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I have a outlet with a single cable coming into it. It has white, black, and ground. The outlet was not working and says wired correctly. When took it out the black and white wires have power on them. How can I solve the problem?

isherwood
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Brian Stump
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    How are you testing? With a multimeter should have 120 between hot and white and hot and ground(bare/green). White and ground should be 0. Possible it is wired to be a 240 volt outlet(maybe bad) then white to ground should also be 120. – crip659 Oct 31 '22 at 18:08
  • i unhooked the wires and just used a pen volt tester that beeps showing power on the white and black wire – Brian Stump Oct 31 '22 at 18:34
  • its a double breaker that goes to the basement/tanning bed it says on the breaker box but the outlet is upstairs above the basement. I recently bought the house – Brian Stump Oct 31 '22 at 18:40
  • Depending on the tester, they might show power if the wires are close enough(a few inches) together. Depending on how it it is wired to the double breaker it might be 240 or two 120v circuits. Some people should not be near wires, so get a half decent multimeter and see if you can test better. Turn off breaker for now. – crip659 Oct 31 '22 at 18:44
  • Make sense now, they was running another outlet off a 240v tanning bed outlet id say. I have a multimeter at home but ill check it, THANKS – Brian Stump Oct 31 '22 at 18:49
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    Please revise your post to include the information you've provided in comments. Take the [tour] to see why your question needs to stand on its own with enough detail for us to answer. As it is, it's incomplete. – isherwood Oct 31 '22 at 19:20
  • what is the voltage on the screws when the appliance is turned on? – Jasen Oct 31 '22 at 21:22
  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Oct 31 '22 at 22:45

2 Answers2

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Since it comes off a 240V breaker, it's probably a 240V outlet.

The sure sign is if the two wires on the breaker are black and white.

If that is wired to a standard/common NEMA 5-15 receptacle, that is VERY bad and I would go after the seller's insurer to replace the equipment that just got fried and for an electrician to go over the whole house looking for more negligence.

Here's the deal with outlets.

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Quite often, nitwits wire up a 240V circuit and then attach it to a standard NEMA 5-15 outlet because they can't be bothered to reach into the next bin over for a 6-15 or 6-20. This is grossly negligent of course.

These 240V outlets are usually run with common /2 black-white cable, but you're supposed to re-mark the white wire red or black to indicate it is a hot wire.

However it is permissible to run them with /3 black-white-red cable.

If it's been run with /2 cable, neutral does not exist and there is no way to get 120V out of it while also getting 240V out of it.

/3 cable will allow both 120V and 240V loads to be tapped off of it.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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  • "Quite often, nitwits wire up a 240V circuit and then attach it to a standard NEMA 5-15 outlet" - [I replaced a 240V outlet with a 120V outlet and my microwave went bang!](https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/228080/why-would-replacing-this-240-v-outlet-with-a-120-v-outlet-trip-my-breaker) – user253751 Nov 01 '22 at 16:07
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You can have live wires to the outlet itself secured by the screws of the outlet and yet the slots of the outlet be worn out. So as you plug something, the slots on the outlet may not grab the male plug nice and tight.

You can even have correct reading by your meter probs inserted into the outlet slots and yet when you plug something into the outlet may not make good contact.

So make sure the wires are nice and secure feeding the outlet and the outlet slots are grabbing good.

Another interesting test is to plug something into the outlet and leave the plug just a tat out and then check the plug fingers for power. If that is good, then whatever you are pluging to the outlet is bad and there is nothing wrong with the outlet.

Now that you know.

Hope this helps. Take good care.

Meta_Alchemy
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