What do you guys find is the best ways to trace out a circuit in a finished ceiling? I'm tracing out a circuit that appears to have an open hot. I don't have a circuit tracer meter. Carpenters were renovating a bathroom and thats the vicinity where I think the problem is. I bet they covered a box or something. Any assistance on this matter is appreciated. Thanks.

A neon sign transformer with one lead on the secondary connected to the broken wire, and the other attached to a broomhandle, moved along the ceiling where the wire run is

just kidding...

I sometimes use a hammer.

Thanks guys, I don't really want to do that much damage though. Any other expertise?

If you can purchase a Harris TS 100 you can find the open in the wire. Make sure there is no power attached. If you know that your neutral and ground are good,measure those first (exp.50') then measure hot and neutral (exp 18') your open is 18' away. Now apply tone and follow the noise for 18'. Usually works but a little more accurate than an Estwing. TS 100 is roughly 300.00 but a nice tool. Also lets you know how much wire you have on a roll of romex or any other cable pair. Plus you look really really cool in front of your customer when you tell them the problem is 18 feet away.

I once had a landlord cover a whole panel in an office building with drywall and paint it up to match the other walls.
We were trying to I.D. a circuit and I intentionally tripped it with my handy "U" shaped piece of #12.
We looked through every room of that building twice and never found the panel.
I told the owner to call me when he found it and I never heard from him again.

A tone thrower and tracer works too, but takes some time to get used to differentiating the sound through walls and actually discerning breakes & joints. Kind of like learning to listen to a SONAR echo.

It's what I used to find 4 hidden wall sconce boxes in my house.

... Tone thrower is great,.. used one today,and found the problem wire,.. the whole kit only cost $90.00,...well worth it..
Russ

Toners work wonders in Romex.

They should be in everyone's tool kit.

Lamplighter wrote:


Take a look here:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000239.html

You might want to rethink that practice. A lot of buildings today have a lot of short-circuit current available even at a common recept. You may find yourself on the wrong end of a very bad arc fault.

The buildings I work in (cinemas) are a prime example. Most of them have series-rated systems to try to limit fault current let-through.

And let's not forget the possibilty of encountering the famous FPE "no-trip" breaker!!

Work safe everybody!!

"We were trying to I.D. a circuit and I intentionally tripped it with my handy "U" shaped piece of #12."

___________________________________________

mxslick,
The only time i remember a guy being fired on the spot, was for that tripping stunt.

LK:

And a big thumbs up for the boss who fired that Darwin candidate!

This whole intentional fault thing really gets me wound up, along with the fools who keep resetting a breaker without knowing why it tripped. (Of course, in my biz those fools also generate a lot of repair income for me, so it's conflicting emotions time. )

I don't care what anyone says; if you keep resetting a tripping breaker, it will eventually stay on.

I can't guarantee that the circuit will work, however.

Seriously speaking (hey, it could happen!), do you really need to find the break, or just identify whcih two boxes the break is between?

ROFL!!

http://edev.colorassociates.com/greenlee/details.cfm?id=3198&upc=00520
this tracer costs 600 bucks but if you take care of it, it should pay for itself

Actually, Rich, the device is the 2011; the 0520 is the carrying case.

... This brings to mind a VERY costly oversight undertaken by yours truly, at a house we were working in... I, too, shunted the circuit,being too lazy to go to truck and fetch the tracer,..and after the arcs and sparks Macy's firework show was over,the wire nut I'd used to short the 2 wires together actually caught fire, (Federal Pacific load center)... I'd blown (4) Lutron Diva dimmers,and the power supply of the H.O.'s computer that were upstream of the intended shunted circuit. I now ask the H.O to power down any and all pc's in the house if there is a chance that there will be a circuit shut-down..and I now ALWAYS use my Ideal circuit identifier or manually shut down each breaker/fuse if it's not listed on the panel directory..
Russ

**The above image is a reasonable facsimile only,and not the actual wire-nut;...

**No wire-nuts were injured/abused during the posting of this illustration**




[This message has been edited by Attic Rat (edited 10-25-2005).]