Reversed polarity Outlets

[motown1435]

I inspected a 1981 year old house today and found that most all the 3 prong bedroom , living room and bathroom outlets were hot neutral reversed. Tested the outlets using a Ideal SureTest circuit tester. [ FOR YOUR INFO: The service panel had a plumbing ground.

I know hot neutral isn't correct, this would be a defect (Safety Issue) correct?? Just a bad electrician, or what?? Any thoughts

Click to Enlarge

17.3 KBThanks

[Brandon Whitmore]

Safety defect for sure. You do understand why it is a safety concern don't you? (I read the post over at IN).

Bad electrician? I doubt it, but it's entirely possible. My guess is that someone replaced receptacle outlets at some point and had no clue.

[motown1435]

Safety defect for sure. You do understand why it is a safety concern don't you? (I read the post over at IN).

Bad electrician? I doubt it, but it's entirely possible. My guess is that someone replaced receptacle outlets at some point and had no clue.

Thanks for the info (Understand completely)

[Brandon Whitmore]

Just in case anyone reading this down the road doesn't understand the safety implications, they can read this guy's blog:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1059230 ... s-a-hazard

[Mark P]

I always say something like " The outlet located in the ... is wired incorrectly with the polarity reversed. This is a safety concern and needs to be corrected by a qualified individual."

[Tom Raymond]

This might be a little obvious but, only one receptacle in the circuit is likely reversed. Every receptacle down stream of it would be reverse polarity if they were wired correctly. If all the receptacles were reverse polarity I would blame the electrician, but since some of them are correct I think you have a few receptacles close to the upstream end of the circuits that were replaced and reversed.

Tom

[Ben H]

I always say something like " The outlet located in the ... is wired incorrectly with the polarity reversed. This is a safety concern and needs to be corrected by a qualified individual."

Same here.

[John Kogel]

This might be a little obvious but, only one receptacle in the circuit is likely reversed. Every receptacle down stream of it would be reverse polarity if they were wired correctly. If all the receptacles were reverse polarity I would blame the electrician, but since some of them are correct I think you have a few receptacles close to the upstream end of the circuits that were replaced and reversed.

Tom

Right, Tom. Even if they were all wired backwards, only the first receptacle in each chain needs to be reversed to correct all those downstream, electrically that is. The hot wire could still be white though, which is wrong, so it's still best to get an electrician in there and check 'em all.

[John Dirks Jr]

I avoid being specific about where polarity errors might originate. There could be a junction box hidden between walls somewhere that houses the deed. You just never know.

I identify the locations that I observed the polarity issues, mention the hazard and refer to the electrician to fix it.