The Home Improvement Thread
- Thread starter texasislandboy
- Start date
PSU Taco85
Well-Known Member
balakay
BabyMax
I have a GFCI plug on the back porch and one near the front porch that don’t work and I can’t figure out why. I’ve tried resetting them to no avail. No breakers are tripped. My breaker panel is pretty well labeled but nothing mentions these two outlets. The one on the back porch is an add on it seems as it’s run through conduit out of the soffit and down the wall. There’s a breaker that says “SPA”. Not sure if its saying it’s a spare breaker or was used for a spa. The back porch plug is where I think it would be if it was used for a hot tub but a 120v hot tub? Seems pretty useless. Guess I’m going to be spending the day trouble shooting these because my wife keeps asking me why the back porch lights and the water feature in the front won’t work.
balakay
BabyMax
Yeah that’s the first thing I’m gonna check. I hate fucking with GFCI plugs.
GFCI's are junk now. Go get two new ones and swap them out. I've replaced three of mine in my house and those weren't 4 years old at that time.
tex
That's Mr Asshole to you
My old house had a "spa" breaker. It was 240 and the PO just unhooked the wires from the breaker and left 80 or so feet of wire in the attic and the breaker in the box. I removed that wire and gave it to Adam to hook up a 240 plug for his welder.
Good luck with all that.
Good luck with all that.
balakay
BabyMax
It is the spa breaker and it’s just the outlet that’s bad. The fees going to the breaker reads 120v so I’ll just pick up a new one and swap it out and then my wife can use her basic ass hanging porch lights. I’m sure it’s the same for the front porch outlet as well but GFCI outlets are absurdly expensive these days so I’ll wait on that one and “acquire” one from work this weekend to swap it out.
PSU Taco85
Well-Known Member
The newer ones seem to go bad more frequently than I ever remember older styles. I like to get the 20 amp commercial grade ones, not sure if the hall effect sensors last any longer but the materials seem to be better and I like the backwiring feature instead of having to make the loops.
My work uses beige color outlets with a silver metal cover plate. I hate it so much bc who the fuck uses beige outlets anymore?
Apparently backstabbing outlets fail more often because the wire moves and pulls itself out from the outlet (that's what I've been told by electricians). So I always do the loops now.
Taco Loco
Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
balakay
BabyMax
I’ve always been told it was from the expansion of the wire during heat cycles. Eventually works itself loose. I’ve always been told to not use the backstabbed outlets as well.
Taco Loco
Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
I've heard that as well, the contact on push in wires does not have a large enough surface to adequatly transfer energy/electricity under heavy loads, microwave, fridge, vaccum cleaner etc.
I was just messing with Mike.
balakay
BabyMax
Plumbers are here. This morning the master shower decided not to drain while my wife was in the shower and then something started coming out of the drain. Looked like dirt but was really coarse almost like coffee grounds. Took the shower around 30 minutes to drain the inch or so of water that had built in it. Wife went to the other shower to finished showering and it didn’t have any problems draining so figured it was under the master bathroom somewhere. My house doesn’t have a double clean out so they had to pull the toilet to run their auger and camera. Good news is there’s no cast iron pipes broken under the house after the foundation work on Monday and it turns to PVC right after the clean out in the front flowerbeds. Bad news is plumbers are fucking expensive. The clog had to have started before we bought the house because they pulled out baby wipes and we don’t have a baby or use wipes for anything. Oh well, bathroom is back to being functional and I have a quote to add a double clean out in the future. Will also have to have a new toilet flange installed at some point so I’ll add that to the budget for when we start the bathroom remodel.
PSU Taco85
Well-Known Member
I guess that is possible. I'm not talking about the chinese finger type ones though I'm talking about the ones that have a screw that you can either put a loop OR backwire them. Go to about 4.5 minutes of this video, this isn't a GFI but same design I'm talking about. I don't see how it would come loose any more than a normal loop type outlet if they're tightened properly to begin with.
Worked my ass off this weekend.
I had a painter at the house floating out small cracks, damage to walls from the HVAC contractor & electrician, filling in nail holes & caulking the baseboards & trim on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday- I finished trimming out the downstairs bathroom, girls bedroom (still need to trim out the window), master closet and the master bedroom.
Girls room.
Master bedroom:
Sunday
I put in the toilet downstairs so we'd have somewhere to shit. The plumber will install the other two toilets.
I started installing the shiplap in the master bathroom. This was a PIA because this shitty shiplap from Homeless Despot like to warp. So getting the reveals perfect is a frustrating endeavor. This was as far as I got on Sunday. I'll finish the rest when I have time.
I had a painter at the house floating out small cracks, damage to walls from the HVAC contractor & electrician, filling in nail holes & caulking the baseboards & trim on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday- I finished trimming out the downstairs bathroom, girls bedroom (still need to trim out the window), master closet and the master bedroom.
Girls room.
Master bedroom:
Sunday
I put in the toilet downstairs so we'd have somewhere to shit. The plumber will install the other two toilets.
I started installing the shiplap in the master bathroom. This was a PIA because this shitty shiplap from Homeless Despot like to warp. So getting the reveals perfect is a frustrating endeavor. This was as far as I got on Sunday. I'll finish the rest when I have time.