Posted: 2/18/2011 4:32:29 PM EDT
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Microwave quit working the other day. Checked the breaker and it's fine. Put a meter on the outlet end wires and the voltage is 95-100 volts. The rest of the house is 118-120v.
Put breaker box terminal of wire in a different breaker and tested - still 95 - 100 volts, so it's not anything but the wire, which seems very much OK at each end. What could go wrong with the wiring in a 12-year old manufactured house? It's copper # 12 Romex that isn't exposed anywhere under the house, and it's about a twenty-foot run from the breaker box to the outlet. I'm losing about 17% of the voltage somewhere. |
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electronics...........you might check the load side spades in the meter socket for potential problems
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Cyclone ... backfeed as in motors or electronics in the circuit? It's a dedicated 20-amp outlet to the microwave only. I ran an extension cord over from another outlet and metered to a separate neutral and ground - still the same. |
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You will l need to trace that sucker out. I suspect you have a loose conductor probably a neutral.
Especially if the devices are a stab in type connection, these connections will deteroriat (spelling) with use from expansion and contraction. Another unfortunate thing about residential electrical installation, is the way they install these devices. Instead of paralleling the conductors with pigtails off the screws of a device, they series the conductors through the recep, by going in one side and coming out the other side. If the device fails, not only will lose power, it sometimes creates dangerous situations, that might lead to a fire. Hire a electrician, trace that sucker down opening every single device in that run from panel to last device. If your home is wired in a series type installation, I would recommend upgrading receps to screw type and parallel them with pigtails |
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I had something like that happen in the underground Aluminum cable feeding my detached garage from the house panel. It was reading low voltage when we installed a new compressor in the garage and the motor wasn't running right. I was sure it couldn't be the underground line, because it was brand new cable, buried only two years earlier. But it was faulty.
We dug it up, stripped it and found a badly corroded section right in the middle. Electrician said it happens now and then, even in fairly new installs. Tiny pinhole in the plastic/rubber sheathing, minerals and water get in, = Aluminum oxide...low voltage/ amperage in the line. |
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Sounds like a lose neutral. Check other recpts. on the curcuit as well. THIS! This sounds exactly like a loose neutral between the pole and your house Call the power company immediately - this is a dangerous situation! There is the potential for fire and/or electrocution depending on how frayed your neutral connection and if it's finding another path to ground! Your power company will send out a lineman within a few hours to check this out. It's free. |
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Sounds like a lose neutral. Check other recpts. on the curcuit as well. THIS! This sounds exactly like a loose neutral between the pole and your house Call the power company immediately - this is a dangerous situation! There is the potential for fire and/or electrocution depending on how frayed your neutral connection and if it's finding another path to ground! Your power company will send out a lineman within a few hours to check this out. It's free. He already said he checked the other outlets (not on that circuit) and they are running normal voltage. OP... If it is only 20' to the breaker panel, can you rerun some romex and get it to the location? If so I would try that after making sure all connections are good. |
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Sounds like a lose neutral. Check other recpts. on the curcuit as well. This. Check from the hot side to the ground source at the receptacle box and see if you get normal voltage. Since you tried the hot leg in a different breaker and got the same low voltage condition it's almost certainly a loose neutral connection somewhere between the neutral bar in the breaker box and the first outlet that is giving you trouble. Put a working load on that circuit and you re looking at starting an electrical fire due to heating at the point of loose connection due to high resistance. |
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Put a meter on the outlet end wires and the voltage is 95-100 volts. Are you measuring that voltage without any loads on the outlet, or is it with something being powered by the outlet? Usually, a test meter by itself doesn't load the circuit enough to cause any significant voltage drop in a wire, so you should be measuring almost exactly the same voltage at both ends of the wire IF there are no other loads connected. However, if you've got a large appliance plugged into that outlet (or plugged into another outlet that is served by the same wire and breaker), then that's a different situation. |
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Turn off the breaker, check the outlet the Microwave is on. If that is the ONLY outlet getting the low reading then that would be the starting point. With power OFF, check the connections by grabbing the Neut. wire and wiggling it to see if it's loose or broke at the outlet...If it's a "stab-back" {wire plugs into the back} then change it, those ALWAYS give problems sooner or later. You want to make the connection on the side screws by stripping back wire about 1/2 inch an wrapping it around the direction the screws turn.
If the other outlets in the kitchen are fine, the microwave outlet IS your source. Another troubleshooting tip, ONLY do this is your confident with working it HOT...take out the outlet, unhook it completely strip wire back enough to get the meter on it....make sure the wires are not touching, turn on the breaker and see what kind of reading your getting. IF it still reads low the issue in in line somewhere else. If it reads normal, then the outlet is bad, which is what think the issue is. I am an electrician and this is how I would start |
There was a Major Solar Flare yesterday and one of the way that the power company protects your home electronics is to Drop the Line Voltage to prevent over voltages that destroy your electronics.
ANOTHER X-FLARE––ALMOST: Fast-growing sunspot complex 1161-1162 erupted on Feb. 18th, producing an M6.6-class solar flare. The almost-X category blast was one of the strongest flares in years and continued the week-long trend of high solar activity. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours. WAVES OF IONIZATION: Waves of ionization are rippling through Earth's upper atmosphere in response to the recent onslaught of solar flares. This affects the propagation of radio signals––suppressing some frequencies and boosting others. By monitoring distant transmitters at a frequency of 23.4 kHz, Rudolf Slosiar of Bojnice, Slovakia detected nearly a dozen sudden ionospheric disturbances (SIDs) on Feb. 18th: More waves of ionization are iin the offing as sunspot complex 1161-1162 continues to crackle with M-class solar flares. The next SID could be over your backyard. Do-it-yourself SID monitors are available from Stanford University. Yeah I know, my microwave went wacky yesterday too.. Just wait until 2012. The Terrorist in the White house has NOT done his job in beefing up the power grid. 
http://www.spaceweather.com/ Impeach Obama to Prevent World Wide Pollution. 
P.S. Try replacing the Outlet at the Microwave with a heavy duty one. It could have an internal short that is shunting some of your power.
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Pull the receptacle and check voltage across the lines. Also check voltage across the hot wire and the ground.
A microwave pulls a lot of juice and there's a good chance it might have a 15 amp receptacle that's worn out, especially if it's a GFCI receptacle. Those things go bad on a pretty regular basis. |