Outlets have low output

[psimmo]

I'm in a fairly new home - 1.5 years old. Two outlets in one room recently quit working. (The two outlets are fed by one line from the main panel.) With my voltmeter, I discovered these readings:
black wire to white wire - 74 volts
black wire to ground wire - 120 volts
white wire to ground wire - 21 volts

I was surprised to find any voltage at all at the outlets. Any explanation, or suggestions what to look at next?
Thanks.

[Dr. Doolittle]

quote:Originally posted by psimmo

I'm in a fairly new home - 1.5 years old. Two outlets in one room recently quit working. (The two outlets are fed by one line from the main panel.) With my voltmeter, I discovered these readings:
black wire to white wire - 74 volts
black wire to ground wire - 120 volts
white wire to ground wire - 21 volts

I was surprised to find any voltage at all at the outlets. Any explanation, or suggestions what to look at next?
Thanks.

It would be my guess that since you have 120V between Black and Ground, that there may be a break in the White between there and the main panel. The 21V you are reading from White to Ground is most likely a feedback (or feed through) from something else connected to that circuit, it could be any appliance. As many outlets are paralled, there may be one or more on that circuit which are ok, but an open White which is supposed to continue on may have broken. Turn off the breaker for that circuit to determine if there are more outlets on the circuit which were OK, then start looking for the broken White. It could be at the last good outlet, or at the first bad one on the curcuit. I hope this has helped some.

Dr. Doo