Low Voltage in Outlet

Check the voltage where the screws secure the wires, NOT into the plug. Pull the sockets from the wall and check then. 10:1 says you have a loose/burnt connection at one of the wall sockets.

The receptacle may have the slip-in (piece of sh*t) terminals, if so turn off the circuit breaker, back the wire out of the slip-in terminal and put it in the screw terminal, tighten screw. Also, is the wiring copper or aluminum, if aluminum, make sure the receptacle is rated for aluminum or that copper pig tails have been properly installed.

If that doesn't work, I would disconnect both wires from both the outlet and the breaker box, with wires disconnected check continuity, if the wires are shorted you will get a reading, disconnect the outlets one by one until you find the culprit....If you don't get a reading tie the ends together on one end and check for continuity, if you don't get a reading the circuit is open...

Almost certainly the neutral is disconnected somewhere. Your meter (bet it's a DVM) is picking up whatever's induced in the wiring.

....in which case measure the outlet voltage with a load plugged into it and turned on; 100W would do.

...... as DVMs are excellent in picking up stray field induced by nearby hot wire, into a now floating wire, making it look somewhat hot. Any real load (a lamp) precludes such a mistake.

You need to confirm that there is no load on the circuit - turn it off and see if any other devices lose power. Reason I ask, a friend had this problem - turned out that living near the sea, rust had created a high resistance connection in the common earth / neutral. (Not in the US)

Fridge (low impedance) was on one side of the centre earth circuit, his computer on the other side.

Fridge kicked in, low voltage across fridge, high voltage across (soon smoked) IBM.

Ground connections need checking.

You might want to buy an outlet tester. They're handy to have.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=Outlet+testers&gbv=2&oq=Outlet+testers&aq=f&aqi=g1g-v1g-m2&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3952l6702l0l7030l14l14l0l2l2l0l218l2122l0.7.5l12l0&oi=image_result_group&sa=X

Have you (or has anyone else) driven any nails lately?

Great comment.

Maybe he "screwed up"?

Superb advice herein. Another diagnostic check is to load the last outlet in the set (100W lamp or so) and after a few minutes carefully finger check the face surface temperature of all outlets in the set. That 30V has to be dropping somewhere, and the power lost should show up as heat.

Greetings.

It sounds like you are working on a high resistance open in the neutral.

This is tough. Old houses are plagued with this. We have 4,900 and most are older.

I have used analog and digital meters and even the voltage probes that you carry in your pocket but a neutral is sneeky and you can't find it easily.

The best that I have found is a "Wiggie" as my brother=in-law calls it.

It measures the voltage by amperage or load. I got one at Sears for less that $10.00. Wouldn't be without it.

Just find out what the circuit is and work backward.

I had one where the circuit went from one outlet to the other and they were slip ins (rotten way to do wiring) and I worked my way back and screwed in every wire until it worked.

Hope this helps.

Have a great day,

Oly

Slip-ins??

I've never encountered such and it sounds like I've been blessed.

I've encountered some spring jawed connectors (not on outlets) but they required a lot more than a slip to get them in. They can bite hard enough to partially cut conductors which can then fail (open cct) under some conditions but that's another story.

Even without malignant slip-ins, it still sounds like you have a loose connector somewhere and, as others have beautifully suggested with some practical techniques, just needs finding and fixing...

Legacy domestic wiring can be a nightmare to untangle. Do you know the maintenance history of these premises?

All of the duplex 15amp receptacles in my 1978 house were slip-in receptacles, they made it much quicker for the electrician to wire a new house. Cut, strip and stick, only tool needed was wire cutters.

Great answers, I can especially relate to the one about driving nails (is that the voice of experience I hear?). I think I could add screws, drill bits, and sawzall blades. Basically anything that penetrates the drywall will find a wire (unless of course, your looking for the wire).

I had this happen to my dishwasher. Burnt wire nut on the neutral in the DW's junction box. I never understood the less than line voltage reading I was getting at the controls, but now I understand it was due to induction. And I was indeed using a digital multimeter. I'm curious why this voltage reading would show only on a digital volt meter. Does an analog meter somehow dissipate that little bit of current produced through induction and indicate a correct reading of zero, the same way applying a load would?

In short, yes.

The reason is that DVMs have often many hundreds of megohms impedance, a good analog meter has around 20,000 Ohms/Volt range....many far less.....some more......

Yes, DVMs typically have 10 Megohms/volt or more internal resistance, while analog meters like the Simpson 260 have 40 Kohms/volt internal resistance. So the analog meter places a large enough load on the line to drain that induced voltage.