Today I was in the process of auditing a parkade's receptacles. This 4 level parkade is used exclusively for staff and the receptacles are used during winter months for a vehicle's block heater. While testing a receptacle with an Ideal brand receptacle tester I noticed that one of the indicator lights wasn't as brightly lit as the other. With the model of tester I was using it would show two green lights if the wiring was correct (and that there was power at the receptacle to begin with). At this particular receptacle it appeared that one light wasn't as bright as the other which was something I hadn't seen with the previous. Curious as to why the difference I decided to check the voltage with my Fluke multimeter. First I tested the hot to the neutral and it showed 124V. Next I checked the hot to the ground - bZZZZZ! There was a good flash and I instinctively pulled the leads out. Both meter leads were burnt with the metal tips partially missing. With new leads the meter continued to work fine. Didn't have time to investigate what happened at the receptacle but I decided to check the panel to see what breaker tripped. If the panel was labelled correctly then the breaker didn't trip. I turned the breaker off and marked the receptacle as "Do Not Use". On Monday I will have to investigate what happened but in the meantime I was wondering if anybody has experienced something similar.


A malfunction at the junction
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Dwayne