How do I fix an open neutral?

[68rustang]

We recently bought a used house. During the inspection we found two outlets that are indicating open neutrals. One in my daughters bedroom and one next to the stove. I tried the obvious thing and checked and tightened the white wire connection on each. It didn't fix anything. What's should I look at next?

 

[Steevo]

Check the neutral bus bar in the load center. Look for loose wires, or just go down the row and tighten all the screws.
It is either at the receptacle, at the panel, or along the way where someone has wire-nutted the neutrals together (loosely).

 

[pattenp]

If there are outlets to either side of the open neutral outlet, check those. You could have a loose connection from an outlet feeding the outlet that you are getting the open neutral reading on.

 

[eljefino]

Did you check both outlets on the bad receptacle? Maybe it's an internal problem-- might be passing through neutral even if you don't have it at the outlet.

Use one of these?

Probably might as well look into what era wiring and breaker box it is; someone's gonna ask.

If the bedroom and stove are on seperate circuits it seems odd to me that they are the only dead ones, and that coincidentally they're both at the "end of the line". Pull the outlets and see if they're set up to pass through.

 

[Kevin54]

As Steevo stated, check the outlets to the left and right of the bad outlet. Also are these wire with the screws or are they backstabbed? I used a checker like shown above to check all of my outlets and I came across a dead outlet, or better yet an outlet with an open neutral. One outlet was backstabbed and caused the problem on that line.

 

[68rustang]

The inspector used an outlet tester similar to what is posted above and I picked one up to help troubleshoot while trying to fix everything. The house and wiring are ~10 years old. All outlets have screw terminals. I will start on your suggestions soon. Thanks!

 

[68rustang]

After retightening all connections one is no longer showing an open neutral and the other appears to be the outlet itself. If I put a little side pressure on the tester then I get two yellow lights indicating the circuit is good.

 

[Steevo]

Excellent!

 

[Falcon67]

Good work. Did this on the house we bought "as-is" and found a couple of loose/open grounds and dead outlets. When I got done with a circuit in the new shop, I used the yellow tester to verify every outlet on the run. Never hurts to double check.