Well as usual its pouring rain outside  . But now there's at least 3" of water down there. We have sprayed flex seal near the chimney since I saw it coming out the chimney door and running down the side of the wall like a stream! I've been sucking all of the water out with 2 different shop-vacs and throwing it outside. Randomly when I was vacuuming out the water, the vaccum shut off and the outlet went dead, later I found out that the bathroom lights and outlet both don't work either (on same circuit). We tried EVERY SINGLE CIRCUIT BREAKER SWITCH to no avail. Does anyone know how the random outage happened and how to fix it?

Well as usual its pouring rain outside  . But now there's at least 3" of water down there. We have sprayed flex seal near the chimney since I saw it coming out the chimney door and running down the side of the wall like a stream! I've been sucking all of the water out with 2 different shop-vacs and throwing it outside. Randomly when I was vacuuming out the water, the vaccum shut off and the outlet went dead, later I found out that the bathroom lights and outlet both don't work either (on same circuit). We tried EVERY SINGLE CIRCUIT BREAKER SWITCH to no avail. Does anyone know how the random outage happened and how to fix it?

I'm wondering if there is a tripped GFCI outlet somewhere on this circuit that's causing the problem?

I'm wondering if there is a tripped GFCI outlet somewhere on this circuit that's causing the problem?

That was it! Interesting how when I was vacuuming in the basement using a normal outlet, a GFCI tripped 1 floor up!

That was it! Interesting how when I was vacuuming in the basement using a normal outlet, a GFCI tripped 1 floor up!

The standard outlet in the basement is fed through the GFCI on the first floor so therefore it's also protected by the GFCI. Water must have gotten into where it shouldn't have on the vacuum, the cord, or the outlet and the GFCI sensed the current difference, which caused it to trip. I sure am glad to hear that GFCI was there protecting you! It's perfectly to code to have a series of outlets or lights fed from a GFCI outlet that way they are all protected.

The standard outlet in the basement is fed through the GFCI on the first floor so therefore it's also protected by the GFCI. Water must have gotten into where it shouldn't have on the vacuum, the cord, or the outlet and the GFCI sensed the current difference, which caused it to trip. I sure am glad to hear that GFCI was there protecting you! It's perfectly to code to have a series of outlets or lights fed from a GFCI outlet that way they are all protected.

Oh cool! The vacuum I was using has a blue light in the middle (seems like an electric arc) makes sense if the water touched it and the GFCI sensed it. Thanks for the info!!!

The electrical in my house is a train-wreck. I have a really old GFCI in my downstairs bathroom that used to trip and wouldn’t reset due to condensation from a minor leaky pipe upstairs. The leak was fixed and I have plans to replace most of the outlets in my house through phases.