On 6 Sep 2004 07:45:42 -0700, Niel hath writ:
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).
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.
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.
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?

I would do that.

Probably the two "suspicious"outlets that you are concerned about
were daisy-chained from one or more of the badly wired outlets that
were upstream of these two. They are now properly (probably) wired.

Your local hardware store sells the "idiot-lite" sensor that you
mentioned and it would be a Good Idea to have one around.

Jonesy
--
| Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
| Gunnison, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | OS/2 __
| 7,703' -- 2,345m | config.com | DM68mn SK