One receptacle in the house doesn't work. I tested the voltage across the black and white wires (there's no ground wire) and found it read only 40 volts, instead of the normal 110 or 120 volts. Any ideas about what the problem is that is causing such a low voltage? I thought maybe there might be some place in the circuit where the hot wire is in contact with a metal box and some voltage is being drained away by loss to ground? Or would that type of ground fault result in a reading of zero voltage?
The wires connected to the receptacle itself are fine & tight (they ARE old wires: the cloth wrapped type) and I already tried replacing the receptacle. I haven't tried checking other receptacles "upstream" of this one on the circuit as some have suggested. Maybe that's the next step. Also, this isn't my house, but I'm the handyman working at the house. I told the owner to get an electrical contractor to look into the problem because I didn't know what to look for....
A low voltage reading indicates a partial "open". A dirty, corroded, or loose connection. If the rest of the outlets on the circuit work ok, look for bad connections on that outlet or the one directly in front of it on the circuit. Voltage won't just drain away in the case of the hot wire contacting a metal box. The box would have to grounded and that would make it a direct short which, hopefully would trip the breaker or fuse.
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