neutral to ground

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Hfalz1

Member
Location
Houston, Tx.
Occupation
Electrician
Had a nicked neutral touching a ground on a receptacle everything before that plug worked and everything after the plug did not. The 20A single pole breaker did not trip. Why did the breaker not trip?
 
Hfalz1 said:
Had a nicked neutral touching a ground on a receptacle everything before that plug worked and everything after the plug did not. The 20A single pole breaker did not trip. Why did the breaker not trip?
Click to expand...

Slow poster - as asked by others:
First defined "worked" as in a trouble light plugged in before the nicked receptacle worked and the same trouble light plugged in after the nicked receptacle did not?

Any GFCI or AFCI involved - receptacles or CBs?

Why would the 20A CB trip unless it was a GFCI or AFCI?
 
If merely nicked and touching,everything should still work. The neutral would have to be broken (or another break somewhere) for these symptoms.
 
neutral touching ground will not trip a regular CB

neutral touching ground will not trip a regular CB

Hfalz1 said:
Had a nicked neutral touching a ground on a receptacle everything before that plug worked and everything after the plug did not. The 20A single pole breaker did not trip. Why did the breaker not trip?
Click to expand...

Hfalz1 said:
Had a nicked neutral touching a ground on a receptacle everything before that plug worked and everything after the plug did not. The 20A single pole breaker did not trip. Why did the breaker not trip?
Click to expand...

That condition will not trip a regular circuit breaker. The neutral and ground are essentially the same as both wind up going to ground in the main panel box. But each serve to perform a different function. The neutral is the wire completing the load circuit.

The ground performs the task of tripping the circuit breaker if there is a short to ground of a/the "hot" wire. It is for safety purposes. The neutral is wired to conduct the load.

A GFCI or ground fault interrupter detects any leak from hot to ground and trips the GFCI breaker for personal safety.

An AFCI breaker adds the protection from arc fault to prevent fires.

You probably have a loose or open connection in either your neutral or hot wire between that receptacle and the next one in line. If not that you have a broken wire between the last hot receptacle in the line and the next receptacle on the load side.

Check the next receptacle for correct wiring and terminal tightness. If those are ok, use a line tracer to locate the break in the wire or where it does not have continuity.
 
Hfalz1 said:
It was broken and touching the ground screw.
Click to expand...

When receptacles are wired in series (vice pig tail) then a disconnect of a neutral on the upstream side will open that receptacle and all receptacles downstream. If the disconnected neutral touches the ground....nothing will happen under otherwise normal operation...other than making that receptacle and the one's downstream non-operative.

Use caution in this situation. If anything is plugged into the downstream "non-op" receptacles, you may find the down stream neutral at 120V potential wrt to ground all the way back to the receptacle in question.
 
If the outlets downstream didn't work then you either have a receptacle that has had the tabs broken off for a switched receptacle or you have a bad connection.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top