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🍁 Built for Canadian homes — written to the Canadian Electrical Code and provincial rules. Not intended for use outside Canada.
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An outlet stopped working

A dead outlet is usually a protection device doing its job somewhere out of sight — most of the time you'll fix this without a tool in your hand. The trick is knowing where to look, because the reset you need is often in a different room. The exception is an outlet that's warm or smells odd: that one gets its breaker turned off, not troubleshot.

tuneWhat are you noticing?
Select anything that matches and the checklist below reorders to fit. Not sure? Skip it.
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In Canadian homes, the most common reason a single outlet goes dead is a tripped GFCI somewhere upstream — one GFCI protects a chain of ordinary-looking outlets, often in other rooms entirely. Hunt for the outlet with TEST and RESET buttons in bathrooms, the kitchen, the garage, the basement, and outside, and press RESET firmly until it clicks. Free, and the fix more often than anything else on this page.

Ranked from real-world failure data. The order updates as you select what you’re noticing above.

Likely causes, in the order to check them

Showing the typical order
Beginner-friendly Doable, with care Safety-critical Call a pro

visibilityHow to check — the GFCI hunt

  1. Walk every bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry area, the garage, the basement, and the outdoor outlets, looking for an outlet with TEST and RESET buttons. Check behind storage and shelving — builders put them in odd corners.
  2. A tripped GFCI has its RESET button standing proud. Press it firmly until it clicks and stays in.
  3. No luck at the outlets? Check the panel too: GFCI breakers have a TEST button on the breaker itself and protect the whole circuit from there.
  4. Re-test the dead outlet with a lamp you know works.
buildNo tools schedule15 min

handymanHow to fix it

Press RESET firmly until it clicks. If it won't hold, unplug everything on the protected run and try again — a failing appliance or moisture is often the real trigger. A GFCI that won't reset with everything unplugged has likely failed or is detecting a genuine fault: that one goes to an electrician.

schedule10 min savingsusually free

visibilityHow to check

  1. Open the panel door and sight down the columns of handles. A tripped breaker sits out of line — often in the middle of its travel, not fully OFF. That half-tripped look is why it hides in plain sight.
  2. Push the suspect handle fully OFF until it clicks, then fully ON. Half measures won't reset it.
  3. If nothing looks out of place, run a thumb down each column — a tripped handle often feels loose. Reset any suspect the same way: fully OFF, then ON.
buildNo tools schedule10 min

handymanHow to fix it

One full off-then-on reset, then re-test the outlet with the lamp. If the breaker trips again immediately — or keeps tripping — leave it off and switch to the "A breaker keeps tripping" page: repeated resetting is the one thing not to do.

schedule5 min savingsusually free

visibilityHow to check

  1. Plug in a lamp you know works, and turn the lamp's own switch on.
  2. Flip every wall switch in the room — especially any that never seemed to do anything. Those are the prime suspects.
  3. Test both the top and bottom halves of the outlet: very often only one half is switched, and the other has been live the whole time.
buildNo tools schedule5 min

handymanHow to fix it

Once you've found the switch, label it — two dollars of label tape ends the mystery for the next person. If you'd rather the outlet were always live, converting a switched outlet is rewiring: a small job for an electrician, and in Quebec licensed work in any case.

schedule5 min savings$0–5

visibilityWhat you can spot yourself

  1. The pattern: a home wired roughly 1970s–1990s, and an outlet that died with no event — no tripped breaker, no storm, nothing new plugged in.
  2. Other outlets further along the same wall or room dead too: one failed connection cuts power to everything downstream of it.
  3. A history of flickering, or of plugs needing a wiggle before the outlet finally quit, is the classic lead-up.
  4. That's as far as the checking goes — the outlet doesn't come out of the wall for this one. See the gate below for why.
buildNo tools schedule20 min

verifiedWhy this one goes to a pro

Fixing a failed back-stab means opening the box, cutting the wires back, and re-terminating them under the side screws with the circuit proven dead — and one failed back-stab is a strong hint that the neighbouring outlets were wired the same way. An electrician will re-make the connection and check the rest of the run while the plate is off. In Quebec, this work is reserved to licensed contractors in any case.

Your notes travel with the request — what you saw, what you ruled out, when it started — so the pro arrives with a head start instead of a mystery.

visibilityHow to check

  1. Rule out the first three causes above — a worn receptacle is a diagnosis of elimination.
  2. Test both halves with a lamp you know works. Dead on both, with the breaker on and no GFCI tripped, points here — or to the back-stab cause; in a 1970s–90s home, weigh that one first.
  3. A separate tell that shows up before total failure: plugs sag or fall out under their own weight. Worn-out contacts are a replace-it sign even while the outlet still works.
buildNo tools schedule15 min

handymanHow to fix it — where your province allows

report Prove it's dead before you touch a screwTurn off the breaker, then verify at the outlet with a non-contact voltage tester — and test BOTH halves, because in many Canadian kitchens older split receptacles are fed by two circuits. No tester, no job. Check the legal note for your province too: in Quebec receptacle replacement is licensed work, and in Ontario it generally needs an ESA notification. If any of this feels like more than you signed up for, it's a fast, inexpensive visit for an electrician.

Replace like-for-like with a CSA-certified tamper-resistant receptacle (the current Canadian Electrical Code standard for homes), wiring under the side screws — never the push-in back-stab holes, even though the new outlet has them. Prove the circuit dead first, and check the legal note for your province before starting.

  1. Turn off the breaker and prove the outlet dead with a non-contact voltage tester — both halves.
  2. Photograph the wiring before disconnecting anything, then unscrew the receptacle and pull it straight out of the box.
  3. Cut back and re-strip any wire that was back-stabbed or shows heat discoloration. Hook each wire clockwise under its side screw — black to brass, white to silver, bare to green — and tighten firmly.
  4. Tug each wire: it shouldn't budge. Fold the wires back into the box, mount the receptacle, fit the plate.
  5. Restore power and test both halves with the lamp. Anything that sparks, buzzes, or trips the breaker means stop and call an electrician.
schedule40 min savings$5–25
15 A tamper-resistant (TR) receptacleMatch the amperage marked on the old one (15 A is standard); look for the TR marking and CSA certification Non-contact voltage testerAny CSA-certified tester; check it on an outlet you know is live first, so you know it works
gavel Check your province first AB: permit + inspection required · BC: permit + inspection required · ON: permit + inspection required · PE: permit + inspection required · QC: licensed professionals only
National default shown conservatively as permit-required; the rules are provincial. REVIEW: replace with verified per-province rows before publish.
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Why the list is in this order

We don’t sort by likelihood alone. We sort the way a good, honest tradesperson thinks: rule out the free, safe, common causes first. That’s why the cheap checks outrank the expensive repairs — and why anything dangerous gets a hard stop instead of a pep talk. The order exists to save you money, not to sell you anything.