I’m trying to replace a very old outlet in my kitchen. The garbage disposal and the dishwasher are plugged into this outlet. The top outlet is switched, but the bottom is always hot. Everything I’ve read about this type of outlet has both circuits sharing a single neutral, but this outlet is odd. It has a single neutral from one circuit plugged in on one side, then on the other it has the two hot wires with the broken tab (as you would expect). The weird thing is that there is a second neutral wired to the same terminal as the hot wire for the first circuit. [see below illustration]
My question is what is going on here? At this point I’m not even really concerned about replacing the outlet, I just want to know if it’s even safe to put it back like this?
Thanks!
[ || ]—————-H2
[
——N1-[ || ]======H1/N2
Best Answer
That's not a weird neutral. That's a switch loop.
They are correctly using the white wire for always-hot, precisely to invoke that "WTH" response. By using white as always-hot, it assures the white wire will always light up a voltage tester. If white was a switched-hot, it might not always light up, and could be mistaken for neutral.
What they failed to do, however, is mark the white wire with black or colored tape, as is required today (also) to designate it as a hot.
You are welcome to retrofit grounds to help protect this circuit. However, better protection would be achieved with GFCI. You can't fit a GFCI+receptacle combo device here because they don't allow splitting. However you can fit one at a receptacle upstream if there is any, or a GFCI+circuit breaker combo device if there is not.