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Unpopular take: not every loose neutral is a bad connection in the panel
I was troubleshooting a flickering light in a house near Austin last Tuesday. Everyone on this forum seems to jump straight to the main panel, but I found the issue was a worn wire nut behind a ceiling fan. Spent two hours poking around before I thought to check the j-box. Anyone else ever waste time pulling apart a perfectly good panel?
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the_jessica3mo ago
Yeah exactly, I've been burned the same way... found the same thing with a bad wire nut in a j-box for a bathroom fan once, took forever to track down because everyone kept saying panel. People act like the panel is the only place neutrals go bad, but sometimes it's just a lazy sparky who didn't twist the wires tight enough. That worn nut on your ceiling fan is more common than folks want to admit.
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keith2643mo ago
Come on, man, a loose neutral is almost always in the panel first. I've been doing this twenty years and the j-box is the last place I look for those issues. You spent two hours because you didn't start at the source. That flickering light at your place in Austin? I bet you had a screw loose on the neutral bus bar and just didn't wiggle it right the first time. A worn wire nut on a ceiling fan is a coincidence, not the rule.
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