Plug issue

bluedog225 · May 15, 2026

Do I need to do address this right now? Surgery coming up and there’s other priorities.

I’ve got a household standard outlet . Hot neutral and ground. It reads 120V hot to neutral on the outside terminals (not backstabbed). But 12V on the contact slots. Top and bottom. Nothing looks burned.

It was feeding an air fryer. So a decent load. Otherwise the whole house system has been stable for decades.

Is it safe to mess with it later or do I need to locate and shut off the circuit?

Thanks

Milton Shaw · May 15, 2026

The problem could be in the next outlet back and it could have a loose/bad neutral connection that is where the heat is going to be. But you need to turn off that circuit and then look at outlets that are now dead until you find the one with the bad connection. Hope the surgery turns out OK.

DGersic · May 15, 2026

I’d turn off the breaker. You don’t want the electrons escaping.

yatg · May 15, 2026

bluedog225 said:
It reads 120V hot to neutral on the outside terminals (not backstabbed). But 12V on the contact slots. Top and bottom. Nothing looks burned.

replace the receptacle.
probably has internal damage.
bust it open after you replace it and look.

bluedog225 · May 15, 2026

Will do. I guess I was wondering if this is a failure mode? I’ve never had one fail before.

This particular plug is below a six switch lighting arrangement. I’ve looked back there and it’s a complete **** show.

The guy who owned the place before me was an electrician. In the 90s, I had a couple of electricians out to work on some stuff and they were always surprised by what they found.

Thanks all.

OMGdidhedied · May 15, 2026

I would turn it off until you can take it out and look. It looks like it was added on at some point. Whoever installed it didn’t know what they were doing because they should have broken off the ears so the receptacle would sit flush in the old work box. If they did that wrong, who knows what’s going on inside the box and at the back of the outlet.

wyliesdiesels · May 15, 2026

bluedog225 said:
Do I need to do address this right now? Surgery coming up and there’s other priorities.

I’ve got a household standard outlet . Hot neutral and ground. It reads 120V hot to neutral on the outside terminals (not backstabbed). But 12V on the contact slots. Top and bottom. Nothing looks burned.

It was feeding an air fryer. So a decent load. Otherwise the whole house system has been stable for decades.

Is it safe to mess with it later or do I need to locate and shut off the circuit?

Thanks

probably deteriorated tangs on the side of the receptacle. i would just replace it

wyliesdiesels · May 15, 2026

Milton Shaw said:
The problem could be in the next outlet back and it could have a loose/bad neutral connection that is where the heat is going to be.

that makes no sense at all. The OP stated they have 120v at the side terminals of the receptacle. that means its not an issue upstream and surely not a loose neutral.

wyliesdiesels · May 15, 2026

bluedog225 said:
Will do. I guess I was wondering if this is a failure mode? I’ve never had one fail before.

nope. no such failure mode would exist in a cheapo receptacle

sparky 1971 · May 15, 2026

Your tester lead probes probably aren't long enough and the plastic is bottoming out against the face of the outlet before they make contact with the terminals. I've had to trim the plastic back on more than one set of leads in order to get them to engage through the slots. It seems to be more problematic with the cheap resi grade devices and it appears to be what that is.

bluedog225 · May 15, 2026

sparky 1971 said:
Your tester lead probes probably aren't long enough and the plastic is bottoming out against the face of the outlet before they make contact with the terminals. I've had to trim the plastic back on more than one set of leads in order to get them to engage through the slots. It seems to be more problematic with the cheap resi grade devices and it appears to be what that is.

Ok. I’ll check when I get back. It’s a Klein.

dave*99 · May 15, 2026

bluedog225 said:
Ok. I’ll check when I get back. It’s a Klein.

Those insulated tips are unlikely able to reach inside the receptacle. Have you tried something simple like plugging in a small appliance, radio etc. to test the receptacle?

