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<blockquote data-quote="Chris Davis" data-source="post: 58338" data-attributes="member: 137">Re: Why An Open Neutral Kills 120V DevicesHere is what you would need in order for this to happen:The two circuits, with a working neutral, are normally independent from each other.&nbsp; The two 120v hots would need to be opposites of each other (240v potential, not 0v) in this case.The neutral would need to be COMMON to both circuits.&nbsp; In fact in many cases neutrals are often connected together (in the wiring) before they even reach the neutral bus-bar on the breaker box.&nbsp;&nbsp; So let&#039;s say you disconnect a neutral wire at the breaker box.&nbsp; That might affect two different circuits, as described above.&nbsp; The two devices on opposing circuits will still be connected together by their respective neutral wires further down in the wiring.&nbsp; You now have a 240v SERIES circuit (instead of two independent 120v circuits).I have had this exact situation happen in my house before, fortunately just with two lighting circuits, and it was a most unusual event. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Chris Davis, post: 58338, member: 137"] Re: Why An Open Neutral Kills 120V Devices Here is what you would need in order for this to happen: The two circuits, with a working neutral, are normally independent from each other. The two 120v hots would need to be opposites of each other (240v potential, not 0v) in this case. The neutral would need to be COMMON to both circuits. In fact in many cases neutrals are often connected together (in the wiring) before they even reach the neutral bus-bar on the breaker box. So let's say you disconnect a neutral wire at the breaker box. That might affect two different circuits, as described above. The two devices on opposing circuits will still be connected together by their respective neutral wires further down in the wiring. You now have a 240v SERIES circuit (instead of two independent 120v circuits). I have had this exact situation happen in my house before, fortunately just with two lighting circuits, and it was a most unusual event. :) [/QUOTE]

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