lights in bathroom and adjoinging room as well as several outlets stopped working, used an outlet tester with 3 lights yellow , white and red. shows hot and ground reversed! no work has been done on this circuit. hat could be the problem??

 

That is a typical indication of an open neutral. now the hunt begins to find it. you are gonna have to turn the power off to that circuit and take down the lights and check the splices (look carefully) if it is not in the lights then in the recepts, maybe.

Remember you will always find the problem in the last place you look.

 

Sparky is correct. This is not hot/ground reverse. Instead, it is an open neutral.

In my experience, this typically happens when a large appliance (e.g., hair dryer or vacuum cleaner) is used. The heat in the wires of the large load causes a failure of a backstab connection somewhere on the circuit. Since it can be anywhere on the circuit, it takes some time to find it. Might as well shut off the breaker and get started.

 

The way I find a bad backstab. Keep the circuit ON. Put a load on the outlets not working, such as a lamp or radio. Use your plug in tester and test any receptacles in the area or on the circuit, working or not. Plug it in a wiggle it around. Sometimes you'll see the lamp flicker on and off as you wiggle.
If this method does not work I start in the middle of the area. If it is somewhat obvious where the working ones end and the dead ones start. I pull each one out and check it. As you replace them be sure to put the wires on the screws and not back in the backstabs. Better yet, if they are old replace them.

 

Pete, while this method of troubleshooting may locate the outlet at which the connection has come free, in such an instance the receptacles should be pulled on the entire circuit and examined for damage. If a backstab feed-thru has burned out at one recep, odds are it is damaged elsewhere as well.

 

Yes and no. I have seen just one bad backstab on a circuit with no problems anywhere else.

You are correct though. If it were me I would replace every receptacle in the house or at least move the backstabs to the screws.
In fact I did. My house was all backstabbed and I replced every device. Then again, they were brown.

 

sparky , you the man! checked for a while looking for the open nuetral and sure enough I found it in an overhead light, wire was old and had burnt through causing short... much obliged for your correct diagnosis!! mabey you can help on another issue ....
Maytag double wall oven in older home top oven burnt a heating element, replaced it, bottom oven burnt the heating element and i mean clear thru plus raised ripples along the element also constantly replacing light bulbs throughout the house, any ideas on how to correct problem.... afraid to replace bottom oven element in case there's an underlying problem to address first. house was built 30 plus years ago in the chicago area.... dont even recognize the type of breakers in the panel...

 

Volcanosman,

Glad you found your problem. As far as the oven goes no I cannot off the top of my head think of a reason to burn a heating element. But the fact you are blowing lamps and heating elements leads me to believe there is something going on. I have a rental property that is 125v-126v, and I have to use lamps rated for 130v if I want them to last. voltage readings might be in order, but leave this question here and someone will have an idea.

 

With Sparky-L.U. 697 here Try 130V bulbs . Id also call the power company and see if they wont put a voltmeter on there for you for a day or so . I lost some motors till we found out it was the power company and low voltage. But yours could be high voltage.ED