Fun with Home Repair

I have some nominal ability to effect repairs around the house. Electrical work, however, has been something up with which I shall not put (paraphrasing Churchill). Recently, when our microwave oven died after plugging a radio into an outlet, I called an electrician for help. This happening on a weekend, the service wanted a credit card number for the "emergency service fee". I told them that I could cook on a stove top, so this was not considered an emergency. Schedule something for Monday, please.

In the mean time, I jumped on the internet to see if I could troubleshoot the problem. I came across a great web site, The Circuit Detective. This fellow has a great troubleshooting page (I had an open neutral in a circuit that ended at the microwave), advice, even telephone consultation if you are not near enough that he can visit in person. On top of that, you can order his book from Amazon!



Bottom line, with the advice from this site, about $9.00 worth of outlets (including a cheap tester), I effected a repair that would have cost $125.00 just for the service call, had I considered it an emergency.

Interesting side note: The electrical repair shop never did call me to set an appointment.