When was the last time that you checked out your electrical outlets? If the answer is never or I don’t know, you’re definitely not alone. Testing electrical outlets tends not to rise to the top of the to-do list, but perhaps it should. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that outlets are involved in 5,300 fires every year, causing 40 deaths and more than 100 injuries.

While there are some more obvious clues that your outlets are dangerous — such as they’re sparking, have visible burn marks or smell like smoke, or are making buzzing or popping sounds — typically there are no warning signs or they’re less obvious to the untrained eye.

Today we’re going to test the ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlets in your home and then do a safety scan of the rest of your plugs.

Grab a lamp to use while testing your GFCI outlets. A GFCI outlet tester is helpful, but not necessary, for this task.

Put your outlets to the test
Do you know where the GFCI outlets are in your home? Typically, they are located where water and power are near each other, such as in your kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. If you don’t have any GFCI outlets in your home, now would be a good time to take note of that and have an electrician install them for safety.

To test your GFCI outlet, press the test button. You should hear a snapping sound. Then plug your lamp into the top outlet and turn it on. If the light will not turn on, then move on to testing the bottom plug. If both outlets are not working when the test button has been pressed, the GFCI is functioning properly. Press the reset button, and turn on the lamp to test. It should be able to pull power from the outlet.

Repeat this test for all GFCI outlets in your home. If any are malfunctioning, it’s important to get them immediately replaced.

GFCI outlets are an important safety feature in your home, and you should test them monthly to make sure they are working properly. Often, a failed test is the only way to know that your outlet isn’t keeping your home protected. GFCI outlets have a useful life of about 15 to 20 years, so if yours are nearing the end of that time or they are frequently tripping it might be time to replace them.