Walked into a 1970s house in Austin and every outlet was reverse polarity

I always thought polarity didn't matter much until I saw 8 lights flickering and two appliances humming weird. Has anyone else seen that kind of damage from reversed neutrals?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_murphy1626d ago

Actually, I wired my whole 1970s fixer-upper myself and never had a single issue with reverse polarity... lived there for 5 years with everything backwards. Half the outlets in Austin are probably wired that way from back then and nobody even notices because most stuff runs fine on AC anyway. Flickering lights and humming appliances sound more like a bad neutral connection at the panel or a loose splice somewhere, not just a swapped hot and neutral. I've plugged in a cheap outlet tester on jobs and seen reversed polarity in brand new construction that worked perfectly fine for years. Honestly, the whole "reverse polarity is dangerous" thing gets blown way out of proportion by electricians who want to charge you for a simple fix. Unless you're plugging in something super sensitive like lab equipment, it's usually just one of those things that looks wrong on paper but doesn't actually cause real problems.

lucas6326d ago

Had the same thing in my old house. Bought one of those $10 testers and every outlet was backwards. Lived with it for years. Only changed it when the fridge started buzzing.