I have a duplex that reads open ground by the GFI dector. How do you find where the open is? Is there an instrument that can locate where the wire goes.
thanks
I have a duplex that reads open ground by the GFI dector. How do you find where the open is? Is there an instrument that can locate where the wire goes.
thanks
Metabo HPT's dual-powered plunge router offers the option to plug in an otherwise-battery-operated tool for production work.
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Replies
Another current thread going on this topic. "Open ground" 97957.1
Tracing discussion begins @ 97957.8 or so.
Jim
Thanks, I just read them. Humm, I was hoping there was an easier way then to sort of start opening "boxes" and look for a loose wire. I was hoping there was something that you attach to the ground wire and then you point other thing which would allow you to track the wire to a "box" which is probably where the break is. I thought of applying heat to the wire and use an infrared sensor to track the heat emmision. Didn't want to do this untill I checked to see it there was already a tool that finds the other end of an open ground
thanks
handy,You could use a tone generator. I have older Extech like this http://www.professionalequipment.com/extech-tone-generator-amplifier-probe-kit-40180/wire-tracer/KK
OK, that's it. Can you tell me how it works. How close does the receiver have to be.
Thanks
Edited 12/6/2007 10:56 pm ET by handygman
Edited 12/6/2007 10:57 pm ET by handygman
If that is the kit that I have it you would connect the generator from the ground to neutral.The probe has a range of 2 - 3 ". Sometimes you can trace the path through the wall. Some times not.Then follow the line. Where the ground is broken there will be a suddend drop in volume.Also it wont' work on a circuit that energized or has a load on it.I have one, but the first thing I would do is to check the nearest boxes on each side and the other side of the wall.Then if that does not show anything I *MIGHT* get out the tone tracers. Specially if it appears that there has been lots of remodeling and who receptacels might not be logically arranged.There are ones that cost several hundred and up that perform better.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
There are circuit tracers -- I have one made by GC -- where you plug one part in to the outlet and then can trace the wires with the second part. This will show you where the wire goes, but won't identify where the open ground is.
But once you figure out which outlets are on the circuit (which you can also figure out by tripping the breaker and seeing which outlets go dead), you can generally figure out what order they're connected in. Obviously, if there are several outlets with open grounds, they'll all be at the end of the string, and so you can isolate the problem to one wire connecting two outlets by finding the two outlets between which the connection goes bad.