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Any break is likely to be aboveground rather than buried. Otherwise, even if there were an instrument that pinpointed the location of a discontinuity, I'd want to replace the entire line anyway. Electricians charge a decent buck -- and there's a good reason for that.KT, you were looking for dowsing (using a divining rod).
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True about the likelihood of the break being above ground, however below ground breaks do happen. My brother just replaced a line in underground conduit that had a break in it. It looks like the conductor was nicked during installation and finally just opened up. Weird.
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KT, you were looking for dowsing (using a divining rod).
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A man with a working mind!
bemike61, if your wires are run in conduit it might be less cost to replace them than to hire anyone to locate the break if it proves to be a broken wire. You will need to use one of the good wires to pull with.
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Any break is likely to be aboveground rather than buried. Otherwise, even if there were an instrument that pinpointed the location of a discontinuity, I'd want to replace the entire line anyway. Electricians charge a decent buck -- and there's a good reason for that.KT, you were looking for dowsing (using a divining rod).
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It's been my experience, (including two of my own broken underground lines) that most breaks are way out in the middle of the run. Either water that got in and arc'd it into an open circuit, or more often a tree growing near the line grew enough to disturb the cable.
Finding the broken spot is pretty easy with the right test equipment or a really good ohm meter.
Best of luck.
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I never tried this but a friend told me once how to find where a wire is broken underground. Tune an AM battery radio to the low end of the dial below 550 so that it is all static. Move it along the route of the wire just above the ground, the static either gets worse or stops, I don't remember which when you reach the break in the wire. I'm not promising this will work, but this guy is an electrician.
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Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like an incredibly dangerous way to do it, even for someone who can read between the typos and knows a bit about electricity. A MUCH safer way to do it would be to wire a 220 volt plug to 2 pigtail light sockets with bulbs and just plug it in. If you don't have, and don't want to buy, 2 pigtail sockets, use a split duplex receptacle instead and just plug a trouble lamp or something into one then the other socket.If both the bulb that doesn't come on is hooked to the bad circuit. No risk, no guessing, no burning anything down, no meter required.
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The method i spoke of is actually the safest way to do it. The only safer way is to pull the house meter and turn off all power to the house.Rigging up some homemade contraption to test 240V with 120V light bulbs sounds like someone is going to get a shock or get broken glass flying everywhere.
The method I described is much safer than pulling breakers out of a live panel. and swapping them out. Many panels have bolt in breakers and need an insultaed screw driver to install them safely. This is because they bolt in to the live bus bars of the panel. Touch the shaft of the driver and you get the whole power coming to the house.
I'va also seen breakers shatter as they are being removed causing the screw driver to short from the bus bars to the back of the panel. Again with the full power to the house going to the screw driver and arcing to ground.
My suggetsion to KT is to replace the breakers. Some have been found to be faulty. One brand in particular lost there ULC rating because a 15 amp breaker did not trip until well over the 15 amp allowable limit. Needles to say the risk of fire in this case is outrageous. KT should talk to his friendly neighborhood electrician about this. Either that or PM me and i will emlighten him as to what i know about the subject.
If a meter gets pulled the local utility comoany would want to know why the seal is broken. If they don't have a record of a call to tell them why they might get upset. Some are very territorial about things like that.
As for meters they are a cheap investment. A decent one is only a few bucks a the local hardware store. Granted my meter I paid a good dollar for but I need mine do do a lot more than just read 120 and 240V.
The best way to find a break is to think back about what was done in the area. Was any landscaping done? Or renovations to the house? Was the driveway plowed by somebody else and the conduit hit? this the type of stuff that causes a wire to break. VERY rarely does a wire break underground. The only time i have heard of naything like this was when conduit was not installed correctly and the ground heaved due to frost. The conduit that was not glued basically cut the cable.
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albertadan: "My suggetsion to KT is to replace the breakers. Some have been found to be faulty. One brand in particular lost there ULC rating because a 15 amp breaker did not trip until well over the 15 amp allowable limit. Needles to say the risk of fire in this case is outrageous. KT should talk to his friendly neighborhood electrician about this. Either that or PM me and i will emlighten him as to what i know about the subject."
I do not understand your comment here for me. I did not say or don't think so I have such breakers. Rather have seen them. Matter of fact I was the electrician who replaced those bad breakers. A couple of other points the state of SC has for about 40 years not allowed the use of 14 gauge wire for circuits nor 15 amp breakers just for info which I really appreciate.
bemike61: your breaker box may have main breakers which cut off the full panel or there may be a disconnect between the meter and the box. If you have either cutting or pulling those which ever you have would be much safer than working in a live box. Note, some parts of a box may still be live with main breakers cut off depending on the design of it.
A thought came to my mind sitting here typing this as it is really pouring rain. Depending on the total situation if your wire is cut and type of conduit and if sealed or not, you could have a live current leak. It might not be enough to trip a breaker but to shock you still. It would seem if you have a major current leak in the conduit with a open bare ground it would trip the breaker.
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Just remember when you are doing this in the house the panel is live so no mistakes are allowed. Electric shock is potentially fatal.
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"The method i spoke of is actually the safest way to do it."
Sorry, working on a live panel certainly doesn't sound very safe to me.
As for the "Rigging up some homemade contraption to test 240V with 120V light bulbs sounds like someone is going to get a shock or get broken glass flying everywhere." I thought you were an electrician?
A 220 line will give you 110 on each leg to the neutral, as such, hooking 2 pigtail sockets, each one to the neutral and one to each hot leg and sticking a plug in a socket doesn't sound nearly as dangerous as sticking a screwdriver into a live panel.
BTW, "The only safer way is to pull the house meter and turn off all power to the house." seems like a lot more work than merely flipping the main service breaker off.
Best of luck.
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Before any of the preceding is considered, think about this. Has ANY construction, post driving, drainage work, driveway grading, trenching etc been done anywhere near the area. If not I would concentrate on looking at breakers, contacts and splices near load and service equipment. If it has I would take a close look at the work site where the construction etc was done, chances are thats where the fault is.
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to all who gave me some good insight, the wire was in conduit underground. had electrician check it out , found a short that was causing voltage drop. was able to dig by front of building and get lucky and find problem. going to replace wire. thanks
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Did the electrician give you any clue of what caused the short?
Best of luck.
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