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(Niel) wrote in message . com...
I just bought a house and the inspector tagged four of six basement
outlets as hot/neutral reversed.
I open the first two, see the problem, and fix it (one of two blacks
was going to silver and one of two whites was going to brass).
However, the other two "bad" outlets are already wired correctly
(white to silver/black to brass).
Yah I think you need to get a tester. Just a neon bulb and two test
leads. Did the inspector determine this problem with a tester? You
need to verify that the hot lead (black) is the small slot. Determine
this by testing from small slot to ground (metal box, conduit or earth
ground) If it reads hot from large slot to ground then the hot
/neutral is reversed and should be switched. If you were doing this
right I would trace the wires back and find where the switch occured.
Plus, these two outlets have one set of wires (white/black/ground)
instead of two sets, which may not be a problem, but could be a clue.
??? Do you mean the same wires black/white/green feed both outlets??
This could be normal is shared on the same breaker.
Supposedly, if I switch the wires, the plugs won't be reversed
anymore. But that would put white on brass and black on silver.
Maybe the electrician got the white and black wrong at the head end,
wherever that is. So switching the two at the plugs will be the right
thing to do.
The head end would be in the breaker panel. If this is true the
electrician should be immediately terminated with extreme prejudice!
If the inspector was right, what is wrong with the wiring and how do I
fix it?
If the inspector was wrong, how could that be, as he was right about
two other plugs in the same room?
Or do I need to spend a couple of bucks on a sensor to check for
myself whether the inspector was right?

Use your tester or meter to test empirically from the small slot
(brass) to ground metal box, BX or conduit (water pipe verify the
ground first) Make the brass hot and correct the color code all the
way back to the breaker panel. If you're not comfortable with wiring,
being in the breaker panel or don't understand how you can get shocked
taking apart a neutral nexus then hire an electrician. On second
thought you might want to hire a competent electrician anyway to
review all your wiring. As a professional I've seen some weird things
and your wiring sounds like it needs a good going over. While reversed
wires are usually not a problem it can be dangerous as above and is an
indication of someone not knowing what they were doing doing the
wiring.

I did have a toilet that buzzed and had about 40 VAC on it but that's
another story.

Richard