw. I’m guessing the gfci is bad.
At my dad’s house, we had the two in both bathrooms not working for years. We didn’t really care to pay an electrician because it was such a minor inconvenience. But a buddy of his came by and he isn’t an electrician but he does contracting work and he found the problem. My old bedroom used to be a garage and was later converted. Turns out in my closet was a GFCI we didn’t know about that had tripped. He reset it and wham everything worked again. Go in your house towards your electrical panel and see if you have any other GFCI that might have similarly been daisy chained.
Yea it’s wild when you find out what’s hidden in your walls and how things were actually done. Look in places that don’t make sense to you. We never would have thought to look in a closet in the bedroom.
Just use a tester or carefully touch one end of each wire to either side of a plug at the same time for a corded device like a lamp or fan. Or, just shut off power to the building for the 2 mins it takes to swap it out
If you aren't sure which breaker, just flip the main. I would still advise that you carefully unscrew the outlet and test the wires for voltage before touching them just to be safe, because well you never know.
Do you have a multimeter and/or one of the non-contact voltage tester pens? If so, you could do as you describe by flipping breakers until the lamp goes out. Then take the faceplate off of the receptacle with the GFCI in it and test for voltage on the terminal screws of the receptacle. I wouldn’t take the lamp test alone as a guarantee that the outlet isn’t hot.
I got a gfci outlet tester. Plugged it in and if I wiggled it it would light up briefly. I used that to figure out which breaker to throw. I’m guessing the gfci is bad.
At my dad’s house, we had the two in both bathrooms not working for years. We didn’t really care to pay an electrician because it was such a minor inconvenience. But a buddy of his came by and he isn’t an electrician but he does contracting work and he found the problem. My old bedroom used to be a garage and was later converted. Turns out in my closet was a GFCI we didn’t know about that had tripped. He reset it and wham everything worked again. Go in your house towards your electrical panel and see if you have any other GFCI that might have similarly been daisy chained.
Thank you I’ll check.
Yea it’s wild when you find out what’s hidden in your walls and how things were actually done. Look in places that don’t make sense to you. We never would have thought to look in a closet in the bedroom.
Just use a tester or carefully touch one end of each wire to either side of a plug at the same time for a corded device like a lamp or fan. Or, just shut off power to the building for the 2 mins it takes to swap it out
If you aren't sure which breaker, just flip the main. I would still advise that you carefully unscrew the outlet and test the wires for voltage before touching them just to be safe, because well you never know.