How To Fix an 'Open Hot' Receptacle

New 10-20 AWG Family:

Leviton T5325-WMP M22-Straight Blade Tamper Resistant Duplex Receptacle, 125 V, 15 A, 2 Pole, 3 Wire, 10-Pack White Piece

[warronfrench]

Thanks Sparky! My Mom has an Open Hot in an outlet in her home. She also has several GFCI circuits wired together from two different bathrooms and the same string of electrical receptacles in her kitchen - all on one circuit breaker.

[garydudgeon]

Good demonstration Sparky. I really enjoy this troubleshooting series.

[DavidRodriguez-wdsz]

Great video I have the same situation except my outlet read it had power when I checked with my voltage test.

[joedillon]

Super training! Never thought that a dead outlet is not really dead! Great training Sparkman! I also notice all your plate cover screws line up! A real pro! Would love a video on prepping the wires before pushing them into the box. I still struggle with that. You are the best!

[joee]

Liked the video, Sparky thanks for information, it's going to help me..explained my questions. 👍

[Nifares]

Hello Sparky, not many people use electrical tape around terminals anymore, my college teacher though the entire school to use this when wiring outlets... thank you for sharing.

[dokimorgan]

Beautiful I’m learning. Thanks very much

[MarioRodriguez-enqv]

Excelent video Educational for apprentice electirician. Thanks Bill

[pattognozzi]

Hey Bill, I have a video idea you may be interested in. So I came to this video because I was trying to solve an “open hot” situation at my parents house. They had just done some siding work and multiple receptacles were no longer working.

I checked the GFCI receptacle and it had a green light (I didn’t actually check the GFCI for voltage) so I turned off the breaker and began opening all the receptacles looking for a broken/disconnected hot wire and to my surprise they all were good, no issues. I thought maybe a nail had struck the hot wire and this was going to be a difficult repair. Luckily I turned the circuit back on and started over again checking the outlets with a Klein digital outlet/gfci tester.

This time I tested the GFCI noticed that the GFCI outlet still had a green light, but showed “open hot” which was confusing. So I pulled it out and realized that the line/load had been reversed. So I corrected that and all the receptacles worked again. It turns out that the Leviton GFCI will still show a green light when the line/load are reversed, but the receptacle will be dead along with all receptacles down stream from it.

Anyway this was a different open hot scenario I feel you would be great at explaining to people.

[CarlosTorres-jebt]

Good information Bill. i really love your videos

[comingtofull-ageinchrist]

another way of identifying the hot side of the receptacle it the smaller or narrower slot of the plug is the hot. This is also a good way of identifying the neutral of a cord. the neutral side is sometimes larger or there are ridges on the neutral wire in the cord! Just as a FYI to anyone, especially if you are replacing a male or female end of a cord. The neutral screw is commonly white in color and the hot brass colored; these colors and other identifying marks are to be able to discern which is a hot, neutral or ground. green should never be used as a neutral or otherwise known as the grounded conductor, which should not be confused with the grounding conductor. Article 200 convers the color coding of the neutral conductor or grounded conductor. This is really important electrical 101!

[farhang]

I had the same situation & it was a tripped circuit breaker. Make sure you check that first before checking the wiring or calling an electrician.

[comingtofull-ageinchrist]

Bill, I was hoping you were going to demonstrate the Sure Trace Circuit finder. I watched to contest you filmed with Greg using it but it didn't show a lot of the details of the settings when he was doing it. Who won that competition, by the way. You didn't show that part?

[dwforney]

Great video. I had that situation, too. Replaced outlet. Confirmed proper connections. Still reads “open hot”. Suggestions? Other outlet in same room tests/works ok.

[comlbbeau]

Why didn't you use the non-contact voltage tester on the Romex supplying the power to the suspect outlet to determine if voltage was present? You could then verify if the correct circuit breaker was opened and proceed to troubleshoot the outlet.

[eosme]

under our kitchen sink, i noticed the outlet for the dishwasher and disposal that's plugged in is show open hot. however, both appliance still has power and still works. what could be the cause? it's an older home, so not sure if that should be replace with GFCI socket?

[ivosan]

Can it be that the wiring issue is in the (working) outlet next to it?

[willfinley]

Can loose receptacle contacts (where the plug prongs go in) cause a false positive "open hot" reading? The reading on my circuit tester is mostly "open ground" but if i jiggle it, it can sometimes show open hot. When I plug a light into the outlet, it powers on. So i am getting something. Also, this only happens on the top plug, the bottom plug consistently reads "open ground."

[stonefly]

What is model of the kline tester that you used on outside that goes down to 12 vt?

[JDBynum]

Do you have a link or model for the outlet tester you are using?