First time I’ve seen this electrical problem

[luberhill]

Neighbor calls today and said he had 4 outlets in his house not working . he said all the breakers were on .

I stopped over and checked the outlets , testing the normal way with my volt meter between the two slots I had nothing ..

But testing the hot side to ground I had 120v and testing the neutral side to ground I had 120v ..

Wtf .. so I took the cover of the panel and he had a spare 20 amp breaker , I pulled out the one feeding these outlets and water came out !

It seems that the entrance cable is allowing water to run into the meter pan and follow the entrance cable inside the outer covering and dump out in the panel !

 I’m surprised it didn’t trip the breaker if it was putting 120 to the neutral and the hot leg ?

Hes having an electrician there Monday to change the entrance cable and check all the other breakers.

As soon as I dried the panel out and replaced that breaker everything worked as it should.

Its been doing it awhile because the robots in the breaker were rusted and had been that way awhile .

 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Neighbor calls today and said he had 4 outlets in his house not working . he said all the breakers were on .
I stopped over and checked the outlets , testing the normal way with my volt meter between the two slots I had nothing ..
But testing the hot side to ground I had 120v and testing the neutral side to ground I had 120v ..
Wtf .. so I took the cover of the panel and he had a spare 20 amp breaker , I pulled out the one feeding these outlets and water came out !
It seems that the entrance cable is allowing water to run into the meter pan and follow the entrance cable inside the outer covering and dump out in the panel !
 I’m surprised it didn’t trip the breaker if it was putting 120 to the neutral and the hot leg ?
Hes having an electrician there Monday to change the entrance cable and check all the other breakers.
As soon as I dried the panel out and replaced that breaker everything worked as it should.
Its been doing it awhile because the robots in the breaker were rusted and had been that way awhile .
 

Interesting, ever since the storms the other day some of my lights dont work. No breakers are tripped


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[luberhill]

12 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Interesting, ever since the storms the other day some of my lights dont work. No breakers are tripped


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Yea I’m really surprised that breaker didn’t trip .

Somehow the water was making the neutral and the line side both hot 

[Larry]

check all the outlets one may be bad. I had the same thing and it turned out to be one of the outlets on that circuit. You may have to open up all the outlets. Took me 3 days to get it. Try turning off the breaker for that circuit to try to find the last place that has power. it also may be a switch

[mlammerhirt]

Few years ago I had a fish smell in my finished basement on an off for months. We searched high and low and found nothing. Then in the spring we go to turn on the a/c and it's a no go. Our repair guy comes out and finds the circuit panel and in the process finds the breaker for the a/c is melted to the busbar. I get an electrical out there ASAP and he says he can't believe the whole panel didn't start in fire. Replaces everything and we find out a leader vent boot on the roof is letting water in and it's traveling to the basement into our box....what a mess....glad we found it before the whole house went up in flames.

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[luberhill]

2 hours ago, Larry said:

check all the outlets one may be bad. I had the same thing and it turned out to be one of the outlets on that circuit. You may have to open up all the outlets. Took me 3 days to get it. Try turning off the breaker for that circuit to try to find the last place that has power. it also may be a switch

Assume u are talking to Real Tc111

I already found the problem as I explained above 

[luberhill]

1 hour ago, mlammerhirt said:

Few years ago I had a fish smell in my finished basement on an off for months. We searched high and low and found nothing. Then in the spring we go to turn on the a/c and it's a no go. Our repair guy comes out and finds the circuit panel and in the process finds the breaker for the a/c is melted to the busbar. I get an electrical out there ASAP and he says he can't believe the whole panel didn't start in fire. Replaces everything and we find out a leader vent boot on the roof is letting water in and it's traveling to the basement into our box....what a mess....glad we found it before the whole house went up in flames.

Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk
 

Yikes !

Yes this still blows my mind that the neutrals had 120v to them, so power must have been shorting to the neutral bar inside the panel.

 Why didn’t it trip the breaker or the main or knock me on my butt when I touched the panel

Edited September 25, 2022 by luberhill

[wolc123]

24 minutes ago, luberhill said:

Yikes !

Yes this still blows my mind that the neutrals had 120v to them, so power must have been shorting to the neutral bar inside the panel.

 Why didn’t it trip the breaker or the main or knock me on my butt when I touched the panel

Because you would have been a longer path to ground than that which was already established by the flooding. Electricity always takes the shortest path to ground.