Help!!
About a year ago, I replaced the original standard outlet in my kitchen with a 20amp GFI outlet, and everything was cozy. Recently, the outlet itself stopped working--could not reset or test it. A plug-in electrical tester showed a dead circuit.
I undid the outlet, and checked with a multimeter--no a/c power. Finding the breaker in the panel (labelled Appliance Outlet), I turned breaker off, and then back on. Rechecked power at outlet with meter--nothing. However, when I check outlet with non-contact "checker" it lights up & tweets, indicating some a/c ( this checker does not test d/c).
I turned breaker off, and the non-contact checker does not indicate power--tuen breaker on, and it does; however, when checked with meter and plug-in tester, still dead, and also when i plug in a lamp to test--nothing. Any suggestions? Is the breaker defective? As far as I can tell, this is the only outlet on this circuit. There is another Appliance outlet, but it has its own 20amp circuit,also ( and it works fine). Thanks in advance.

If the breaker is off and you get no 'chirp' on your tester, then when you turn the breaker back on you do get the 'chirp', then it's not the breaker.

Odds are the GFCI outlet is bad. In my experience, it seems that about 1 in 15 of your basic $12 GFCI outlets just go bad.

Every now and then, I use a 'chirper' for testing, but I prefer not to. They're notorious for false readings.

You said "As far as I can tell, this is the only outlet on this circuit". Check all your outlets, it should be easy to tell if it is the only one on that circuit. Maybe you ended up with a GFI that is on the load side of another GFI -- and that extra one is tripped (and improperly set up)

How many wires are going to that GFI - a black, a white, and a ground -- or is there more

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Re-mdlr,

Yes...there are only 3 wires goikmg to this outlet- black-white-and a ground
@jaybee-i would agree that the gfci outlet maybe defective-giving the high rate of manufacturer failures- however when I unwirrd the outlet(with breaker off) and then used my meter (with breaker on) I still read 0 volts a/c.
This tells me there is something more wrong. I did actually re-install a regular outlet and tested- but still no a/c (which I kinda figured would happen)
what threw me was the checker indicating power when there was none.
I'm thinking of taking off the panel and removing the breaker then shorting together the black and white leads then measuring continuity back at the outlet. It should show low resistance thus indicating my conductors aren't broken.
I also can test the breaker. Meanwhile I will check for more outlets on this circuit but since this house was built in '85 there is not any gfci's in the kitchen. There is one in the garage and both bathrooms all on the same circuit. Any more comments or tips? Again thanks everyone for hound help.

OK, test process:

1. Sounds like you have determined that there is no power to the outlet. Installing the other outlet confirms that.
2. Do check for power out of the breaker.
3. Don't bother checking continuity on the line. If you have power at the breaker and no power at the outlet then you already know that there is a break in the line.
4. Highly unlikely that a wire is just broken between the breaker and the outlet. Most likely is that there is at least one other outlet in the circuit and there is a bad connection there.
5. With a simple plug-in tester or by using a plug in type appliance, test every outlet. It does not have to be a GFCI to be on this circuit. don't use a meter to test the outlets as it could give a false negative result.
6. If you find any outlet not working, inspect for cause.
7. Since your bad outlet only has three wires then it is the end of the run. It's possible that all outlets could be good but the last output to your bad outlet location cold have a poor connection. This can be hard to find as the poor connection can be at a working outlet. All you can do it to remove and inspect suspected outlets. Start with those nearest your bad outlet location.

and while you have the cover off your outlet write the braker # on the back of it.no more hunting the next time.

Maybe you have a junction box inside your kitchen cabinets, or maybe above them if they're not boxed in. Maybe there is a problem there. It won't look like an outlet, but it will have a blank cover, or should have. And if its above the cabinet, it might be laying horizontally to keep it hidden from ground level view. Sometimes people do that because they made a mistake, or were thinking about adding mood lighting across the top of the cabinets, so it would have a power source.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Re-mdlr,