voltage on outlet below normal - help!!

[Pony]

In one of my rooms I have 4 outlets. All 4 are on the same breaker yet one
is getting around 123 volts while the other 3 are only getting 68. What
could be causing this problem? I am unable to use these outlets due to the
low voltage.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rein Wiehler]

In one of my rooms I have 4 outlets. All 4 are on the same breaker yet one
is getting around 123 volts while the other 3 are only getting 68. What
could be causing this problem? I am unable to use these outlets due to the
low voltage.

Thanks for the help!

?
before we get carried away to far are we talking here about a
US/Canadian problem? because other poeple from other countries have diff
ideas.
rw

 

[happyhobit]

The real question is ‘Why 68 volts and not 0 volts’. Plug something in to
the bad outlet, a light, turn it on. Does it come on dim? Take the readings
again. If your meter is digital it can give ghost readings.

Most probable cause of 0 volts would be a broken wire, probably in one of
the outlet boxes.

Jay

 

[:-: Ghost Chip :-:]

In one of my rooms I have 4 outlets. All 4 are on the same breaker yet one
is getting around 123 volts while the other 3 are only getting 68. What
could be causing this problem? I am unable to use these outlets due to the
low voltage.

Thanks for the help!

If the system is less than 20 years old, then it is probably wired by
"daisey chaining" the sockets from the power source. This is done by
inserting the wires into holes in the back of the plug, instead of
tightening them under the screws. The wire to the next plug is inserted
into the second set of holes. Connection is made through the spring tension
contact within the plug and through some small "break off" jumpers that are
built onto the outside of the plug between the screws such that connection
is made from one wire to the next. Break-off because you can break these
"bridges" off and then connect separate circuits to the two outlets in the
same receptacle. I would guess you have bad "continuation" connection
through the first receptacle in the chain or bad connection coming into the
second. Depending on the quality of the connection you could get 0 volts,
or with some meters, a reading of a few volts at the downstream outlets.
The other post gave good advise: plug in a 60 or 100 watt light and see if
you get any glow. If not, then you effectively have a nearly open, corroded
and probably bad, circuit between the first and second receptacle.
Ghost

 

[Lane Lewis]

In one of my rooms I have 4 outlets. All 4 are on the same breaker yet one
is getting around 123 volts while the other 3 are only getting 68. What
could be causing this problem? I am unable to use these outlets due to the
low voltage.

Thanks for the help!

Bad or corroded connection, this used to happen a lot to aluminum wiring in
homes. This is a job for a pro, call a licensed electrician. There can be
other reasons also.

Lane

 

[munz]

I would guess that the others outlets are wired IN SERIES rather than
PARALLEL.

ben

 

[[email protected]]

Many residential electricians use the spring-tensioned "stab-in" wire
termination points on the back of cheaper duplex u-ground
receptecles... this is often a weak link where a loose "grab" on a
wire creates an open condition or a high series resistence with part
of your voltage being dropped across this "load." If this is not the
problem, you want to check voltage to ground/ hot to neutral/ neutral
to ground with a high impedence meter. If spring terminals were the
problem, reconfigure wiring so that load, line, and device wires are
scotch locked together. Pigtails feeding receptecles constitutes a
better installation because then, if a device fails, down-stream
devices continue to work (even when the problem device is removed.