Mike Reed wrote:
On Mar 6, 4:50 pm, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Mike Reed wrote:
Hi,
I plugged our vacuum in to the GFI in the kitchen, and when I turned
it on, I heard a "pop" and assumed it was the GFI that needed to be
reset for some reason. Well, the GFI plug was acting completely dead.
I pulled it out of the wall, pulled off the line wires and tested
them
bare.
40V?!?!?!
This circuit was fine this morning and has been installed for years.
We recently remodeled and moved a couple plugs around, but they've
been working fine for months (all on the GFI).
The breaker goes both directions with a positive click just like the
rest. This all started with the vac switch. I turned around and used
the vac on a different circuit with no problem.
Any chance someone's seen this before?
Thanks!
Check from the neutral wire at the outlet to the equipment ground.
You should have near zero volts there. If not, the neutral is probably
opened as someone else mentioned.
The breaker might be bad even if it switches off and on like normal.

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

Ok, I pulled out the receptacle and disconnected the line wires to
test them the hot/neutral voltage is ~11V, probably the close-wire
effect (mentioned elswhere) there.

Neutral/ground is zero, and hot/ground is 124V, just like working
receptacles.

Voltages sound like an open neutral, best covered by RBM. I might test
with something like a light bulb in a pigtail socket. If the neutral was
open just H-G would light up.


So now I guess I check to see if the breaker is bad? Obviously the
breaker box poles would be ok since all the other circuits on that
side are working fine, right?

Very slight chance a breaker is tripped and has to be turned off hard to
reset.

Do you know which breaker is for that receptacle? (H-G voltage should
disappear when turned off.)

Are any other receptacles dead? (Could be where neutral is open, or also
downstream.)

Do you know of other receptacles on that breaker that are working? (They
would also be candidates for where the neutral is open.)

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