Dead electrical socket

cariboo · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 11:36 am Post Subject: Dead electrical socket

Our house has a porch extension with a double socket in it. It had been working ok powering the freezer, but when the second socket was used it was very difficult to remove the plug. After it had been removed the socket didn't work - this was not noticed until the contents of the freezer had defrosted! I have had a look at the socket and all the wires were firmly fixed. I thought the switches might have been at fault so I wired up a socket that I knew worked, but it didn't work in the new location.
I assume that there is a fault with the supply cable. How can I test the cable and how can I work out where the cable is connected within the electrical circuits? The socket has a single cable to it so I assume it is a spur.

Maxxy · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 11:53 am Post Subject:

Have you checked the plug in the fuse hasnt burnt out?

Maxxy · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 11:53 am Post Subject:

The fuse in the plug even.....

breezer · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 11:53 am Post Subject:

follow the cabe back to its point of origin.

but i bet its either a loose connection (re make them) or an elcheapo socket

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cariboo · Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 11:16 am Post Subject:

breezer wrote:

follow the cabe back to its point of origin.

but i bet its either a loose connection (re make them) or an elcheapo socket

The connections were not loose and I re-made them when I tried another socket. I knew that this one worked because I tried an appliance in it before removing it from its location. Ther are three sockets nearby, but I don't know which is connected to the faulty one. I can't trace the cable back because its in conduit in the walls.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm thinking it may be trial and error at the other sockets. I would like to be able to test that the cable isn't faulty if possible.

ColJack · Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:11 pm Post Subject:

your original post is a little confusing to me..
so just to clarify...

you have 1 double socket in the porch that feeds a freezer..

the socket on the double that did not have the plug for the freezer in it was hard to remove a plug from after use?

after removing the said plug, the entire double socket no longer worked resulting in a freezer full of spoiled food?

there is only 1 cable to the back of the socket asuming it's a spur..

you have replaced the socket front with another that worked, but still no joy..

I'm going on the asumption that you do not own a multimeter or a volt meter since the first point of call would be to see if you had voltage at the back of the socket..

if the nearby 3 sockets don't have 3 cables in the back then the spur is not taken from these..

is there a braker inthe board that has tripped that only feeds the porch?

is there a fused spur near the porch that might be feeding the double socket?