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outlet died awhile ago from plugging in an air conditioner, it killed the whole room plus the hallway. breaker initially wouldnt reset, so i left it until i could get new outlets.

replaced the suspect outlet, noticed the left tab wasnt broken off but the right was. breakers are all on now, but still no power to the room. replaced outlet is hooked up the same way the old one was but nothing still.

should i just check every outlet and look for a missing connection or could there be something that happened to this outlet/breaker from the higher load of the AC due to the fact the tab wasnt broken off? thanks.

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  • What do you mean the left/right tabs? The prong son your outlet cord? – Brad Jun 18 '18 at 22:23
  • Was the suspect outlet wired using wires poked into the back (backstabs), or wires hooked around the screws on the side? – ThreePhaseEel Jun 18 '18 at 22:47
  • The standard advice to go on a search for GFCI outlets that are tripped applies. It’s unlikely the answer in this case, but as the breaker is the first place anyone checks, the second should always be “are any GFCI’s tripped”? This is especially true in older homes. – Tyson Jun 19 '18 at 13:01
  • it was backstabbed, i should replace it with the screws then? if that doesnt work, check outlets backwards from it? – Will Trashbag Smith Jun 19 '18 at 22:36
  • Almost the same problem but I replace my outlets and breaker and still no power to my outlets – Thomas Nov 1 '18 at 0:22
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It sounds like the heavy load caused a failure. I usually start at the closest outlet to the breaker panel that is not working if that one is good the last working one on that circuit. This is where I find 98% of all failures of this type and it is usually from back stabs (the #14 awg wire is stuffed in a hole in the back of the outlet) it could be a bad connection from a wire nut or even a broken wire but my experiance is it is usually a bad backstab. If you pull an outlet out and everything starts working replace the outlet or this will happen again.i just read this again and the one issue I did not discuss was the broken tab. This could be to support a multi wire branch circuit 2 breakers 1 on top outlet and the other on the bottom outlet , the second case is if one of the outlets was switched usually for a light when a ceiling fixture was not installed. If OP has abandondened this question I would vote to close, so we don't see it come up again and I did try to answer the first time, now a second if no OP comment or up vote it should be purged as this is a waste of our time imo.

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