Replacing An Outlet – Failure
I started to replace an outlet on my porch and I just assumed it was the outlet that had gone bad, so I thought this would be a good time to shoot my first DIY video. I setup my camera and got started. I reviewed the project, declared I was not a licensed electrician, and started the repairs. I reviewed every step and then pulled out the outlet. Low and behold, the outlet was fine and instead there was no power getting to the outlet. Erm…. crap. Now I was going to have to trace the wires.
You have to understand, we bought this house about three years ago and who ever wired it had a warped sense of humor. We have have one switch that is getting power yet it seems to control nothing. I have no idea where it goes. To be honest, part of me doesn’t really want to find out because it is a fun topic of conversation, but there is a part of me that gets bothered by it every time I walk past it, which is every time I go out to the car, so I think about the stupid switch every day. Then we have two switches near the door to the porch that control the same exact thing; if you hit one switch, you get two ceiling fans and a ceiling light that go on and if you hit the other, the same thing happens. It’s crazy. They both have to be in the off position for the light and the fans to be off, but only one of them has to be on for the fans and the light to be on.
Anyway, things like this happen to me on a regular basis when it comes to DIY. Sometimes I can get away with a project going as planned but these are the exceptions rather than the rule. The problem, of course, is it just pisses me off more than anything and I can’t stop thinking about it until I figure it out. This can sometimes lead to me breaking things when trying to fix them, but I always figure it out; it’s not that I am some genius, because I am not, but I am persistent.
So the next step was to get my tone generator and start tracing the wire. There are other ways to trace it, but some of the obvious ones like trying to identify it on the breaker was not an option since there is no power going to it. The other way is to start opening other outlets and switches and try and test the wires with some kind of continuity tester but I have no idea what circuit it is on.
Of course, I go to get my tone generator and I am out of batteries…. sigh… I have a battery rack loaded with Cs, Ds, AAs, and AAAs because I hate running out of batteries, but this needs 2 9v. Lol. Who uses 9v anymore? So I thought, okay, let me try a video on how to check continuity and amazingly, it actually turned out pretty good. The only problem is there was not enough light so it looks like I filmed it with a yellow filter. I got nauseous watching.
In between all of this I thought, “I have to fix SOMETHING” today so I thought I would work on the mystery of the 2 switches and the fans and light. After several hours of working on it and taking apart all the wiring, I determined one switch is a 3 way, one switch is a two way and that there must be a junction box in the ceiling that would reveal the mysterious wiring. I also learned that despite the three attic accesses I have, I cannot get to the ceiling over the porch so therefore I cannot get to the junction box.
To recap, I tried to shoot a DIY video on replacing a wall outlet and failed. Then I tried to get some actual work done and failed. Then I tried to shoot a video on how to test for continuity and failed.
I am off to grill a burger, watch some football, and drink a beer or two.