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Junior Member
 
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Default Open Neutral Outlet

Hey all,

I am hoping you can point me in the right direction.

I have one outlet 120v, that shows a open neutral when i plug a small 3 light tester into it. I comes directly from a switch. I have replaced both the switch and the outlet with no luck. I have checked all the other outlets on the same breaker and find none that test open neutral. I am kinda at a loss and stuck on what to do in the next step of troubleshooting.

Thanks

Mike
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Andy Hill
 
Posts: n/a
Default

BigMike wrote:
I have one outlet 120v, that shows a open neutral when i plug a small 3
light tester into it. I comes directly from a switch. I have replaced
both the switch and the outlet with no luck. I have checked all the
other outlets on the same breaker and find none that test open neutral.
I am kinda at a loss and stuck on what to do in the next step of
troubleshooting.

Assuming the outlet isn't switch via switchleg (hot going to the switch on
black, switched hot coming back on white), I check the splice / wirenut for the
neutral in the switch box.
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Doug Miller
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article , wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:
In article ,

wrote:
BigMike wrote:
I have one outlet 120v, that shows a open neutral when i plug a small 3
light tester into it. I comes directly from a switch. I have replaced
both the switch and the outlet with no luck. I have checked all the
other outlets on the same breaker and find none that test open neutral.
I am kinda at a loss and stuck on what to do in the next step of
troubleshooting.

Assuming the outlet isn't switch via switchleg (hot going to the switch on
black, switched hot coming back on white), I check the splice / wirenut for

the
neutral in the switch box.


It still shouldn't show an open neutral even if it *is* switched, unless some
idiot put the switch in the neutral instead of in the hot where it belongs.

Yeah, but the neutral's not going to be feeding from the switch box in a
switchleg configuration, it's going to be feeding from the next upstream box,
whatever that is. I was basically trying to say "find the next upstream box
that is feeding your outlet power, and check the neutral splice", but didn't
phrase it worth a damn.

Okay... but that still doesn't have anything at all to do with whether the
outlet is controlled by a switch, or not.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?


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Doug Miller
 
Posts: n/a
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In article , wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:

In article ,

wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote:
In article ,

wrote:
BigMike wrote:
I have one outlet 120v, that shows a open neutral when i plug a small 3
light tester into it. I comes directly from a switch. I have replaced
both the switch and the outlet with no luck. I have checked all the
other outlets on the same breaker and find none that test open neutral.
I am kinda at a loss and stuck on what to do in the next step of
troubleshooting.

Assuming the outlet isn't switch via switchleg (hot going to the switch on
black, switched hot coming back on white), I check the splice / wirenut for
the
neutral in the switch box.

It still shouldn't show an open neutral even if it *is* switched, unless

some
idiot put the switch in the neutral instead of in the hot where it belongs.

Yeah, but the neutral's not going to be feeding from the switch box in a
switchleg configuration, it's going to be feeding from the next upstream box,
whatever that is. I was basically trying to say "find the next upstream

box
that is feeding your outlet power, and check the neutral splice", but didn't
phrase it worth a damn.

Okay... but that still doesn't have anything at all to do with whether the
outlet is controlled by a switch, or not.

Sure it does. The OP said that it was a switched outlet, so the most likely
location for the nearest neutral splice is in the switch box. Unless it's a
switchleg switch. And around we go...


It's *exactly* the same situation as in the case of an unswitched outlet that
is fed from the next-nearest outlet. His problem with an open neutral has
*nothing* to do with this being a switched outlet. Unless, as I said, some
idiot has wired the switch into the neutral side instead of the hot.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?
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