I’m hoping there’s a simple way to check for bad or loose neutrals on some household wiring. I have a basic plug-in circuit tester that will tell you if things are connected properly and test GFI’s, but has no read out or anything.

Will a Klein LCD read out circuit tester be easier than a multi meter? I’ll still need to go in the panel I’m sure and possibly each outlet and check, but it would be nice if this could help narrow it down.

My printer will cause the lights to dim on that circuit, which has two rooms at least on it. So I’d like to make that stop. Plus I wanna make sure everything is safe. For now, it’s in the unfinished basement and on a 20amp circuit. That works but not preferred.


What drove me to look at neutrals was talking to electrical folks as my AC unit will cause the lights to dim a little bit and they mentioned to check neutrals. It also doesn’t restart after a power bump if it’s been running. If loose neutrals are not the cause, then call an electrician.

Skins had me kill the circuit, identity every outlet on it, and pull each outlet out and tighten the connections. After I did that without fixing the problem, he told me that I missed one and to do it again.

I went back and found the outlet I missed, tightened up the loose neutral connection about 3 turns, and fixed the issue. In my defense, that outlet's location made me think it shouldn’t have been on the circuit run. Use your circuit tester to verify all the dead outlets.

Every time people have electrical issues other folks tell them they must have a loose neutral. There's a lot of other things that can cause your lights to dim. Check EVERY connection on that circuit starting in the breaker panel.

If it is working on a 20 amp circuit in another area

That’s a good first step in your troubleshooting , trying the printer on a different circuit

What size breaker and wire feeds the area it was in originally?

What is the wattage or rated amperage of the printer?

Could the wire and breaker be to small in that area, or is there enough other load on the original circuit you could be overloading the circuit?

If you have a 20 amp breaker and the same size wire feeding the original area as you do where it is plugged in now.

That’s good.

You need to turn off all the other loads and try the printer in the original area on the circuit by itself ,if it’s still doing it with all of the loads on the circuit off except for the printer.

Then you should review the problem in depth, by checking all of your connections on that circuit.