Circuit Tracers for Dead Circuits

[jmellc]

What's the best you guys have seen for dead circuit tracers? I've chased my tail a few times lately, looking for circuits on dead receptacles. Some were never labeled at all, some had faded labels, some had been moved to other circuits.

 

[augie47]

I use a tone generator and probe

 

[Little Bill]

I use a tone generator and probe
View attachment 2564081

That works good but not so well in conduit. If you can find where the conductors come out of the conduit it works good.

 

[xformer]

use an 18V battery

 

[hillbilly1]

Greenlee and Ideal make pretty decent open tracers, but they are pricy! $1000 + now.

 

[synchro]

Say if the hot side was open on a 120V receptacle, you could connect the tracer's transmitter terminals between the neutral conductor and the metal box or conduit. That should create a current through the neutral conductor back to the N/G bond so that you may be able identify the neutral with the receiver inside of a panel or another box. Once you find a particular neutral conductor you could pull it away from the panel or box to get a better confirmation by the receiver that it's the one. Then you could see which conduit that this neutral conductor goes to, which at least narrows it down to a fewer number of hot conductors/circuits where the break should be. Then you'd use your other techniques to go from there with the process of elimination, etc.
Maybe you're already doing something like this, in which case never mind.

 

[rambojoe]

A wirenut works awesomely.
Ok, i guess i should explain... A wirenut and a continuity tester works super great.

 

[hillbilly1]

If it is a circuit that is feed off a gfi receptacle, then unfortunately the neutral will be open if it’s tripped, so the battery trick will not work. But at least with the battery hack, you can narrow down to which panel it’s from if the neutral is not compromised.

 

[electrofelon]

I have an amprobe at-6010, it's about $580. I actually haven't used it much but it worked real slick chasing the wire to a dead outlet and finding where it wasn't connected.

 

[LarryFine]

An extension cord plugged into a known-properly-wired receptacle along with a solenoid tester make a great troubleshooting combination.

 

[Little Bill]

An extension cord plugged into a known-properly-wired receptacle along with a solenoid tester make a great troubleshooting combination.

Please splain how to find a breaker from a dead receptacle with this method. Can't wrap my head around that right now.

 

[LarryFine]

Please splain how to find a breaker from a dead receptacle with this method. Can't wrap my head around that right now.

It can tell you whether you're missing a hot, a neutral, or both, which can help find the problem.

 

[hillbilly1]

Also, if you know what receptacles or lights are out, could pinpoint where the break is because it would be hot to that point.

 

[Little Bill]

It can tell you whether you're missing a hot, a neutral, or both, which can help find the problem.

What if there are more than one panel and aren't in the same area? OP is in a plant/factory and is trying to find where the dead circuit is fed from.

 

[LarryFine]

What if there are more than one panel and aren't in the same area? OP is in a plant/factory and is trying to find where the dead circuit is fed from.

I didn't mean to suggest it's the solution for everything.

 

[Little Bill]

I didn't mean to suggest it's the solution for everything.

I know that you weren't, and I use the ext. cord method myself. I just thought there was something I wasn't seeing.

 

[LarryFine]

I know that you weren't, and I use the ext. cord method myself. I just thought there was something I wasn't seeing.

It can help narrow down the cause of the problem to know which conductors are intact and not.

 

[Ponchik]

I use this all the time to trace. It gives me an approximate length of the circuit and I use it with the tone tracer probe to trace the circuit. If the circuit is accidentally energized (I think is 120V max) the unit will not get damaged.

 

[SSDriver]

I use an ideal sure trace. It's not perfect but it works better than any thing I've used in the past. Much much better than my fluke tonner