I think I just broke my house.

[Tiberius Jim]

All I wanted to do was heat up some soup in the microwave.

I put the soup in, enter the time I want to cook it for, and pressed start...

*click*

The microwave goes dead. And so does the coffee maker. And the under-counter radio. All of the lights, however, still work. The dishwasher, the stove, the refrigerator. Everything but the outlets in this one corner of the house is working. I checked the breakers, none were flipped off, I even turned them *all* off and turned them *all* back on. No dice. What the hell did I do?

 

[Pingfah]

That is weird.

Is your house detached, or is it a flat or a terrace? You may have somebody elses ring main in part of your house possibly.

Did you check the plug fuses? Do you have plug fuses in America?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Are you sure you flipped all the circuits breakers?

Did you also switch the Red one on the end? as well as all the blue ones?

If not go do it.

 

[RoJoHen]

This might be a dumb suggestion, but it's always the last thing I remember to do:

Did you hit the reset button on the outlet?

 

[RevDMV]

Check the bathroom outlets, if their off too it's the GFI circuit. One of the bathroom outlets(or possibly an outlet in the garage) will have a reset button.

If not that, then, you broke your house...

 

[Timby]

What the hell did I do?

You put the can of soup in the microwave, it arced and destroyed the outlet. It's a miracle that you didn't set the house on fire.

Or perhaps you did set the house on fire, and you don't even know it yet. Start loading some possessions into your truck, just to be safe.

In any event, everyone knows that the proper way to heat soup is on the stove. Some people just have to learn the hard way. Keep the fire department on speed-dial.

 

[RoJoHen]

What the hell did I do?

You put the can of soup in the microwave, it arced and destroyed the outlet. It's a miracle that you didn't set the house on fire.

Or perhaps you did set the house on fire, and you don't even know it yet.

In any event, everyone knows that the proper way to heat soup is on the stove. Some people just have to learn the hard way. Keep the fire department on speed-dial.

Stoves take too long.

But I would certainly recommend putting the soup into a bowl before putting it in the microwave.

 

[Pingfah]

Why would the breakers not flip? You have RCDs in America don't you?

 

[Rÿcher]

sometimes with circuit breakers, you have to turn it all the way off, wait a few seconds and then on again.

but make sure things are off upstairs first otherwise it'll trip again and again.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I've seen breakers that were just flipped a hair, and looked on. Try switching them all off and on.

 

[Pingfah]

If i'm reading his OP right, the breakers never flipped in the first place and he tried turning them all off and on again.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Maybe a surge has caused some wires in the wall to melt.

 

[Holdfast]

Turn the breakers all off.

Unplug the microwave and if there's a separate switch for its plug, turn that off too.

Reset the breakers.

Work through all the kitchen plugs in turn, just to be sure.

It's possible there's a short somewhere in the kitchen loop that's preventing the breakers from resetting. Or something gone across the whole ground fault loop.

If you can't isolate it yourself, you're going to need an electrician.

Good luck!

 

[JonathonWally]

All I wanted to do was heat up some soup in the microwave.

I put the soup in, enter the time I want to cook it for, and pressed start...

*click*

The microwave goes dead. And so does the coffee maker. And the under-counter radio. All of the lights, however, still work. The dishwasher, the stove, the refrigerator. Everything but the outlets in this one corner of the house is working. I checked the breakers, none were flipped off, I even turned them *all* off and turned them *all* back on. No dice. What the hell did I do?

Did you still have it in the tin can?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

All I wanted to do was heat up some soup in the microwave.

I put the soup in, enter the time I want to cook it for, and pressed start...

*click*

The microwave goes dead. And so does the coffee maker. And the under-counter radio. All of the lights, however, still work. The dishwasher, the stove, the refrigerator. Everything but the outlets in this one corner of the house is working. I checked the breakers, none were flipped off, I even turned them *all* off and turned them *all* back on. No dice. What the hell did I do?

Did you still have it in the tin can?

Nobody is that stupid.

 

[Jadzia]

All I wanted to do was heat up some soup in the microwave.

I put the soup in, enter the time I want to cook it for, and pressed start...

*click*

The microwave goes dead. And so does the coffee maker. And the under-counter radio. All of the lights, however, still work. The dishwasher, the stove, the refrigerator. Everything but the outlets in this one corner of the house is working. I checked the breakers, none were flipped off, I even turned them *all* off and turned them *all* back on. No dice. What the hell did I do?

People can have more than one ring main in their house, like I do. Some sockets go dead while others continue to work, if they're on a different ring. So it may be an RCD/fuse at your breaker/fuse box.

If that isn't it: Are these dead appliances connected to the same socket through an extension lead/ mains splitter? I would expect it to be plug fuse belonging to this extension lead.



Note: You shouldn't run higher power devices through a mains splitter. It's a dangerous load. In the UK, no single plug should be taking more than 13 amps. UK kettles push this to the limit with 3.1kW fast boil models. They not allowed to go beyond that. So if a 3.1kW coffee maker + 1.2kW microwave are connected to the same plug through a splitter, then that plug is sourcing 4.3kW, which is beyond it's safety limit, and the fuse should have blown.

 

[Plecostomus]

My house used to be a huge old homestead/farm-house that was split into two apartments. They did a bangup job on the wiring, "My" apartment shares loops with the "other" apartment. When we purchased the house we fixed some of it, now we can run stuff in the kitchen without shutting off the TV or stereo. My workshop has two loops, one for the lathe and it's light and a loop for "everything else."

Good advice so far, I'm going to second that GFI thing, double check the bathroom and any outside outlets/over the sink outlets in the kitchen. If you got GFI outlets they have a "TEST/RESET" button. Push reset and see if things come back on.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

What the hell did I do?

You put the can of soup in the microwave, it arced and destroyed the outlet. It's a miracle that you didn't set the house on fire.

Or perhaps you did set the house on fire, and you don't even know it yet. Start loading some possessions into your truck, just to be safe.

In any event, everyone knows that the proper way to heat soup is on the stove. Some people just have to learn the hard way. Keep the fire department on speed-dial.

Wow, give me a little credit here. The soup was in a bowl, not in a metal can, and I didn't have time to wait for the stove.

The house is just a regular suburban track home, not a flat or a terrace or anything, and I don't see any reset buttons. I know I flipped every breaker. PingFah is right, the breakers were never flipped to begin with.

I'll keep trying some of these suggestions.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Have you tried prayer?

 

[Plecostomus]

Try reversing the polarity.