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Update: Spent a whole day tracing a ground fault in a 1970s house
The panel was in a finished basement, and the fault was on a run buried behind drywall that went to a detached garage. It took me 7 hours with a toner and a lot of patience to finally isolate the bad section. Ever have a job where the diagnostic time just completely blows the estimate?
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blake6913mo ago
Man, that sounds like a total nightmare. I mean, those old buried runs are the worst. Had a similar thing last year where I ended up pulling a new wire through the attic because finding the exact spot in the wall was impossible. It just eats up the whole day and you feel like you got nowhere. Sometimes the toner is your best friend and sometimes it just laughs at you.
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oliviagrant3mo ago
Yeah, been there. On those old buried lines, I've had way better luck splitting the circuit first if you can. Find the middle point, usually a junction box, and disconnect there. Tone from both sides to see which leg is shorted. Cuts the search area in half right away. Still a pain, but it stops you from chasing the whole run.
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My buddy Dave tried that split trick on an old underground line at his place last summer. He found the junction box in his backyard, disconnected it, and started toning from both ends. Turned out the short was actually right inside the junction box itself, some corroded connection that was hidden under old tape. He spent like two hours digging around and it was literally right there the whole time. He said he about threw the toner across the yard when he figured it out. Still, he swears splitting the circuit saved him from digging up his whole lawn for nothing.
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