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dino · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Baltimore

In the kitchen of our recently purchased home we have an outlet that does not work. It is a 15 amp outlet running on a 20 amp breaker connected with a 12-2 G wire. It appears to be the ONLY outlet on this breaker. The wiring on the outlet looks correct, attached by screws; black to brass, white to silver, ground to green. An electrician had been at the house and plugged in his "tester" and it lit up so he said it works. However, when I plug in an ordinary desk lamp, it doesn't work. And sometimes if I flip the breaker off then on, it will work for a split second, but this does not always happen. My question is this... is the outlet not working because the outlet is 15 and the breaker is 20, or could it be that the breaker is dead? Also, in general, is it legal/acceptable to have a 15 outlet on a 20 breaker? Eventually we want to move the refrigerator to this outlet. Thank you.