Is there a tester or meter for this?

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qcroanoke

qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
Went to my daughters house the other day to hang a new light in the basement
and found an open splice above the drywall. Fortunately I was able to work it into the fixture so that one is gone now.
But now I'm wondering if there are anymore hidden behind the drywall. (Basement is completly closed up) I was kind of suspicious when we looked the house over but could only open a few receptacles and
switches and all looked good.
Is there a tester or meter that can find this stuff? Everything is working so I have nothing
to go on. I have no problem cutting the drywall to fix it I just want to know where it is if anymore open splices exist.
Thanks for your help!
 
There are meters that can locate wires behind sheetrock but it will not locate open splices. I don't see how that would be possible.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
a tdr?????
Click to expand...

TDR.
HoltBlueDot.jpg
 
qcroanoke said:
Went to my daughters house the other day to hang a new light in the basement
and found an open splice above the drywall. Fortunately I was able to work it into the fixture so that one is gone now.
But now I'm wondering if there are anymore hidden behind the drywall. (Basement is completly closed up) I was kind of suspicious when we looked the house over but could only open a few receptacles and
switches and all looked good.
Is there a tester or meter that can find this stuff? Everything is working so I have nothing
to go on. I have no problem cutting the drywall to fix it I just want to know where it is if anymore open splices exist.
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

A tic tracer is pretty good at finding buried splices.
 
If you do any Low voltage a TDR will eventually pay for its self.

It has saved me from unnecessarily climbing ladders and into crawl spaces. It will allow you to find the length to the open, eliminating the need to check a certain area.
 
I think just having a lot of experience with old work, can help anyone locating hack work, you just begin to think of all the crazy stuff they will do, and have a better idea of where to look. We do a lot of service work, and finished basements are almost always full of hack work, the homeowner some how finds the handy dandy that is an expert at everything, and he really knows how to destroy the wiring, plumbing and everything you can hide with sheetrock, and they always recommend covering the basement with rock, a big mistake, because you can't access it after the hack is 3 states away and his phone is disconneted.
 
A TDR will also point out closed splices (meaning twisted, tight, and for all practical purposes except they are not to code in a box with a cover- good) that are buried behind sheetrock. Its a bit harder to recognize one but practice enough and use a quality TDR and you can determine how many splices are in most complete circuits. Then you subtract known joints from total joints to get answer if there are hidden ones. I believe the OP meant "flying" when he said open splice. Meaning he could see one that has no box covering it.
 
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I believe the OP meant "flying" when he said open splice. Meaning he could see one that has no box covering it.



Yeah, flying splice. Everything is working but I'm looking for a way to determine if there are anymore short of ripping off the drywall.
 
Here's what you'd see on a Graphical TDR in a perfect world! I've toy'd with one using my garage for the testing. Even made up a three prong plug with all connections shorted together to move around from receptacle to receptacle. Way too confusing and I finally gave up!:mad:


TDR_Trace.png
 
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