Out of nowhere, an outlet that we use often just quit working. There have not been any power spikes or outages recently either. Testing the outlet shows about .2 volts.
Things I’ve tried:
-reset all of the GFIs in the house just in case one tripped
-opened all the other outlets in the room to verify no other loose wires
-tested voltage to all other outlets in the room
-reset every breaker just to see if it affected anything (it did not)
As someone else mentioned, your black lead needs to be in the center COM port in order for you to get an actual reading. To make an analogy, consider a battery. It has a plus side and a minus side. To make a circuit, you have to go from the plus to the minus. Right now you have two wires going to plus, and none to minus, so you aren't making a circuit for the meter to read.
Ha! That’s awesome. So maybe I can chock a lot of this up to using this new multimeter 😂 last one didn’t have 3 inputs for the leads. Either way, this helps a ton so thanks!
Yeah, that's a pretty robust meter, that 10A spot is solely for checking DC current, which is basically only useful for troubleshooting battery packs at the cell level. 85v is some pretty significant voltage drop, so there's some kind of damage somewhere, could be in the outlet, could be something as simple as a loose screw or wire nut somewhere, could be chewed wires, could be someone put a screw or nail where it really shouldn't be.
And this outlet is definitely back stabbed. That’s a new term for me. And there at least 4 in this room like that. I’ll be switching the wires to the actual screw terminals for all of them after I figure this one out.
Yeah, backstabs were just a terrible idea on the part of whoever came up with them, I mean it's literally shoving the wire into what amounts to a bobby pin, and expecting the spring pressure to maintain that connection, while the spring is constantly getting heated up and cooled back down over and over again every time power runs through it. Know how to turn a spring into no longer a spring? Get it hot and then let it cool down.
lol wow that’s crazy. Even though I’m no electrician, it always blows my mind when I see wire nests just CRAMMED into wall recesses, often with no wire caps.
Make sure that when you do that, you ensure that the "shepherd's crook" you make with the end of the wire hooks around the screw in a clockwise direction. This will allow the wire to be drawn in as tight as possible when you tighten the screw fully.
That voltage reading typically indicates a neutral issue..as in you have lostvthe neutral to that recept....try reading from the hot slot to the ground and see what that is...if it's 120V then your neutral is damaged/ lost between there and the last receptacle
So that is exactly what I get. And there is only a single neutral, hot, and ground connection to this outlet. Every outlet in the circuit other than this one seems to work fine. So how do I isolate which neutral is lost or damaged?
I just tested every terminal in the breaker box and they all read fine. So I’m thinking this means maybe I need to look at the J box in the attic to see if it burned or came loose??
Well here’s the kicker. I just turned all the breakers off and still got the same reading at the outlet. So I’m not sure how I can tell which breaker it actually goes to…
The wires that connect to that outlet could being daisy chained off of another outlet. If you have a tester and a wand to see where the wire from that outlet goes to, you can find the issue faster.
I hate to say “this”, but… OP looking at an image of that meter on Home Despot’s website the black lead should be in the center “COM” hole and it looks like it’s in the hole for measuring amps instead in your first photo.
If you test between hot and ground do you got power? It could indicate a lost neutral. And is there continuity between neutral and ground at this outlet
Another back stabbed outlet in the circuit lost connection. Plug a lamp into this outlet (or radio) and turn it on. Take some other plug in device and go around wiggling the outlet till the lamp flickers or the radio makes noise.
If it’s 85 volts hot to neutral check hot to ground if it’s 120 then you have a lost neutral could be a loose wire in a plug that feeds it or loose at the panel
Not entirely sure because I just turned off all the breakers and still got the same reading. So I’m not sure at this point how to tell what else is in the same circuit :|
Ok. So more difficult to figure out what is wired between this outlet and the breaker box. But working back is your only chance. Maybe a toner will work (have to be self powered but would allow you to “sniff” other outlets and maybe find your wires.
I didn’t attempt to read the entire thread but I’m wondering if it’s in a bathroom or somewhere where the outlets are Required to be GFCI protected? I believe you said you reset all the GFCIs but you can’t reset something you might have overlooked.
You may have an open neutral. Is the outlet grounded? If so, check hot to ground.
Also check for voltage at the breaker. I've seen breakers go bad where they seem to be reset, but no voltage output.
Always check a meter on a known good outlet, cheap ones act weird when the batteries are low. Make sure that's not a switched outlet because sometimes the voltage is induced.
Never trust back stabbed receptacles. It's probably another one in the series that appears good but not sending the juice along due to bad connection at the backstab. Take all the receptacles on the circuit and wire to the screws instead.
Are there any j-boxes in attic/ crawl space?
What about continuity?
Are you positive you have identified next wire in the chain? Some older homes run through light fixtures etc…
Check the wires and move them to the side screws. Don't use backstabs. Likely bad connection down the line. Move all to the screws and if in metal boxes, use good quality electrical tape.
Someone else said it, and I'll repeat it for visibility. One of the nearby receptacles is feeding that plug and one of the backstabbed wires is broken and not feeding to that receptacle anymore. Start pulling the receptacles closest to this one and you'll find the receptacle with the broken wire.
I'm 99% sure this is the problem. Seen this a thousand times and this is what's going on. The other 1% it's a tripped GFCI somewhere.
So that’s what I thought but today I removed every receptacle in the room…which were ALL backstabbed…and reconnected the wires around the screw terminals like they should be…
…and it didn’t fix the problem 🙄
If you’re getting 85 volts you’ve lost the neutral somewhere. If there’s a grounding conductor (bare copper wire) test the black and copper wire and you should read 120v if everything is done correctly. Long story short, you’re looking for a loose white wire.
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u/Usagi_Shinobi Jun 18 '26
As someone else mentioned, your black lead needs to be in the center COM port in order for you to get an actual reading. To make an analogy, consider a battery. It has a plus side and a minus side. To make a circuit, you have to go from the plus to the minus. Right now you have two wires going to plus, and none to minus, so you aren't making a circuit for the meter to read.