# no neutral, hot on both sides



## stingry331 (Feb 27, 2011)

Ok I have a strange one here. We have been having a problem at our house that at times the master bedroom will loose power. The breaker does not trip, and other things on that breaker continue to work. This usually happens when something is plugged into the outlet near our door, so I took that outlet apart and all 3 wires going to the outlet were connected wrong and loose, I connected all properly and reinstalled. we had no problems for 2 months. today I installed a new light fixture, very simple install. Removed old lamp attached power wire, neutral wire and ground wire all as they had been connected. Now we are back to square one nothing works in the room at all. I tested with my DVOM and both wires at all the non-working outlets, switches and light fixture have 120volts. Both the neutral and hot wires have 120volts. This is very strange to me, I can't figure it out. The breaker does not blow and the outlets outside the room still work. Any suggestions? Thanks


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

Sounds like a loose neutral somewhere in the circuit.


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## stingry331 (Feb 27, 2011)

I think you are right I just can't figure out where? Any suggestions on how to find it?


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## dmxtothemax (Oct 26, 2010)

DITTO !
loose connection somewhere,
Or a faulty cable (broken internally).


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## mpoulton (Jul 23, 2009)

stingry331 said:


> I think you are right I just can't figure out where? Any suggestions on how to find it?


When the problem occurs, check the voltage between neutral and ground EVERYWHERE on the circuit that you can access. Each receptacle, each light fixture, etc. If you find any locations where the neutral does not read 120V to ground, then you know the open neutral is between that device and the rest of the circuit, and that gives you somewhere to start looking.

Since it sounds like the entire circuit may be affected, you might want to check the neutral connection in the panel first.


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## jbfan (Jul 1, 2004)

stingry331 said:


> I think you are right I just can't figure out where? Any suggestions on how to find it?


Start at the last place you worked.
If it was working correctly for 2 months after you fixed it, and you installed a new light, that has to be where the problem is.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

If you know how the cabling is routed around the room the problem is in the last working device or the first not working device. Yes that is correct. The problem could be in a working device box.


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## stingry331 (Feb 27, 2011)

Thank You everyone for your help. I finally found the problem. I did not know how the wiring was routed so I was having a hard time figuring out which item was the first to not work. I was trying to trace the wiring in the basement. I ended up finding a wire nut connection inside the light switch box in the bathroom was loose. Thanks again for all the help.


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