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Repair guide · Portland

Appliance Not Working After a Power Outage in Portland

Updated 10/28/2026

After an outage, most appliances that seem dead are waiting for one of three things: a breaker or a GFCI outlet that tripped, a control that needs a restart, or a door that stays locked until the control knows the cycle is over. Unplugging an appliance for five minutes, or switching its breaker off and on, restarts its control.

If an appliance stays dead with power at the outlet, or shows a code it never showed before, the surge when the power came back may have damaged a control board.

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  • If you smell gas, do not light anything and do not touch a switch. Leave the home and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.
  • Switch ovens, cooktops and irons off during an outage, so they do not come back on by themselves when the power returns.
  • Unplug appliances and electronics during an outage, or switch off their breakers, to protect them from the surge when the power returns.
  • Do not run a generator indoors or in the garage, and do not plug it into a wall outlet.
  • Do not remove panels or covers to look for the fault.

Portland is served by two power companies. PGE serves most of the city: the west side, nearly all of Southeast and the east of Multnomah County from 122nd Avenue. Pacific Power serves most of Northeast Portland. Report an outage, or partial power, to the company on your bill.

Outages here can last. In the January 2024 winter storm about 440,000 PGE customers lost power over the course of a week, and PGE restored the last of them on January 22.

Partial power is a case of its own. Lights that work in one part of the house and not in another, after you have reset the breakers, can mean that one of the two wires bringing power to the house is down. Then the 240-volt appliances, an electric range and an electric dryer, stay dead or run without heat. That is for the power company to fix: report it as a partial outage before you call for an appliance repair.

Power at the outlet

Plug a lamp into the outlet the appliance uses. If the lamp stays dark, the appliance is not the problem.

The breakers

Look for a breaker that sits between on and off. Push it fully off, then on. A range, an electric dryer and a water heater each run on a pair of breakers joined by one handle.

GFCI outlets

Outlets with Test and Reset buttons, in kitchens, laundry rooms, garages and basements, can trip when the power comes back. Press Reset firmly. One GFCI can feed other outlets downstream of it.

Restart the control

Unplug the appliance, or switch off its breaker, for five minutes and then turn it back on. Whirlpool gives the same five minutes for resetting a washer.

Clocks and settings

A flashing clock is the outage notice. Set the clock, then check the settings that matter: refrigerator and freezer temperatures, oven modes, a delayed start you set before the outage.

Locked doors and water left inside

A washer or a dishwasher stopped mid-cycle may hold water and keep its door locked. Cancel the cycle and choose a drain or spin cycle; the door unlocks when the water is out.

The refrigerator and the freezer

Keep them closed, check the food with a thermometer, and give them up to a day to come back to temperature. Our Oregon City guide covers what to keep and what to throw out.

These two need both of the wires that bring power to the house. With one breaker of the pair tripped, or with partial power from the street, an oven heats on the bottom element only or not at all, and a dryer tumbles without heat or stays dark.

A gas range, a gas dryer and a gas cooktop still need electricity for their igniters and controls. When the power returns, they should light as before. A burner that clicks without lighting, or any smell of gas, follows the gas rule above.

Many will not pick up a cycle where it stopped. Cancel, drain, and start again. A code that comes back after a restart points to a part: the door lock, the pump or the control.

  • Control board: the most common part a surge damages; lights may work while nothing else does.
  • Display or keypad board: the appliance runs but does not answer the buttons.
  • Door lock: a washer or dishwasher that will not lock or unlock after the outage.
  • Start relay of a refrigerator: a click every few minutes.
  • The GFCI outlet itself: it will not reset, and needs an electrician.
  • An appliance stays dead with power at the outlet after a restart.
  • It shows an error code that comes back after a restart.
  • Its breaker trips again as soon as you reset it.
  • You smell burning.
  • The refrigerator is not cold a day after the power returned.

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  • Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
  • We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
  • We come to your home, test the appliance and find the cause.
  • You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.

The diagnostic visit costs $89. If you go ahead with the repair, the $89 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $89 covers the diagnosis.

Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.

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The facts on this page come from these sources, checked when the page was written.

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