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Heating & Air Conditioning Electrical Wiring Bathrooms

Reversing black and white wiring in an outlet?

last year

Hello all,

I'm trying to troubleshoot the lack of power I'm getting from an outlet ... and I'm wondering if the existing wiring has somehow been reversed. I'd love to swap the black(yellow) and white wiring to test the possibility, but I'm not sure the ramifications if I'm wrong and wanted to ask first.

Details of what I'm dealing with:

See attached pictures of the outlet.
It is a bathroom ceiling fan outlet connected to a wall switch.
I've tested electricity at the wall switch and it is ok.
I've tested electricity coming to the outlet in the picture, and all the wires are live.
The wall switch successfully turns on and off current to the socket.
I had a replacement socket head (with attached wires) sent to me from the fan company in case the old one was faulty, but swapping it has not fixed the problem.
The wires going into the socket head are live.

In short, it appears all wiring leading up to the socket head itself are working, and the socket head is brand new ... but ... there is no power to anything I plug in. The fan won't power up. And separate appliances I've plugged in also don't power up. The fan and separate appliances all work fine with other outlets.

So this leaves me wondering if the black and white wires were potentially wired backwards ... or if that would even cause the socket not to work.

Any help/thoughts appreciated and ty.

Phil

Featured Answer

klem1

last year

Is the outlet controlled by more than one wall switch (3 way)?

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Comments (6)

Lyphe 416
Original Author
last year
Lol maybe.

The people who we bought from reno'd the bathroom, and I was wondering if somebody had incorrectly rewired things. I'm guessing it's not this, but I'm at a bit of a loss.
HU-178658043
last year
How are you testing for power at the receptacle? A high resistance connection may result in an indication of the correct voltage but allow insufficient amperage to flow under a load.

I'd check for bad connections, starting at the switch.

JM$.02W
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Lyphe 416
Original Author
last year
Tried a bunch of things.

Think at this point it's something I can't see or don't understand, so my next step is an electrician to look at it.

Cheers all!
wdccruise
last year
1. The voltage between the white and yellow wires coming into the fan box is 120, correct?
2. "The wires going into the socket head are live": Where did you attach your volt meter probes to determine this? The voltage is 120, correct?
3. The voltage between the two "socket head" (receptacle) slots is zero, correct?
dennisgli
last year
last modified: last year
BTW - it looks like the receptacle IS wired correctly - white to the neutral slot and yellow to the hot.

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