Is a hot/neu reverse anything to be concerned about?

[ezriderga]

I recently purchased two identical power strips at Lowe's. I'm using them in two different locations in the house. I noticed that one of the power strips had a green light come on and the other one didn't.
I went to my shop and got my outlet tester. The outlet that the power strip with the green light on was plugged into tested correct. The outlet that the power strip with no green light on was plugged into, tested hot/neu reverse.
Is this anything to be concerned about? I'm OCD so I want to correct this. Is this simply a matter of pulling the receptacle and reversing the wires?

 

[steves_001]

Should be all you need to do is reverse the wiring. Black on the gold terminals, white on the silver. ( assuming the wiring is correct). And, of course follow good safety procedures by deactivating the circuit first.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Easy Peasy - shut off the power, pull the wall outlet, reverse the black and white, put it back in the wall, and turn on the power. Flat blade screwdriver and a pair of needlenose.

And yes, you really want to straighten this out, as all you need is to plug a lamp into that reversed socket, have a kid stick their finger into where the bulb goes and at best, Juior gets frizzy hair, at worst... well... you can guess.

Oh yeah, my favorite mnemonic for this? "Black to Brass won't kick your ***"

 

[ard]

And yes, you really want to straighten this out, as all you need is to plug a lamp into that reversed socket, have a kid stick their finger into where the bulb goes and at best, Juior gets frizzy hair, at worst... well... you can guess.

wait. How does reversing wires prevent this again?!?

Put your finger into a live light socket, no matter the polarity, bad (uncomfortable) things happen

 

[The Cobbler]

check the wiring on the outlet to see if it's wired properly. the problem may be somewhere else .
black to brass, white to aluminum colour

 

[The Cobbler]

A person is much more likely to come into contact with the socket than the tab at the base. If they are grounded when they do so...View attachment 957788

Sent from my smart toaster using The Garage Journal mobile app

and with the threaded socket energized, while unscrewing the bulb you can hit the base and if you're grounded....

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I recently purchased two identical power strips at Lowe's. I'm using them in two different locations in the house. I noticed that one of the power strips had a green light come on and the other one didn't.
I went to my shop and got my outlet tester. The outlet that the power strip with the green light on was plugged into tested correct. The outlet that the power strip with no green light on was plugged into, tested hot/neu reverse.
Is this anything to be concerned about? I'm OCD so I want to correct this. Is this simply a matter of pulling the receptacle and reversing the wires?

That light being off may signify that the power strip is not properly grounded and thus it cannot provide protection.

In addition to switching the neutral and hot to see if it fixes the reverse polarity, i would also make sure the ground in the outlet is properly connected. What happens when you plug in the tester to the outlet?

Should be all you need to do is reverse the wiring. Black on the gold terminals, white on the silver. ( assuming the wiring is correct). And, of course follow good safety procedures by deactivating the circuit first.

Easy Peasy - shut off the power, pull the wall outlet, reverse the black and white, put it back in the wall, and turn on the power. Flat blade screwdriver and a pair of needlenose.

And yes, you really want to straighten this out, as all you need is to plug a lamp into that reversed socket, have a kid stick their finger into where the bulb goes and at best, Juior gets frizzy hair, at worst... well... you can guess.

Oh yeah, my favorite mnemonic for this? "Black to Brass won't kick your ***"

The reversed wiring may not be at this outlet so it may not be easy at all.

wait. How does reversing wires prevent this again?!?

Put your finger into a live light socket, no matter the polarity, bad (uncomfortable) things happen

touching the shell of the lamp holder when its connected to neutral, as it should be, would not shock anyone, unless of course they were touching a hot leg also.

However, reversing the polarity on the outlet or the lamp plug, causing the lamp socket shell to be connected to the hot leg and thus live, could cause shock very easily especially if someone was grounded.

this is why polarization of plugs was brought about. Look at old plugs before polarization. Can you tell which side should be plugged into the hot side of the outlet?

 

[alfredeneuman]

Are there any other outlets on that circuit with same problem?

 

[ard]

Im just saying it doesnt make it 'safe'.

"putting the finger where the bulb goes" will shock junior in both cases. not talking about 'if grounded' or 'how far in you put the finger'.

It seems misguided to state that fixing the polarity of a plug will render 'sticking your finger into a light socket' to be a risk free maneuver.

and yes, I am quite familiar with polarization of plugs.

 

[ard]

The reversed wiring may not be at this outlet so it may not be easy at all.

And then you have the age of the wiring in the box(es), condition of the conductors and insulation, mechanical stability of the box. Always the possibility of a snake pit...

 

[ezriderga]

Are there any other outlets on that circuit with same problem?

There is another outlet 4 ft from this one which also read hot/reverse. The other three outlets in the room read correct.

 

[Jim greengo]

Easy Peasy - shut off the power, pull the wall outlet, reverse the black and white, put it back in the wall, and turn on the power. Flat blade screwdriver and a pair of needlenose.

And yes, you really want to straighten this out, as all you need is to plug a lamp into that reversed socket, have a kid stick their finger into where the bulb goes and at best, Juior gets frizzy hair, at worst... well... you can guess.

