L-N Reverse On All Kitchen Sockets

atm-12 · Dec 17, 2013

Hi, I am a newly qualified electrician and have a quick question. A friend asked me to take a look at a socket that was making an arcing noise after a water spillage so I went round to have a look. I ended up swapping the socket for a new one and this fixed the aching noise however when I checked it with my plug tester it showed a L-N reversed fault. I then checked other kitchen sockets and they also showed the same fault. He said it has been like this for the past 5 years and hasn't been a problem and I didn't have much time so we left it at that but I said I would look into it.

I guess that next step would be to check in the fuse board? First thing that comes to mind is that it could be connected up wrong in the fuse board, but if it is connected up correctly how would I go about finding the fault? It is an old flat with old electrics and there is probably many problems but I doubt my friend will want to spend the money.

Any general advice on what to do would be great. Thanks.

Edit - I was meant to tag this as domestic and not commercial.

GLENNSPARK · Dec 18, 2013

atm-12 said:
Hi, I am a newly qualified electrician and have a quick question. A friend asked me to take a look at a socket that was making an arcing noise after a water spillage so I went round to have a look. I ended up swapping the socket for a new one and this fixed the aching noise however when I checked it with my plug tester it showed a L-N reversed fault. I then checked other kitchen sockets and they also showed the same fault. He said it has been like this for the past 5 years and hasn't been a problem and I didn't have much time so we left it at that but I said I would look into it.

I guess that next step would be to check in the fuse board? First thing that comes to mind is that it could be connected up wrong in the fuse board, but if it is connected up correctly how would I go about finding the fault? It is an old flat with old electrics and there is probably many problems but I doubt my friend will want to spend the money.

Any general advice on what to do would be great. Thanks.

Edit - I was meant to tag this as domestic and not commercial.

phase neutral reversal top end.....

get a Ze then check all other finals are reversed...or not....

this will indicate if polarity is correct at incomer (polarity live)...and if so how many finals have been affected....

there may be an odd aroma whilst carrying out tests so make sure you dont linger....

Broken handle · Dec 18, 2013

moospark said:
Put the washer on and see if it goes backward.

large appliances are not worried about reversed polarity because on the continent Shuko sockets do not have a polarity reference. The machine senses direction current flow and makes sure everything is happy. Perhaps we should adopt a few continental practices, including siestas (2 hour lunch breaks have got to be beneficial for the health).

overskilled · Dec 18, 2013

Broken handle said:
large appliances are not worried about reversed polarity because on the continent Shuko sockets do not have a polarity reference. The machine senses direction current flow and makes sure everything is happy. Perhaps we should adopt a few continental practices, including siestas (2 hour lunch breaks have got to be beneficial for the health).

2?? try4 or 5 hours.....then again explains their massive unemployment rate (its been high in some areas since 2002)

sparkie141 · Dec 19, 2013

My money's on reverse polarity at the consumer unit or meter. Seen it several times in this area. A few years ago a contractor was replacing meters for Hydro Electric & terminating them red, black, red, black instead of red, black, black, red. Since then a polarity check on at least 1 socket is carried out after a meter change.