Pulsing Exterior Outlet?

[jacklyden]

I have an exterior duplex outlet that, with Christmas lights plugs in, makes the lights blink. Plug them in elsewhere and they are fine...on steady. Replaced the two prong outlet with three prong, assuming the plug was bad but no improvement. Tested the plug for polarity and ground...checked good. Put the multimeter to it and the needle gets to about 10 vac and drops to zero very regularly. Any ideas?

[jacklyden]

A-ha! Found the problem...turns out the circuit is switched with some kind of a blinker switch. The same circuit drives the yard light...I guess it's a "I've fallen and I can't get up" indicator for the neighbors.

[markmark]

Is this "blinker switch" a circuit breaker in the panel?

[jacklyden]

No, it is actually a unique wall switch...three position with an internal lamp. off-on-blink. It doesn't feel like it is in the best of shape either...not sure how old it is. I expect I'll dump it and go to a regular light switch. After Christmas I may take the exterior outlet out of the switched circuit...handy now but maybe not during power tool season.