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Electrical Wiring

outlet won't work during cold weather

13 years ago

We have 2 outlets in our kitchen that are located on an outside wall. The dishwasher uses one and the other is above the counter. During cold weather those two outlets stop working. Does anyone have any ideas about why this would happen? There is another outlet on that same strand of outlets that does work. We are at a loss.

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Comments (6)

smithy123
13 years ago
there is probably a loose wire somewhere.
DavidR
13 years ago
Some years ago I read an intriguing "puzzler." An electrician was called in to diagnose an intermittent problem with a cellar light. The light had worked fine for years, but recently it had started to act up. It still worked in the winter, but in the summer, it would flicker or not light at all.

The house was an old one, with original knob and tube wiring in the cellar. It seems that the original electrician had neglected to solder a connection. Over the years, the copper had oxidized. In winter the cellar was several degrees colder, and the wires contracted a bit, pulling the twisted joint tight enough to pass current. In summer the warmer conditions allowed the copper wire to expand and loosen just enough for contact to be lost, thanks to the oxidation on the copper.

My guess is that your situation is similar. Maybe the person who wired your kitchen forgot to tighten a terminal screw somewhere, such as on one of the receptacles.

Don't let this go - a loose connection can cause a fire.
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I just went through all of this. Here are my findings......... nobody at the HUGE appliance business i purchased my combo fridge/freezer knows anything about this issue except: "putting a combo fridge/freezer in a garage won't work - unless the garage is heated, because they're not designed to be in a cold garage" is all they could offer. they don't know "why" only that they won't work properly. So I'm a degreed Control System Engineer for 35 years and very anal with getting things to work - so I wanted to get to the bottom of this. The problem with my combo fridge freezer is that the thermostat is located only in the refrigerator. No thermostat in the freezer. So when i put the combo fridge freezer in my cold garage (garage temp got down into the 30's at times) the thermostat in the fridge was satisfied and never turned on the compressor. Consequently the freezer wasn't cold enough. Solution ? I put a thermostat in the freezer and wired it in parallel to the refrigerator thermostat so that if either thermostat called for cooling - the compressor would run. fridge thermostat setpoint = 35 deg freezer thermostat setpoint = 0 deg. it's been about a week now and all is working well. everything in freezer is frozen and nothing in fridge is frozen. I am fortunate to be handy and know electrical systems and wiring - so i was able to do this myself. If you can't do this yourself or can't find someone who can, try looking for a fridge/freezer combo that has independent thermostats (one in fridge and one in freezer) and try that. I found it interesting that when I called this HUGE appliance store that i bought my unit from, and talked to people in customer service, sales and service - that nobody knew why my unit did not work properly in a cold garage..........all they could say is "they are not designed for that" (idiots...) One more thing - if you see the "heating element" accessory offered as a "quick fix" for this situation, know this...............all that does is heat up the thermostat in the refrigerator to make the compressor run more to keep the freezer frozen. Yes this works but your electric bill may be higher because it may be causing your compressor to run when it doesn't need to. It's basically a band aid fix. If you have no choice - maybe try that accessory. Better than nothing i suppose. reach me at lwallace@pcsoc.com if you need more help.
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smithy123
13 years ago
it should be tripping a gfci or afci, and if you are like me you use one for every circut.
llaatt22
13 years ago
You will need a remote voltage detector, a cheap analog multimeter, and 2 extension cords long enough when plugged together to reach from the "good" outlet to the bad outlets with some left over. Run maybe $30 - $40 at Home depot, etc.

Also buy two new wall outlets first before you buy any of the above stuff. Do your present outlets take three prong plugs?

Things to do first: Determine the three working wall outlets are on the same fuse or circuit breaker by plugging in a lamp or small appliance to see if it works plugged in to all six sockets. Then shut off the power by removing the one fuse or shutting off the one circuit breaker you believe controls the three outlets and use the lamp again to prove that none of them now work.

Let us know what results you get.
Have you ever opened up a wall outlet for inspection?

When turning kitchen power off and on it is good practice to give it a five minute interval to avoid putting a strain on the fridge.
pharkus
13 years ago
okay, regarding the "strain on the fridge" concept... when working on aomsething that requires me to turn power off and on a number of times, it is a good idea to GET IT DONE SOMETIME THIS WEEK, so I'm going to go ahead and propose that you simply unplug the fridge before beginning the process.

That said... I'm not liking this "2 extension cords" deal. Please don't instruct an unknowing soul to build a suicide cord. There are better, safer ways.

As a sidenote, the third-to-last time I USED such a cord, one of the outlets was miswired and I ended up creating a dead-short, which did not impress the new neighbor whose power I was borrowing for a couple days.
llaatt22
13 years ago
Since I never presume any newly arrived seeker after knowledge is genuine until proven otherwise, I deliberately avoided any actual troubleshooting instructions. Two normal extension cords are not grounds for conviction the last time I checked.

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