Spur Off Ring Final Circuit Missing Neutral

[grafton]

Hi,

I recently joined the forum and had some great help that enabled me to replace a light. I now am in need of a bit more advice please.

I have a socket on top of a kitchen cupboard that appears to be a spur off the ring final circuit ( it only has one set of wires feeding it so i made the assumption it was a spur). The socket lights the under cupboard light -a plug in 13 amp). It stopped working and i plugged a socket tester into the socket and it is showing as no neutral. The remainder of the ring is working fine. The issue is that the cable feeding the spur is beneath plaster and i have once again assumed that it must be a break in the cable or a lose connection from the socket to the spur.

I have checked the spur and all wires are connected to earth, neutral and live.

Would that sound sensible to you experts.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[ProDave]

You need to find the other end of the cable, where the spur comes from.

Hopefully it will just be spurred off from one of the sockets on the ring (find a nearby socket with 3 cables connected to it) and hopefully you will find the neutral has just snapped or fallen out of it's terminal.

 

[Theorysparky]

the obvious thing would be to check the socket it was fed from (safe isolation to be observed)

another thing would be to consider the cable route between the sockets,,,is there any chance something has been screwed into the cable etc ?????

your assumption though is correct

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

the obvious thing would be to check the socket it was fed from (safe isolation to be observed)another thing would be to consider the cable route between the sockets,,,is there any chance something has been screwed into the cable etc ?????

your assumption though is correct

+1

as socket is on top of the kitchen cupboards..

cable could run down behind fixings for cupboard!?

Could also be a junction box buried in the wall somewhere!!

Is the polarity correct at all of the other kitchen sockets Grafton?

All cable joints and junctions should be accessible and not buried or hidden...

so hopefully you can find where the break is...

Unfortunately some DIY bods do like burying things in plaster!

 

[grafton]

Thank a lot for all the helpful replies.

I can see the cable going into the wall at the corner of the cornice on the cupboard. I will isolate the power at the consumer unit and trace the cable until i find the socket it is spurred from. If necessary i will have to remove the plaster and re-plaster later.

The socket testers are really helpful, especially in this case.

Once again thanks for the help guys. I'll post how i get on.

Grafton.

 

[Evans Electric]

Go with Prodave's advice first , drop nearby sockets off and look for a third cable which hopefully will be your spur.

 

[grafton]

I isolated the power at the consumer unit and took off the socket fronts in the kitchen and found that one of the neutral wires had come lose. Connected up and all is working fine now with the spur.

Many thanks again for all the help.

Cheers,

Grafton

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I isolated the power at the consumer unit and took off the socket fronts in the kitchen and found that one of the neutral wires had come lose. Connected up and all is working fine now with the spur.Many thanks again for all the help.

Cheers,

Grafton

Just a quick observation, obviously you found your fault due to a wire not in its correct termination...

It is very common for DIY installed accessories to have loose terminal screws allowing wires to drift out of place...

It may be a good idea just to go back and open the socket fronts again and double check ALL terminal screws are tight..

make sure you have a decent flat blade screwdriver though..

cuz with a cheapo or badly worn one, sometimes you can knacker the screw heads.

Guinness

 

[grafton]

Thanks Special Location good idea. I was thinking of replacing the fronts in January as they have seen better days. Although common sense tells me that i should leave well alone other than checking for tight connections.

The cable looks like it might be 4mm as the wires are quite thick compared to 2.5mm. Do you have any suggestions what might be a good alternative to the old fronts (i think they are MK).

Cheers,

Grafton.

 

[Nicky Tesla]

Hager have nice rounded socket fronts, only about

 

[grafton]

Brilliant. i'll give them a go.

 

[ProDave]

The cable looks like it might be 4mm as the wires are quite thick compared to 2.5mm. Do you have any suggestions what might be a good alternative to the old fronts (i think they are MK).Cheers,

Grafton.

It could be a 4mm radial circuit, or it might just be a very old ring final wired in the old imperial sized multi stranded twin and earth that does indeed look quite a bit larger than 2.5mm single core.

As to what socket fronts, I generally find the more "designer" they are, the more rubbish the terminals are. If in doubt have a good look at them before buying them.

 

[SteveT]

Try 'Click' well made, look good, low profile backs, relatively cheap (viz. MK) AND Made in UK