Ground/Hot Wire Reversal

I have an electrical problem that has me completely stumped. There is a section of my house that has a series of 6 receptacles on it – 3 in the family room, 2 in the garage, and one outside. The outside receptacle is a GFCI (the only GFCI receptacle in the series).

Over the weekend I plugged in my chop saw in the garage receptacle to finish a house project. Initially, the saw started up fine but immediately went dead as if a fuse in my fuse box had blown. At first, I checked the fuses (which were all okay), then I tried my chop saw on my back deck outlet and it worked fine, last I checked the GFCI receptacle outside and found that neither the Test or the Test Reset buttons would push in.

So, I replaced the GFCI receptacle with a new one – still no power on the series of receptacles. Next, I replaced the receptacle in the garage that I had plugged the chop saw into – still no power. Then, I replaced all of the fuses just to see if that would make any difference – still no power. So, I went out and bought a circuit tester and a digital voltage meter. The circuit tester indicated that I had a “Ground/Hot Wire Reversal problem in all of the receptacles except the GFCI one outside of the house, which did not light up the circuit tester at all.

However, when I used the voltage meter I would get a normal 120 volt reading if I touched the hot wire with one probe and the ground wire with the other, or the neutral wire and the ground wire respectively. But, if I touched the hot wire with one probe and the neutral wire with the other I would only get a reading between .01 and .02 volts.

I am not an electrician and no one at Home Depot or Lowe's could give me any helpful advice that would work (that I hadn’t already tried). So, I turned to the web and hope that somebody out there can help me. Please!

Thank you!

You should get a 120 reading between the hot and neutral, you should get a 120 reading between the hot and the ground. You should get no reading between the neutral and the ground. You have a connection between the hot and either the neutral or the ground. That's what the GFI was telling you when it tripped and would not reset.
It also sounds like you have a break in the neutral somewhere and it is touching the hot. Don't know what happened start pulling outlets and examine. Should be something you will recognize immediately.

Start at GFI and verify the hot wires go to LINE IN, and the rest of the recepticles down line are on the GFI Load Side. Also VERY important is, Power Neutral(White) needs to go to
Line Neutral, and rest of the recepticles' neutral goes to LOAD Neutral.
Also On the regular recepticles, the white wire goes to the white or silver screw, and the hot goes to the dark screw on receptacle. All Important.
The New GFI's will not reset if no power to GFI Line side, or a Fault, The Fault can be eliminated by removing wires from load side of GFI.

Is 110 volt GFCI receptacle can use to 220 volts system, which is 220 volts line to neutral?

Is 110 volt GFCI receptacle can use to 220 volts system, which is 220 volts line to neutral?
In addition to this, the voltage rating of GFCI receptacle is 125VAC.

Cesar, first off, it is best to start a new thread with your question, especially since it is really not on topic with this old thread.



NO, you absolutely cannot use a 125v GFI receptacle on a 220v system.

In the US for residential electric we have 120/240v, which is 120v line to neutral and 240v line to line.

Where are you located that you have 220v line to neutral? UK? EU?
You will have to find someone who knows the systems in your country for further (and accurate) answers.