Photo 1

Other nearby outlets on different circuits:

microwave - tested correctly
Under the sink - tested correctly
Refrigerator - tested correctly

The outlets are about as dangerous as it get's,therefore I reccomend calling an electrician right a way. I realize you want to save money but you have a very bad situation. If and when you sell the house,it will not pass lender's inspection until those are on GFI. GFIs will cost less while correcting this problem than doing them later. While plugging something in or simply touching an outlet,switch or fixture your body could complete a circuit by acting as the netural.

"Check to see if a GFI/AFI tripped."

If there is a GFI in the circuit it's either defective or improperly wired. I want to reiterate that my concern isn't over the fact circuit isn't protected by GFI,it's far more serious. To suggest it might be a tripped GFI reinforce's why this isn't something that should be attempted using utubes and forums.

Circuit with open neutrals

LED tape lighting

Another kitchen circuit with it’s one GFI in front stream

Newly installed LED tape lighting (corded setup). New box and rocker switch on bottom and new box and outlet inside cabinet. The cord plugs in bottom receptacle and top receptacle has no power (put in safety plug to indicate no use). Belongs to the ceiling lights circuit

More of the LED tape lighting setup - ‘open ground’ code

3 Open neutral outlets closeup - left outlet (last in circuit series due to only 3 wires?)

3 Open neutral outlets closeup - middle outlet

3 Open neutral outlets closeup - right outlet (outlet/switch combo)

Make sure none of these receptacles have the tab between the two neutral screws broken off. If you're going to use the device itself to bridge from one to the ohter, you can't have that.

Are you in Canada, by chance?

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I actually fixed the open neutrals yesterday.

It was the GFCI outlet to the right of the rocker switch (for the LED tape lighting). Both a black/hot and white/neutral were totally separated from GFCI. My guess is the screws were not tight and caused wires to separate when pulling outlets forward for the backsplash. Apparently my electricians used the straight in wiring method rather than the hook method. I probably would've seen/heard it pop out if it was the hook method. However, I redid the straight in method since I think the key is properly tightening the screws. I say this because when manually tightening with screwdriver it actually fooled me, whereas using the DeWalt significantly tightened it.

So I think it should be fixed unless anyone thinks that the 'open ground' is an issue from the LED tape lighting outlet.

History -- I actually had a licensed electrician (company) do all the electrical work. Any electrical that I work on is to either inspect what the licensees have done/missed or that they advised I could do myself. The electrician's total work consisted of adjusting a panel grommet (only a suggestion from my prior inspector), changing all the outlets, installing fans, canless recessed lighting, LED tape lighting and working with half-hot issues.

GFCI -- My understanding is that any outlet within 6 feet of typical water usage, such as a sink lip, needs to be on a GFCI chain, not necessarily putting a GFCI outlet in each box. Most of the electricians I interviewed didn't elaborate on this, but a few did mention, including my electricians, that I only needed one GFCI for each 'circuit' to provide protection for the rest of outlets in a chain or stream (which I confirmed they were all on the chain by testing them all today).

While I'm happy that the problem seems solved, I'm still curious about the following:

Whether open-neutrals are isolated to just the circuit they belong to..

How those scary stories of open neutrals shocking people in the shower happen..

Why a problem outlet will give a 'correct' reading when it's the source of the problem..

If the 'open ground' code as seen on the outlet for the LED tape lighting unit is normal or needs fixing..

The electricians explained to me that for this new LED tape lighting outlet, the top receptacle 'does not work', just the bottom one. I tested today with multimeter and it had no voltage whereas bottom receptacle had normal 120V. I put a safety plug in the top one to clear up any confusion for future buyer/owner.

Thanks again! I think a combo of DIY experience, online research, community advice boards and hiring/vetting quality licensed tradesmen give the best results. It keeps everybody in check. Nothing wrong with teamwork!

Ron.. I'm in Las Vegas. I looked into the break-off tabs. I'm guessing my electricians did it properly.