UPDATE – tested all the wires with a multimeter, WHITE – Neutral to GROUND – no reading, BLACK – Hot- to GROUND no reading, BLACK – Hot to WHITE Neutral no reading. When using a no contact voltage tester the WHITE – Neutral is beeping and giving me a warning, the BLACK – Hot isn't and so is the GROUND. I traced all the junctions and they are all wired correctly and tests correctly.
I just installed a GFCI outlet to an outdated backyard outlet that was just conventional outlet without any protection. Upon testing with an outlet tester, it reads 1-RED 2-Yellow 3-off hot and neutral reversed. I tested the outlet TEST and tripped successfully, and then RESET properly. Then I tested it again with the outlet tester and still reads the same 1-RED 2-Yellow 3-off hot and neutral reversed. Should I be concerned? What is causing this?
Some context, this is a 3 wire (hot, neutral and ground), when I turned off the breaker circuit for this line, its associated with the garage lights, half bath lights, and the backyard lights. I connected the wires to the LINE connections of the outlet.
Best Answer
The three light testers are what Harper likes to call the Magic 8-ball. They give messages that are sometimes true, sometimes meaningless or even misleading. In this case, the message may actually be correct. What the message/lights you describe normally means is:
(Note that the sequence and colors will vary by model of tester.)
So when you have Red/Yellow/off, that means:
The only possibility in common is Hot/Neutral Reverse, so that's what the key displays.
The first question is: What did the tester show with the old receptacle? My guess is that it had no ground hole so you couldn't (super easily, though not that hard really) test it with the same tester, or maybe it had ground and you just didn't think of it. I bet it would have shown Hot/Neutral Reverse but we don't know that for sure.
Since a GFCI normally only looks at Hot and Neutral and ignores ground, a GFCI will still work (including TEST and RESET) with a Hot/Neutral Reverse.
So the most likely scenario is that you actually have Hot and Neutral Reversed! To test this, use a multimeter to check voltage between each pair of holes in the receptacle.
If you get:
then you indeed have Hot/Neutral Reverse.
If you get something else, update your question and we'll figure it out.
If you have White to Line Hot and Black to Line Neutral on the GFCI then swap them. If you have Black to Line Hot and White to Line Neutral then the problem is at a previous receptacle or junction in the same circuit. I have found these reversals multiple places in my home from work done previously, presumably by the previous homeowner and not an electrician because that is Electrical Wiring 101.