ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Testing Residential Circuits

Thanks guys. I'm wondering if the tester I was going to get does a load test for a voltage drop reading, or harmonics, or voltage under load, or something other than tripping the breaker.

Dave

PS What I'm after is performing some kind of testing of residential electrical systems other than the usual visual inspection. Any ideas?

Dave, (or anyone) out of curiosity, do you know what the production problems are with the Sure Test meters?

Roger

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 01-17-2005).]

Dave
I, like Bob, would not want to see that test performed at any length too far from the CB. SureTest is not the only manufacturer producing this type of equipment. There are others and if you cannot wait for the SureTest, you may want to opt for one of those.

Pierre

The word from the supplier is that they aren't getting a part that they need for it and are considering discontinuing it. I was looking at the Ideal Sure Test 61-158, I don't know if the problem was only with that one tester.

Now that I read the catalog it does say "Test voltage drop under actual ISA load". Greenlee doesn't have this kind of tester, but Fluke may.

Thanks.

Dave

Dave have you tried looking for the meters from distributors?

The tester do test the circuit under load, and even applies load between L-G. Although it will not test the trip point of the breaker, it will give you the L, N, & G impedances and you can determine the calculated fault current with a little math.

I agree with the crowd here you do not want to test breakers at the far ends unless you can test in the instantanious region. And that region should really be done with engineered manufactured equipment that has UL approval. Sorry about taking you down the home brew road, just the ham radio in me.

Dave,

The Ideal SureTest will load test, check impedence of each lead, etc. Nice unit. I would expect Ideal to get production back on track soon.

As far as performance testing a 15A or 20A single pole breaker on a 120V circuit--there's a commercially available unit that does exactly that. It's called the "circuit breaker analyzer-1000" by KO Instruments.

See their website at
http://www.koinstruments.com/

I've used one of these units to check old breakers. I offer it as an alternative to replacing an old panel.

The breaker analyzer pre-tests the branch circuit by checking voltage drop at 20 amps. If o.k., you then run the test; if during the test, there's evidence of weak points (what KO engineers call "voltge droop"), the unit aborts the test. The instrument is UL listed.

I wouldn't even think of using a home-brew set up to performance test a breaker--the liability issue looms large if the breaker doesn't work. What if you burn the circuit open with your home made tester, or worse, start a fire somewhere?

The CBA-1000 isn't cheap. But I charge a premium for each breaker I test with it.

And no, I don't have any connection to the company.

Cliff

How do you get a lot of heat out of a little box? There are many ways, but if we exclude the more exotic ones, like placing it in a wind tunnel, I can see only three options:

1.) A box with metal "fins" that lets the air cool the surface. A fan will make it even better but it still won't be very small. Perhaps one of those portable heating fans (or whatever you call them) could do? (The sort you use on construction sites and other places)

2.) Evaporative cooling. Use a water cooled resistor and let the water boil off. When the water level goes too low, some switch cuts power. (Could happen if you find a faulty breaker or test a breaker with a higher rating.) Could be rather small, but it will be steaming.

3.) Water heater: heat water from a tap and let it back into the drain. This way you get a small unit and you get the heat out of the house. The downside is that you get two long hoses...

{Edited for spelling}

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 01-18-2005).]

Dave,
Why not just get a tester like the one mentioned in this thread .
Sure it won't let you trip breakers, but it will give a decent figure of what the breakers should be tripping at, in Amperes.

Cliff are you aware that unit is only checking the instantaneous trip? (short circuit trip)

It looks like a great unit, I would like to have one but it does not test the breakers thermal trip. (overload trip)

I talked with the supplier again today and it seems Ideal is discontinuing that line of about 5 or 6 testers.

Dave