Yesterday when I went to use my microwave, I noticed that it wasn’t working, after inspecting it I found that half of my outlet no longer works, I checked the breakers and nothing appears wrong there. I realize that sometimes outlets just fail so I figured that is what may have happened…but today when I got home from work I noticed that my phone in the kitchen also stopped working and that outlet as well is only half working…they are not near each other (opposite ends of the kitchen) Is this a coinsidence? Did they both fail at the same time randomly? Or could something else be wrong?
You need to be more specific when you say half the outlet doesn’t work. That’s not usual terminology that I’m aware of.
It is not unusual for more than one circuit to be carried through a wall box, or for one of those circuits to be switched, with the result that one outlet or set of outlets is activated by a wall switch. Had a customer wonder why the refrigerator in his ski lodge quit working during the week while he was gone. He didn’t realize he was turning it off with the wall switch by the front door.
There are many things that could cause your problem but so far what you describe has all the hallmarks of a loose neutral. If that is the problem you’ll need an electrician.
Like Harry1945 I’ve seen that happen when there is a switch on the wall that apparently isn’t hooked up to anything that is actually hooked up to the offending outlet.
You have not explained what you mean by half an outlet.
I will assume that you are meaning a duplex outlet. That is an 2X4 outlet with two places to plug something in. They can be wired to have two seperate feeds. This is done by breaking a small bar between two screws.
It would be strange to have two outlets wired with double feeds, can’t imanage it but sometimnes strange things are done, they may be tied together. A loose neutral would cause the the complete outlet to not work.
One of the things I’ve seen in counter top outlets is two circuits are run to each outlet box and all the receptacles are split top and bottom between the circuits. Scene it a few times now. I can see some logic behind it. I would never consider wiring a kitchen like that but other electricians do plenty of things I never would.
One of my professors in college had an outlet where the top and bottom outlets were on different circuits on different legs. He rewired it wrong, with 240 Volts going to one of the outlets. Apparently his first clue was the flames coming out of his printer when he plugged it in.
But give him a break, it’s not like he was an EE professor. Oh, wait, yeah he was. 
ETA: Kitty_rocks, you can’t take any advice here because no one really knows what you mean by half the outlet not working. They’re assuming what you mean, but you could mean several things.
Sorry for being unclear, when I say that half my outlet doesn’t work, I mean that there is two spots to plug things in. On the one outlet the bottom works and top doesn’t, on the other affected outlet, it’s the opposite, the top works and the bottom doesn’t. Hope that is more clear
How old is this residence?
Is there a ground fault outlet somewhere in the house that was added at a later date?
An outlet in my reloading room was dead and all circuits in the electrical panel checked out.
While remodeling the bathroom last September I plugged the shop vac into the outlet by the sink mirror and had to reset the ground fault button on it. That also energized the outlet in my reloading room:smack: I had no idea they were connected. The GFI outlet was added a few years back in this 75 year old house that started out with “Knob and Tube Wiring” then upgraded 40 + years ago and then modified several times since:eek:
One reason to run two legs to the outlets so the top and bottom are a different leg is you can supply twice the amperage to the area, by only adding one wire.
OK wow. Seems like a lot of work for little gain.
it is against the electrical code in most of the USA and bad practice to have 2 legs go into a single enclosure for 120V use, the reason cited previously that you can have 240V available where it isn’t wanted. you can have 2 different circuits on the same leg where you need more amperage.
Spoken like someone who’s never tried to make toast and a smoothy at the same time.
On the contrary, I think everyone but you figured it out instantly. Obviously one of the 2 plugs on the outlet is working and the other one isn’t. What’s so difficult about that?
I was going to suggest that ZenBeam might not be from someplace where duplex outlets are commonplace, but if I’m reading the “42.3-83.7” correctly as Ann Arbor, Michigan, that’s out.
Call an electrician. OP has no experience – seemingly – and should let a pro handle it. If the OP would like, before committing to any estimate, check back with what the electrician says.
The thing is it wasn’t always against code and it was done to save costs. Codes change, but the wiring in the wall doesn’t.
When you’re dealing with electricity, you shouldn’t be guessing what the OP means.
They are probably on the same circuit. First step is at the panel turn each 15 and 20 amp breaker off then back on(if you know the specific breaker you could do only that one but it sounds like you don’t).
Check the outlets after doing that. If they all work move on. If any of the breakers feels odd when doing that or it does not fix the problem call an electrician and let them deal with it.