DIYbanter - View Single Post - Weak Receptacles-Cause?

From: "CooSer"

These are really great ideas to try out. I am not any where near an
electrician but some of these ideas seem easy enough. My wires are copper
not aluminum. I don't really understand what pigtailing does, but I am
thinking about finding all of the receptacles and switches on the circuit
and replacing them with new ones. Before I do this though I will by a
voltage tester to see if that can pin point what receptacle/switch is bad.
Last night I found that my converted basement has track lighting and after
replacing a switch, found out that they don't light to capacity either.

If I can't figure this one out I may have to bite the big one and call a
pro.

This bad circuit might be 1 of 2 bad circuits, the basement track being the
other one?

It's possible they're both fed from the same 3-wire, 2 circuit cable and the
neutral has become disconnected where the 3-wire cable splits into 2 circuits.
A loose or broken neutral at that point or in the panel would cause these 2
circuits to be in series across 220v.

Are any lights or appliances running too hot or bright or fast as well?

"Mark or Sue" wrote in message
news:T7y3c.224776$uV3.949729@attbi_s51...
"CooSer" wrote in message
. ..
I am new to this group but may be using it a lot since I have just
bought a
house that is turning out to be a true Handy Man Special.

Question: Some of my receptacles will run low voltage such as lights,
but
not very bright. A hundred watt bulb will only look like it is 50W. A
vacuum cleaner will not even work.

I have replaced all receptacles in the bedroom but there may be more
switches and receptacles on this circuit.

Can anyone tell what the problem may be and is there an easy way to test
it?

It sounds like you have a loose wire somewhere. If you have cheap
receptacles with push-in wires,
change them to the screw down type. Measuring the voltage with no load on
the circuit is almost
meaningless unless its no where near 120V. A poor connection will still
show 120V when no load is
present. If you're losing enough power that a 100W lamp dims
significantly, you can probably find
the problem with your hand -- the loose connection is going to get warm
quick so feel each
receptacle in the circuit chain.

Also, a loose wire at a receptacle will affect the downstream receptacles
too unless the receptacle
is pigtailed to the wires. Consider buying a pack of black, white, and
green pigtails at Home Depot
with the wire nut on one end and fork terminal on the other. At the
problem receptacles (or the one
upstream from it), remove the wires from the receptacle, buy new
receptacles with screws on the
sides, and power them via the pigtails. Note - watch for receptacles with
red and black wires --
these are wired different and you don't want to pigtail those together.
Perhaps just re-terminate
them under screws if you encounter these.

If you know the path of the cable from outlet to outlet, you can plug a
100W lamp in at the last one
and measure the voltage at each receptacle. Poorly terminated ones, or
ones downstream of the bad
one(s), won't have 120V across their prongs. Each time the voltage rop
considerably, you've hit
another high resistance connection. Also, realize that many houses in the
60's were wired so that
power went to ceiling boxes first and then to receptacles. Ceiling boxes
are larger and wires may
fan out like an octopus at the ceiling. A bad connection here will also
cause power loss to the down
stream devices, so check the ceiling light connections too (especially
since home owners tend to
change light fixtures and many do it poorly).

--
Mark
Kent, WA