arcing sounds in receptacle

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codeunderstanding

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A home owner called and said that she had arcing sounds coming from one of her receptacles. I went over and checked it out and in the box there was no signs of arcing what so ever. The receptacle connections were tight changed out receptacle did a continuity test from the point where the wires feed in and feed out of the box and all was good. You can still here what seems to be faint crackling sounds. Does anybody have any ideas what this might be or ran into this before?
 
Were there any splices in the box , wire nuts ? A continuity test will only show that the conductors touch they will not show that a splice is ''tight".This is not a good sign, you need to go back and find the source of the problem.
 
iwire said:
Insects / rodents in the walls? :-?
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Do you think they are eating potato chips, and the sound is the bag crackling ?:grin:
 
acrwc10 said:
Were there any splices in the box , wire nuts ? A continuity test will only show that the conductors touch they will not show that a splice is ''tight".This is not a good sign, you need to go back and find the source of the problem.
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I took all the splices off from where they entered the box and where they left the box and re tightned the splices. I wonder if a wire went bad in the wall between boxes.
 
codeunderstanding said:
I took all the splices off from where they entered the box and where they left the box and re tightned the splices. I wonder if a wire went bad in the wall between boxes.
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you could put it on an AFCI and see if it trips. Or try a megger test on the circuit.
 
codeunderstanding said:
I took all the splices off from where they entered the box and where they left the box and re tightned the splices. I wonder if a wire went bad in the wall between boxes.
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Did you turn off the breaker for this particular circuit and see if the sound stops? Then turn on the breaker to see if it starts again. You have to try to isolate the cause.


If all else fails check city records to see if the house is built on an Indian burial ground. They're here. :D :D
 
Maybe an overdriven staple a cable damaged from physical force like a hammer or a sawzall or sometimes I have seen factory splices in the cable that seemed cheezy.
Try to find more exactly where the sound is coming from. Could be an open splice in the wall just taped up or a burried box with the wall look for signs of other work in the area that may have damaged the wire.
If you hear arcing you had better take some sheetrock off on the easier side to patch rather than burning the house down. Try meggering the cable between boxes but this may not show anything.
Maybe cut the nails and pull the box out this would let you inspect at least that bay before removing sheetrock. Just replace the box with a smart box or old work box when you are done.
Try a thermal scan with a fluke laser thermometer ir you have acess to one you may be able to find the hot spot in the wall.
 
Are you saying YOU can hear arcing sounds or the HO's can? If you can, and have good worry, I'd be pulling the conductor off of the breaker until you figure that out. You haven't given too many more details to this:-?
 
I worked with a guy that carried a stethoscope in his tool arsenal and would use for these types of problems. He had great success with it.

I was a little more primitive and just used a short piece of conduit against my ear, it works pretty good too.

Roger
 
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