audible not working on copper SE cable

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Had a green apprentice check an old romex under a house with an audible, and then he cut it with diagonals. Boom!

Jourenyman went under the house, checked it again with an audible, cut into it, Boom! This time it tripped a breaker

Does the outside shield keep an audible from working?

Wire appears to be 10/2 SE cable, old style with external fiber wrap.
 

1793

Senior Member
Location
Louisville, Kentucky
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Inspector
Had a green ... Does the outside shield keep an audible from working?

Wire appears to be 10/2 SE cable, old style with external fiber wrap.

I don't know for sure but I would think if the 10/2 really is SE type the wire wrap may keep an audible from getting reading.

Are you sure the audible is working correctly?

PS Iwire beat me to the punch
 

GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
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Retired PV System Designer
Audible testers must depend on capacitive pickups (electric field only) since there may not be current in the wire to produce a magnetic field.
That means that anything that shields that electric field can cause a false negative on an audible tester.
FWIW an audible tester or even a contact voltmeter will not tell you whether the neutral you are about to cut is carrying current either.
:)

Tapatalk!
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
Had a green apprentice check an old romex under a house with an audible, and then he cut it with diagonals. Boom!

Jourenyman went under the house, checked it again with an audible, cut into it, Boom! This time it tripped a breaker

Does the outside shield keep an audible from working?

Wire appears to be 10/2 SE cable, old style with external fiber wrap.

If it's 10/2 SE with a strands of the ground wrapped around the two current carrying conductors, a non-contact voltage tester will not read voltage through it 99.999% of the time.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
:thumbsup:
You get a double whammy because the electric fields of the two hot lines will tend to cancel, making the job of the shield even easier.

Tapatalk!
 
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