Hello,
This is my first post on this website and I couldn't find a similar thread or forum, so please forgive me if this is redundant.
I have five outlets on the same circuit that recently stopped working. (For visualization purposes, I'll refer to each outlet from left to right as #1 to #5.) Using a Snapit outlet tester, all five show Hot Ground Reverse as the problem (green light and red light), which is apparently the same as Open Neutral. I opened up all five outlets and four of the five (#1 to #4) were backstabbed, whereas #5 had the wires wrapped around the screws. #1 is the only GFCI on the circuit and located on the outside corner of my house. An online suggestion said to replace any/all GFCI outlets, so I replaced the one, but with no luck. In fact, the test/reset buttons don't even pop when pressed. For outlets #1 to #4, I removed the backstabs and wrapped the wires around the screws, but still no luck. All wires were tight when connected with nothing loose, so I gave up at the outlets.
From there, I went to my circuit breaker box to see if that was the problem. I switched another breaker around with the one in question to see if I simply had a bad breaker, but I still got the same error at the outlets. I then used a power tester on the breaker and white (neutral) for the bad circuit and actually got the tester to light up red, so that tells me the breaker is fine and power is going through it.
I went back to the outlets with the power tester and couldn't get the red light to pop up on any of the connections, but did get a very small shock when accidentally bumping the black wire. This seems to indicate that at least SOME power is getting to the outlets, but not a full charge.
The only other thought I have is that the problem is buried behind the walls somewhere with a junction box or some white wire coming loose, but I don't know how to test this. Before calling an electrician, I was hoping that someone here has some other ideas or suggestions. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
This is my first post on this website and I couldn't find a similar thread or forum, so please forgive me if this is redundant.
I have five outlets on the same circuit that recently stopped working. (For visualization purposes, I'll refer to each outlet from left to right as #1 to #5.) Using a Snapit outlet tester, all five show Hot Ground Reverse as the problem (green light and red light), which is apparently the same as Open Neutral. I opened up all five outlets and four of the five (#1 to #4) were backstabbed, whereas #5 had the wires wrapped around the screws. #1 is the only GFCI on the circuit and located on the outside corner of my house. An online suggestion said to replace any/all GFCI outlets, so I replaced the one, but with no luck. In fact, the test/reset buttons don't even pop when pressed. For outlets #1 to #4, I removed the backstabs and wrapped the wires around the screws, but still no luck. All wires were tight when connected with nothing loose, so I gave up at the outlets.
From there, I went to my circuit breaker box to see if that was the problem. I switched another breaker around with the one in question to see if I simply had a bad breaker, but I still got the same error at the outlets. I then used a power tester on the breaker and white (neutral) for the bad circuit and actually got the tester to light up red, so that tells me the breaker is fine and power is going through it.
I went back to the outlets with the power tester and couldn't get the red light to pop up on any of the connections, but did get a very small shock when accidentally bumping the black wire. This seems to indicate that at least SOME power is getting to the outlets, but not a full charge.
The only other thought I have is that the problem is buried behind the walls somewhere with a junction box or some white wire coming loose, but I don't know how to test this. Before calling an electrician, I was hoping that someone here has some other ideas or suggestions. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
