ground, neutral, and hot wire are all "hot"

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tchestman88

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All wires connecting to the outlet have power going through them. Any advice on why this is occurring and what I could do about it?
 
It's likely that the end recep. of the circuit is powering something, so, shut the breaker off and unplug everything on the circuit, and switch everything on the circuit off, then reenergize the circuit. Then, if the symptom remains, you have something erroneously connected, so then it become a process of elimination.
 
tchestman88 said:
All wires connecting to the outlet have power going through them. Any advice on why this is occurring and what I could do about it?
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Can you please be a bit more detailed.
When you say all wires connected to the outlet/receptacle have power how did you check for power? Did you use a meter or a non-contact tester. If it is a non-contact tester this method should not be used for determining power at each individual wire in the receptacle. The tester will pick up power that is nearby to it also; such that if only the hot wire is hot the detector may/will indicate that the neutral and ground are also hot because it is reading the power from the hot wire nearby.
To properly test for power at the receptacle you should be using a meter. For a home owner I would suggest that you have on hand an analogue meter and not a digital. Analogue meter will help eliminate "phantom voltage" readings which may confuse you even more. Digital meters pick up phantom voltage which causes the home owner to think there is voltage when there is not.

If you tested with a meter what were the readings you got?
 
afjes_2016 said:
Can you please be a bit more detailed.
When you say all wires connected to the outlet/receptacle have power how did you check for power? Did you use a meter or a non-contact tester. If it is a non-contact tester this method should not be used for determining power at each individual wire in the receptacle. The tester will pick up power that is nearby to it also; such that if only the hot wire is hot the detector may/will indicate that the neutral and ground are also hot because it is reading the power from the hot wire nearby.
To properly test for power at the receptacle you should be using a meter. For a home owner I would suggest that you have on hand an analogue meter and not a digital. Analogue meter will help eliminate "phantom voltage" readings which may confuse you even more. Digital meters pick up phantom voltage which causes the home owner to think there is voltage when there is not.

If you tested with a meter what were the readings you got?
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help. I am using a non contact tester and a multimeter. The non contact tester show low voltage, around 1% going through each wire, the multimeter doesn't detect any voltage. So I'm assuming that the voltage is so low that the multimeter isn't able to detect it, but the non contact tester is lighting up and beeping with 1% on the indicator.
 
Both of the meters should read voltage, however there should be a reading on the multi-meter of 110-120+ Volts, which would indicate the hot conductor.
 
Snoonyb said:
Both of the meters should read voltage, however there should be a reading on the multi-meter of 110-120+ Volts, which would indicate the hot conductor.
Click to expand...
Thank you. The multimeter doesn't give any reading. I did test it on another outlet, and it does work. Not sure why the non contact indicator would be showing me a reading then.
 
I'll only use the proximity device to detect the presence of, but then use a multi, to define.
 
tchestman88 said:
I just need to figure out why this outlet is not getting any power.
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What you may want to try is to find the receptacle just prior to this non working receptacle. Not necessarily closest in distance but in the electrical layout.
Many times receptacles are wired incoming power one set of screws and then out going to the other set of screws. If a duplex receptacle failed internally it may still be functioning partly but just not passing power to the out going cable/conductors so therefore not giving power to the next receptacle in line.

You can try shutting off all breakers - except for the main breaker and the breaker for this circuit. Then go with your meter and check every receptacle that is still live; top and bottom take voltage readings. You may find one receptacle where only either top of bottom is working. This would then be the trouble receptacle; open it up (after shutting off the breaker) and see that the wires are connected properly. If any wire nuts be sure the wires are tightly enclosed in the wire nuts.

If while checking the receptacles you don't find any that don't have power then turn off the breaker for this circuit and check every single receptacle on this circuit by pulling out the receptacle and inspecting the wires. If any of them are going into the back of the receptacles take the wire, do a "j" loop and put the wire on the screw in the direction that you would be tightening the screw. Also, again check any wire nuts and be sure all wires are secured. Turn you breaker back on and see if this made a difference.

Turning off all breakers will leave live any receptacles on this circuit. You may find one or more receptacles on this circuit you did not know were on the circuit which of course could be your trouble causer.

Also, have you checked to see if there are any other receptacles that are not functioning. There may be one that you are not aware of that is on this circuit but just have not run into yet.

Many times non working receptacles that don't have power coming to them (incoming cable) is caused by the last working receptacle to it in line just before it. Again, not by proximity (distance) but by wiring. Example: this non working receptacle you say does not have power could be caused by a receptacle on the other side of the wall in a different room but because you don't use that receptacle that often and nothing happens to be plugged into it you would never know this is what is causing this receptacle not to get it's power.

When I used to wire a house I would bring at least two circuits into a bedroom as example. The two circuits would be shared to two bedrooms. The two bedrooms have a common wall between them. I would use that common wall to run the one circuit and share that circuit with the two bedrooms. I did this so incase there was an issue with this circuit in the future one bedroom would not be totally in the dark with no power at all and extension cords would be to be used from one bedroom (or hallway) laying on the floor to the bedroom and then be a trip hazard. At least there would be other receptacles in that bedroom that would work and even plug in a floor/table lamp for a light source if the circuit killed the ceiling light also.
 
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