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Electricians question

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makattak:
I have a puzzle. An outlet was working fine last night.

This morning, no power. Find the right breaker and replace the outlet. No joy.

Checked with multimeter: when touching positive and negative, multimeter reads 0.

When touching positive and ground, it reads 140v.

Is this something I can fix?

Jim147:
If the outlet is tied into others it might have lost the nuetral at that connection. That could be a tuff one to find or fairly easy.

Ron:
I agree ^

Check all the outlets on that circuit.

RocketMan:
If the outlets on that circuit are all using backstab connections, one of the neutral connections may have come loose.  I hate backstab connectors as they become unreliable as they age.  I've had to replace many outlets where the backstab connections have failed.

Hawkmoon:

--- Quote from: RocketMan on November 28, 2020, 11:09:42 AM ---If the outlets on that circuit are all using backstab connections, one of the neutral connections may have come loose.  I hate backstab connectors as they become unreliable as they age.  I've had to replace many outlets where the backstab connections have failed.

--- End quote ---

^^^ This.

In 1979 my then-wife and I bought a condominium. In the first year we lived there we had a LOT of electrical gremlins. The receptacles (outlets) were all backstabbed -- why not, it's faster. That's why they were invented. I went through the entire unit and re-wired every receptacle using the screws, and we never had another problem.

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