This has to be a bad neutral right?

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titan1021

titan1021

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
I've got a situation with a electric range circuit in an older house home where I am getting 146v phase one to ground, 93v phase to ground on the other leg, and 48v on the ground to another earth ground. With the range plugged in when I test the voltage between the cord terminals on the range I get 240v between one leg and the neutral/ground terminal, and zero volts between the second leg and the same neutral/ground terminal. I get 245v between both legs. This is a 3 wire aluminum circuit with the braided ground. I've visually inspected the cable from the range receptacle to the panel except for a 5ft section that isn't visible and have seen no damage. I've replaced the 50amp breaker and a new receptacle as well to no avail. Everything else in the home is working fine, no flickering of lights etc.., that would be common if there was a neutral problem on the utility end. My next step would be a whole new homerun, but before I do that is there something else I could be missing?

Thanks
 
I wrote here not to long ago about an aluminum SE cable used to feed range where a portion of it ran into a dirt crawl space and a portion of it contacted the earth ,and at that location; the neutral braiding diminished to nothing in the jacket.
Maybe what your experiencing?
 
mopowr steve said:
I wrote here not to long ago about an aluminum SE cable used to feed range where a portion of it ran into a dirt crawl space and a portion of it contacted the earth ,and at that location; the neutral braiding diminished to nothing in the jacket.
Maybe what your experiencing?
Click to expand...
Could be in the section that isn't visible
 
Sounds like a lost neutral. Without a proper equipment ground checking voltage to ground can be anything so those readings are useless. If you want to do some additional testing plug an extension cord into a properly wired recept and test to that ground, neutral and hot.

I would guess you have a fried circuit board inside the range and that is what gives you the 240V line to neutral.
 
mopowr steve said:
I wrote here not to long ago about an aluminum SE cable used to feed range where a portion of it ran into a dirt crawl space and a portion of it contacted the earth ,and at that location; the neutral braiding diminished to nothing in the jacket.
Maybe what your experiencing?
Click to expand...
Just to be clear...part of the AL SE cable was contacting the dirt in a crawl space and the jacket was not damaged, but the braided ground inside the jacket disintegrated? If that is what you meant, any idea how that that happens?
 
If you're thinking this on the range circuit only. Confirmation can be had by resistance testing of each line between panel and the range receptacle with range unplugged. You should observe one leg with a significant resistance compared to the other ones.

Like Dave mentioned your one reference suggesting 240V to ground off a single line suggests a failure within the range.

tthh said:
Just to be clear...part of the AL SE cable was contacting the dirt in a crawl space and the jacket was not damaged, but the braided ground inside the jacket disintegrated? If that is what you meant, any idea how that that happens?
Click to expand...
All that would take is a slight damage to the sheath and time. Just had a call that damage to an underground service conductors that after a little more than 15yrs finally corroded through and failed.
 
tthh said:
Just to be clear...part of the AL SE cable was contacting the dirt in a crawl space and the jacket was not damaged, but the braided ground inside the jacket disintegrated? If that is what you meant, any idea how that that happens?
Click to expand...
Yes, no visible damage to jacket. I had to cut the jacket to reveal the condition.
Some kind of electrolysis or alkali attacking the aluminum conductor would be my guess. Weirdest thing to see, normal circular mills reduce gradually down to the thickness of a hair and then to a complete loss of conductor.
It was the older cloth style SE cable with (like a friction tape wrap). Maybe not so impervious to moisture as newer designs.
 
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