I had my water tank changed and since then my dish washer does not work. There is no power to it from the existing wire. Ihave since turned off the breaker to it changed it and nothing. There are no other outlets in the house that dont work with power off so i assume its the only appliance on this circuit. I have a 3 prong tester and I noticed that all my outlets show (open neutral) what the hay? its a 10 year old house. do i need an electrician?
Electrical – open neutral caused from changing water tank
electrical
Related Solutions
Residences have two 120 lines coming into the main box, for a total of 240Volts. Obviously something is wrong with with one of the lines, or even the neutral. You can make some voltage checks on the lines if you have a meter, to see if there is partial voltage on the outlets that aren't working(bad neutral). You can also check the main box, but realize you are dealing with 240Volts. If you have any 240V dryer outlets you can check those too if you have an AC meter.
Beyond inspecting the main box for anything obvious(loose screw terminals, etc), it is probably time to bite the bullet and call an electrician. Be sure to turn off the master breaker if you play with the panel. The main terminal where the wire comes in will always have voltage, so be careful.
The grounds should be bonded to the neutrals at the main panel. (If it's not, it's a serious problem, call an electrician.) If you are getting good grounds on some of the outlets, it's probably bonded at the main panel.
If the ground isn't spliced right* at a receptacle it will show no-good at that receptacle and at all the receptacles on the same circuit downstream from that receptacle. That would be a possible explanation. It fits with the miswiring by the previous owner. Tracking down the bad ones can be a bear. Still that may be better than tracking down and replacing a damaged wire.
*edit: by "spliced right" I mean all the ground conductors of all the cables and all the ground terminals of the devices are bonded together in the box, and the box itself it's a metal box ...
If there was some creative wiring going on, some wiring can cause the receptacle tester to show a good ground where there isn't. For example jumpering the neutral to the ground terminal on the receptacle (non-code and a very bad idea) would show a good ground on the tester, but there isn't.
If you can double check with a different tester, that might be a good idea, you don't want to chase your tail if the tester is no good.
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Best Answer
In short and to answer your immediate question-- yes, you most likely need an electrician to come perform troubleshooting. However, there seems to be some ambiguity here.
I'm going to make the assumption that "water tank" means 240V electric water heater? Did you install the new tank or was it installed by a professional? If all of this happened immediately after the installation, I suggest having your installer come back to verify the installation before hiring anyone else.
It sounds like your receptacle tester is not telling you the full truth. You said your receptacles work, but they physically cannot with an open neutral-- you would have an open circuit and be in the dark. However, you can have an open neutral and still have a live "hot" wire, so don't take anything for granted.
If the neutral is indeed open on all of your receptacles, that would most likely indicate a problem at your breaker panel. This would bring us back around full circle to calling an electrician.