Re: Kitchen circuit suddenly reading 40V

"Mike Reed" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:a9846d73-4b32-4d06-986d-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I plugged our vacuum in to the GFI in the kitchen, and when I turned
> it on, I heard a "pop" and assumed it was the GFI that needed to be
> reset for some reason. Well, the GFI plug was acting completely dead.
> I pulled it out of the wall, pulled off the line wires and tested them
> bare.
>
> 40V?!?!?!
>
> This circuit was fine this morning and has been installed for years.
> We recently remodeled and moved a couple plugs around, but they've
> been working fine for months (all on the GFI).
>
> The breaker goes both directions with a positive click just like the
> rest. This all started with the vac switch. I turned around and used
> the vac on a different circuit with no problem.
>
> Any chance someone's seen this before?
>
> Thanks!

Sounds like you have a second GFI outlet that was feeding this GFI outlet.
Look around to see if you can find another tripped GFI outlet. You also
might want to pull the panel cover and make sure you're getting full power
out of the breaker instead of assuming so based solely on the operation of
the handle.

Rich. wrote:
>
> "Mike Reed" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:a9846d73-4b32-4d06-986d-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I plugged our vacuum in to the GFI in the kitchen, and when I turned
>> it on, I heard a "pop" and assumed it was the GFI that needed to be
>> reset for some reason. Well, the GFI plug was acting completely dead.
>> I pulled it out of the wall, pulled off the line wires and tested them
>> bare.
>>
>> 40V?!?!?!
>>
>> This circuit was fine this morning and has been installed for years.
>> We recently remodeled and moved a couple plugs around, but they've
>> been working fine for months (all on the GFI).
>>
>> The breaker goes both directions with a positive click just like the
>> rest. This all started with the vac switch. I turned around and used
>> the vac on a different circuit with no problem.
>>
>> Any chance someone's seen this before?
>>
>> Thanks!
>
> Sounds like you have a second GFI outlet that was feeding this GFI
> outlet. Look around to see if you can find another tripped GFI outlet.
> You also might want to pull the panel cover and make sure you're getting
> full power out of the breaker instead of assuming so based solely on the
> operation of the handle.

It turns out he had a bad connection at one of the upstream
receptacles. There was a burn mark at the connection. Someone
should've given the screwdriver another twist originally.