Outlets in Kitchen not Working

[Mick Foley]

Sorry for the minor and, hopefully simple problem being posted but I would appreciate any help as I am not knowledgeable about this stuff. I have a series of about six outlets under the cabinets in my kitchen. Some time after breakfast they all stopped working. When I checked downstairs the breaker had been tripped so first I switched it to on which did not work so I switched it all the way off then back on again (I've done this several times now) and still nothing. There is one outlet with the GFCI buttons but when I press either they don't go down so I assume something else is the culprit. Any ideas of what I can try next?

 

[joecaption]

May sound like an unrelated question, but how old is this house?
Main reason I'm asking is newer homes if wired correctly should have had 2 different circuits over the counter, be 20 amp. and GFI protected, old houses or one that's been improperly remodeled all bets are off on how it was wired.
First I would unplug anything on that circuit and try to reset the GFI. (make sure you unplug the microwave and fridge)
For it to have tripped a breaker it would take a major over load or dead short.
Metal outlet boxes by chance?

 

[Gary]

Could be a faulty breaker. Flip in off and on a couple more times. On the GFCI, you should hear a click when you push the black button (the red button should pop out with a click), then push the red button and you should feel it click back in place if it's working right. The buttons don't move very far at all. If there's no load on the outlets, and the above doesn't work, you might want to have someone look at it that can look behind the plates.

 

[Mick Foley]

May sound like an unrelated question, but how old is this house?
Main reason I'm asking is newer homes if wired correctly should have had 2 different circuits over the counter, be 20 amp. and GFI protected, old houses or one that's been improperly remodeled all bets are off on how it was wired.
First I would unplug anything on that circuit and try to reset the GFI. (make sure you unplug the microwave and fridge)
For it to have tripped a breaker it would take a major over load or dead short.
Metal outlet boxes by chance?

Thanks for the reply
- House was built in the early '50s but these outlets have to be new.
- I added a picture and you can see the GFI looks different than the traditional one. I tried to reset it - with nothing plugged in - but still no luck.

 

[Mick Foley]

I added some pictures here. You can see the circuit box (I'm pretty sure it was "undercab accessories" that was tripped. We don't have any undercabinet lights currently). The last picture is the one outlet that has GFI which I have tried resetting. picture

 

[Mick Foley]

Could be a faulty breaker. Flip in off and on a couple more times. On the GFCI, you should hear a click when you push the black button (the red button should pop out with a click), then push the red button and you should feel it click back in place if it's working right. The buttons don't move very far at all. If there's no load on the outlets, and the above doesn't work, you might want to have someone look at it that can look behind the plates.

Thanks for the reply. I tried flipping the breaker again but still no luck. I just posted some pictures and you can see the GFCI is not the traditional black and red and I still get no clicks when I press reset. I guess I might need an electrician.

 

[slownsteady]

Looks like surface mounted wiring. If you can pull off the covering, you should find wires. Look for a loose wire nut or something like that. On another possibility, breakers wear out after time, so it could be that the breaker just can't hold. It's not hard to replace a breaker, but definitely do your homework before getting behind the panel.

Hey Mick, shouldn't you be wrestling or something?

 

[Snoonyb]

If you are hesitant about working with electrical, then by all means call an electrician.

If you want instruction, we can help, and you'll need a VOM, Volt, Ohm, meter.

 

[Mick Foley]

Hi all. Issue is resolved. Wife but a new circuit breaker and replaced the old one. The old one looked fine but I guess something was off. Everything is back to normal now. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[mabloodhound]

Thanks for letting us know the result. Good job.

 

[elbo]

wow, a wife that does electrical work,,,,you got a winner !!!!

 

[Eddie_T]

If the microwave was on the breaker that failed it may have been the culprit. My main breaker failed although I never loaded it to its max of 200 amps. I first noticed the problem when lights would dim as the microwave turned on. The microwave draws about 12 amps (more at startup peak) and if it's on a shared circuit it may have overloaded the breaker and it just happened to be good for that last trip. In my case one of the stabs on the main breaker had lost its tension and was overheating but never to the 200 amp overload temp so it fried the coating on one buss bar and I had to get a new panel.