Oh yeah, my favorite mnemonic for this? "Black to Brass won't kick your ***"

If you shove your finger in a light socket you're gonna get blasted,polarity has nothing to do with it.
As far as just switching the wires you need to find the point where the wires are actually reversed to make sure,other wise there could still be other devices in the house wired wrong.

 

[AntonLargiader]

If you shove your finger in a light socket you're gonna get blasted,polarity has nothing to do with it..

We’re talking about plug-in lamps here. If the lamp is switched off and properly connected, the whole base is dead. If it’s reversed, the shell is hot all the time because you are switching the neutral. Big difference.

 

[BillK]

There is another outlet 4 ft from this one which also read hot/reverse. The other three outlets in the room read correct.

Are all of them on the same circuit ?

 

[Jim greengo]

We’re talking about plug-in lamps here. If the lamp is switched off and properly connected, the whole base is dead. If it’s reversed, the shell is hot all the time because you are switching the neutral. Big difference.

Well I guess that depends on your definition of a lamp versus a light socket.

 

[driftpin]

Are all of them on the same circuit ?

I agree w/bill, something probably is going-on with those two duplex outlets.

If the two that show 'no-green' are on another circuit, and the ones that are OK are on their own, seems like a look at those two 'no-green' is to do. Guessing that the other 'no-green' is wired in-series w/the one you're currently looking at. I would be removing those two duplex outlets to see how they're wired. The 'easy-fix' is that someone reversed the black (hot) and neutral (silver or 'white') at the duplex outlets.

 

[driftpin]

double post

 

[AntonLargiader]

Well I guess that depends on your definition of a lamp versus a light socket.

I'm not clear on what you're saying. The way I see it, any socket will be hot when the non-switched contact is not the neutral. That's where polarity comes in... the center pin is switched and for a plug-in lamp this is enforced via the polarized plug. The outer part (which the user is more likely to make electrical contact with when unscrewing a bulb) should be neutral. So even if the lamp is on, the shock risk is minimized. But you need a polarized plug to enforce that.

 

[Jim greengo]

I'm not clear on what you're saying. The way I see it, any socket will be hot when the non-switched contact is not the neutral. That's where polarity comes in... the center pin is switched and for a plug-in lamp this is enforced via the polarized plug. The outer part (which the user is more likely to make electrical contact with when unscrewing a bulb) should be neutral. So even if the lamp is on, the shock risk is minimized. But you need a polarized plug to enforce that.

I consider a fixture in the ceiling to be a light socket.
If you shove your finger in there with the bulb out while the power is on theres a pretty good chance you'll get blasted whether the polarity is reversed or not.
If you grab on to a neutral wire in a live circuit with something plugged into that circuit at some point and let's say the neutral is open on other end you can get blasted also.

 

[ard]

are we confusing 'socket' with 'receptacle'?

 

[Zeke]

That light being off may signify that the power strip is not properly grounded and thus it cannot provide protection.

In addition to switching the neutral and hot to see if it fixes the reverse polarity, i would also make sure the ground in the outlet is properly connected. What happens when you plug in the tester to the outlet?





The reversed wiring may not be at this outlet so it may not be easy at all.



touching the shell of the lamp holder when its connected to neutral, as it should be, would not shock anyone, unless of course they were touching a hot leg also.

However, reversing the polarity on the outlet or the lamp plug, causing the lamp socket shell to be connected to the hot leg and thus live, could cause shock very easily especially if someone was grounded.

this is why polarization of plugs was brought about. Look at old plugs before polarization. Can you tell which side should be plugged into the hot side of the outlet?

Look at the old outlets. Same size slots.

 

[Lassen Forge]

wait. How does reversing wires prevent this again?!?

Put your finger into a live light socket, no matter the polarity, bad (uncomfortable) things happen

The center contact is switched. As long as the switch is off, the power ends there. BUT... Reversed, you have power to the outer ring, and there is no switch to turn it off. you touch that big hunk of now live metal, and any ground contact by your body (like with the grounded chassis of the lamp) will make your life miserable... and possibly shorter.

 

[exranger06]

For hard-wired light fixtures:
If the socket polarity is reversed, the threaded outer portion is hot, but only when the fixture is switched on. If the fixture is switched off, everything is dead. Still, you're much more likely to accidentally contact the threaded portion than the center part of the socket. Thus there's a greater chance of getting shocked if you touch it when it's switched on.

For portable lamps plugged into receptacles:
If the polarity of the receptacle is reversed, AND the lamp has a polarized plug, the threaded portion of the socket will ALWAYS be hot, whether the lamp is switched on or not. This is because the lamp is wired to switch (make or break connection) the wire that's connected to the center part of the socket, not the threaded portion. If a receptacle is wired correctly, the center part will be hot and threaded portion will be the neutral. A receptacle wired backwards means you're switching the neutral on and off, since the center part of the socket is now connected to neutral, and the threaded outer portion is ALWAYS hot because it's not switched. And, like I said, you're more likely to accidentally contact the threaded portion. And since that part will be hot even when the lamp is switched off, you're even more likely to get shocked.