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I have a switched outlet which, when turned on, reads as correctly wired on one of the three-light plug-in testers.
When turned off, however, I get it weakly lighting as "hot and ground reversed".
I haven't taken a proper meter to it yet, but I am hoping this is just an annoying trickle of back-current/induced current from another circuit... Or perhaps a switch installed in neutral rather than the hot side.
Has anyone seen this particular nuisance before, and if so what's the likely cause?
I would suspect a switched neutral here. Turn off the breaker for the circuit, then measure continuity between the neutral and ground holes on the receptacle with the switch in each position. If you get continuity with the switch ON but not OFF, there's your culprit -- only fix for that is to rewire the switch so it switches the hot.
Turned out there were multiple sins.
Theirs: Hot and neutral were reversed at the box before the switch, when going from old fabric-insulated to plastic-insulated (still in conduit).
Mine: I had hot and neutral reversed at the outlet, when trying to figure out what was going on.
The double reversal effectively meant that, yes, the switch was in the neutral line despite the switch itself being correctly wired.
Fixed it all; tester is now happy.
This is why we should always test, rather than assuming it must be correct if it seems to work.
