ts w ideal tester

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stew

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federal way,washington
had a simple troubleshoot today at a rehab center/assisted living facility. no power one room. ideal tester originally read open neutral with the light just trying to blink and very dim. a suspect outlet was removed and replaced just because it was very brown at the terms. the tester then read ground and hot reversed which was not the case. double checked at the panel and found a full boat in a 3/4 with a single neutral. checked some adjacent small offices and found that the lights had been dimming and other outlets in those room also checked hot neutral reversed. also the outlet prongs tested hot on both sides with a fluke hot stick. meter showed wierd voltages of 108 and some at 117 some at 85 which indicates to me a neutral problem,

had an attic acces so went up and followed the pipe to a shallow j box above. of course the bad neutral that was crispy critters was in there all covered up by the hots. Lets see is 7 -12 gage in a red nut ok? how about 7 neutrals,3 hots in ,6 hots out in a standrd shallow 4 sqaure grab ya? we cleaned up the neutrals and renutted correctly and added an extension. problem solved but i often wonder how contractors get away with this kind of stuff? a 3/4 pipe in 4 -1/2 inch pipes out and a 1/2 inch flex out and a 3/4 out. man what a mess!!!!!!!!!!!
what caused the ideal tester to read hot/n reverse? when it wasnt?
 
stew said:
what caused the ideal tester to read hot/n reverse? when it wasnt?
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stew said:
the tester then read ground and hot reversed which was not the case.
Click to expand...

I have found that a plug-in receptacle tester will read hot and ground reversed when there is an open neutral with a load.

Don't ask me why it reads that, it's just my experience.
 
stew said:
a 1/2 inch flex out and a 3/4 out. man what a mess!!!!!!!!!!!
what caused the ideal tester to read hot/n reverse? when it wasnt?[/QUOTE]

The back feed on the neutral from the other hots.
Click to expand...
 
JohnJ0906 said:
I have found that a plug-in receptacle tester will read hot and ground reversed when there is an open neutral with a load.

Don't ask me why it reads that, it's just my experience.
Click to expand...


Yes , all of mine have done that for years.
 
see now i just knew somone would come up with a simple explanation for that phenomna. Thanks. also this reading happens on knob and tube all the time and now i think i see why. by the way ya think that box fill might have been a bit high?ha ha
 
What Ideal tester are you using? My 61-165 Suretest doesn't have a reversed Hot to Ground detection, only reversed Hot to Neutral detection.
 
You should never trust a plug tester or a volt tick or even, dare I say, a wiggy to do odd ball trouble shooting. A true multimeter is, in my opinion, the only way to get a good picture on what is going on in the system.
 
alfiesauce said:
You should never trust a plug tester or a volt tick or even, dare I say, a wiggy to do odd ball trouble shooting. A true multimeter is, in my opinion, the only way to get a good picture on what is going on in the system.
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The OP didn't! They used a DMM but can you always trust a high impedance DMM all the time?
 
alfiesauce said:
You should never trust a plug tester or a volt tick or even, dare I say, a wiggy to do odd ball trouble shooting. A true multimeter is, in my opinion, the only way to get a good picture on what is going on in the system.
Click to expand...

I disagree. All of those testers have their place in troubleshooting, especially when it is an "oddball" problem.
I might have 2 or 3 testers out when tracking a problem down.
 
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