My meter kept picking up stray voltage on a condenser disconnect. Never seen that before.

4 comments

4 Comments

Heard about something like that from a friend last summer. His whole outdoor unit was acting funny, fans cycling on and off for no reason. He checked with his voltage tester and it was lighting up all over the metal disconnect casing. The power was off at the breaker too. Ended up being a bad neutral from the street, backfeeding through the ground. Took the utility company forever to find it.

ivan_harris1mo ago

A lost neutral can float voltage all over the house.

jenny1981mo ago

My cousin in Tampa went through that last winter. His garage door opener kept dying and the TV would flicker. The electrician said it was a floating neutral from the street. The power company dragged their feet for a month before fixing it. Stuff like that makes you paranoid about your own wiring.

taylor_patel1mo ago

Honestly, I read a whole thread about this on another forum. Some guy had voltage showing on his AC unit with the breaker off, just like you're saying. It was a bad neutral at the transformer letting voltage backfeed on the ground wire. Tbh it's kinda scary how the problem can come from outside your house and you can't really fix it yourself. Makes you want to go check your own panel with a meter now.