Or take an old line cord and cut and strip the wires to contact your test probes. Perhaps a male plug from the junk box? Confirm your test process on a known good receptacle elsewhere in the house.

bluedog225 · May 15, 2026

The sleeve on the tips comes off. They seem plenty long. Have tested the plugs. One works. One doesn’t. Then I got the weird 12V AC reading on both.

dave*99 · May 15, 2026

bluedog225 said:
The sleeve on the tips comes off. They seem plenty long. Have tested the plugs. One works. One doesn’t. Then I got the weird 12V AC reading on both.

Perhaps you figured it out in post 1. 120V on the feeding wires, outlet won't power an appliance; replace receptacle.

bluedog225 · Tuesday at 9:41 PM

OK guys. I needed to get this done because tomorrow I turn into the one armed man after surgery.

I replaced the plug. And I took pictures of everything before. But the one photo I need to see did didn’t turn out.

Straightforward plug replacement. But when I took the old plug apart to see if I could find something wrong with it, I noticed that the little tab between the two hot (black) wires [edit-attachment points] was broken off. Not sure if that broke when I tore apart the plug or not.

I read 120 V top and bottom. Everything seems fine. No breaker has tripped.

The one picture of that side of the plug was out of focus since I was holding the camera on the other side. It looks a little bit like that tab was broken off before I replaced the plug.

I have the one question of whether that tab being broken off or not is significant? I can think of reasons to do it, but I don’t know what the reason was here.

Thank you.

mm08822 · Tuesday at 10:00 PM

Either upper or lower recept could be controlled by a switch. Lift one of the blacks off the recept and test both separately to neutral with the switch in on/off positions.

If one blk wire turns off with the switch, break the tab and put the wire back on.

It's possible (highly unlikely) that is was fed from 2 circuits but a few other details would have to be in place for that to have been done correctly.

Break the ears off the recept also.

bluedog225 · Tuesday at 10:10 PM

Thanks. No switch within 15 feet. This is on the other side of the wall. I’ve seen what’s going on inside and it‘s a jungle. And I’ll break the ears off.

I’m hoping it’s good to go for now.

Edit-thinking about it, it is possible one of those controls one of those hots. I‘ll check it out later.

dave*99 · Wednesday at 7:21 AM

Off the top of my head I can think of 5 separate incidents where I got a call about something that quit working and it was because someone turned off a switch to a split receptacle.

Life lesson…. Always check both holes.

wyliesdiesels · Wednesday at 11:48 AM

could be a half switched receptacle... need to test both hot wires while removed from receptacle

dave*99 · Wednesday at 11:52 AM

Sure looks like a switch leg given the white/black in the wire nut. I'm convinced.

Codyboy · Wednesday at 11:52 AM

It looks like there is a white and two blacks under that red nut and one of those blacks goes to the receptacle.

There is another black that also goes to the other tab on the receptacle.
Possibly a switched outlet as mentioned.

Then I see a white wrapped with the bare ground going to the outlet.

mm08822 · Wednesday at 12:28 PM

dave*99 said:
Off the top of my head I can think of 5 separate incidents where I got a call about something that quit working and it was because someone turned off a switch to a split receptacle.

Life lesson…. Always check both holes.

I've been asked by owners what a switch does more than once. These people have lived there for 20-30 years, me....., I've been there 30 mins. Really??!!

It's hard to answer w/o laughing at them or saying something derogatory.

sparky 1971 · Wednesday at 3:28 PM

mm08822 said:
I've been asked by owners what a switch does more than once. These people have lived there for 20-30 years, me....., I've been there 30 mins. Really??!!

It's hard to answer w/o laughing at them or saying something derogatory.

I had a service call once and all of the info I had was half the living room outlets and three switches didn't work. What I thought was going to be a tripped breaker or stab in the back receptacle gone bad turned out to be five or six switched receptacles controlled by two three ways and a four way. I don't know how long they'd lived there but it was long enough.

Plug issue

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