My neighbor has a 20A 120V circuit that goes out to a shed where he feeds his horses.He used 3- # 1 USE Alum.conductors as this circuit goes approximately 800 ft.from his barn to the shed.Circuit tripped so he asked me to look at it.I have disconnected the conductors at the shed and panel and have continuity to ground on the hot conductor.Anyone have a good idea on how to find where hot conductor is grounded without just digging it all up?
Ideas on how to find where direct buried cable is broken or nicked
- Thread starter clarkwg
- Start date
- Status
Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
Hire someone for a fault locate or look into a Progressive fault finder for yourself.
http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=170
Just about anything is cheaper than digging 800' of trench, that's a last resort. I only redig when we've had several faults on the same cable and it doesn't make sense to keep patching it.
http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=170
Just about anything is cheaper than digging 800' of trench, that's a last resort. I only redig when we've had several faults on the same cable and it doesn't make sense to keep patching it.
TOOL_5150
Senior Member
- Location
- bay area, ca
You could re-mark the grounded out conductor the ground, and make the other 2 neutral and hot. :grin:
~Matt
~Matt
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
I think that 480 sells these things.
I don't. But I know mine has paid for itself many times over.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
Just pickin' on ya.:grin:
Had a local contractor buy one, because he was doing a lot of service on mobil home parks. Ended up that he started subing himself out to other contractors around town and making pretty good money just locating faults for them.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
You been working this area?
ItsHot
Senior Member
- Location
- A little piece of heaven!
the Earth
the Earth
After all ,the NEC's definition of "ground" is the earth!:grin:
the Earth
After all ,the NEC's definition of "ground" is the earth!:grin:
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
They are worth the $s.
The ad on the Progressive says: "Multiple faults on a single wire can be identified, indicating the need to replace instead of repair"
Do you have any luck without digging up the first fault? I can locate only one fault at a time with an Ideal which is similar to the Progressive. Then we dig and test again.
I've never had a cable with multiple faults. I guess it depends on the faults themselves whether it can 'find' more than one without digging any of them up.
Let's say there's two faults in a conductor, and the first fault (closest to the transmitter) is the cusductor is still intact. Then I suppose enough of the transmitter's signal could go on through to the next fault and be detected.
But if the conductor is completely open, such as this:
I doubt the DC pulse would be capable of passing enough power through to be able to detect another fault on down the cable.
TOOL_5150
Senior Member
- Location
- bay area, ca
Charlie Bob
Senior Member
- Location
- West Tennessee
480 How much something like that would cost?
- Status