Not getting correct voltage at outlets

[Sweetlight]

Hello, new poster here, hopefully I’m doing it right. I have several outlets in my kitchen that aren’t working. They all have the same symptoms. I have the proper 125 volts From the hot wire to ground, but I’m only getting 109 volts from the hot wire to neutral. They are on the same circuit as my dishwasher and garbage disposal, both of those are working fine. The strange thing to me is it is all being fed from a double breaker at the panel. Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

There is probably a high-resistance connection in the neutral at the last outlet that works normally, or the first one that doesn't. The resistance is high enough that appliances do not work, but not completely broken, therefore the multimeter / voltage tester can still detect the presence of a voltage hot to neutral. The actual voltage you see on the multimeter does not signify anything in particular, only that the resistance in the circuit is in the same order as its own input resistance. If you connect a non-electronic appliance to any non-functional outlet while watching the meter, you would probably see that 109 volts collapse to near zero.

 

[Sweetlight]

There is probably a high-resistance connection in the neutral at the last outlet that works normally, or the first one that doesn't. The resistance is high enough that appliances do not work, but not completely broken, therefore the multimeter / voltage tester can still detect the presence of a voltage hot to neutral. The actual voltage you see on the multimeter does not signify anything in particular, only that the resistance in the circuit is in the same order as its own input resistance. If you connect a non-electronic appliance to any non-functional outlet while watching the meter, you would probably see that 109 volts collapse to near zero.

Thanks for the response. I figured it was probably an issue with the neutral. The circuit seems to start at an outlet under the sink that the dishwasher and garbage disposal plugs into. Both those appliance work properly. It all four outlets that appear to be losing the neutral. I’m thinking the outlet that the appliances are plugged into might be the problem?

Is it common to run a double 250volt breaker to run a 125 volt garbage disposal and dishwasher?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

This could be a multi-wire branch circuit, if it has two hot legs sharing a neutral, perhaps as far as the appliance outlet, continuing on to the remaining outlets with just one of the hots. Since the problem appears to be with a neutral connection, this is not strictly relevant. However it is worth noting that a disconnected neutral in the multi-wire section of the circuit can cause up to 240V to appear at a 120V outlet.

Your broken connection is likely to be at one end (we can't tell which end) of the cable connecting the outlet that works to the nearest one that doesn't.