# breaker identification



## Bkessler (Oct 8, 2005)

What are some of the way's you like to identify a circiut? Its been a while since I used a toner and never had much luck with one. In office building and homes how can you identify one circuit and its breaker without guessing and trial and error? thanks bk


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

I have something similar to http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=12334-1781-GET-1200&lpage=none 
It works but is a little touchy. Once I figured out how to adjust the sensitivity, it worked well. I wish the receptacle end had an option to have aligator clips for testing timer boxes and such, but that would be a bit more dangerous.


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

If you figure out a foolproof way, let me know. :jester: The "breaker finders" work half decent, but in an office environment, you still risk being the most hated guy for the day. 

I've observed that some electricians have a homemade breaker tripper that consists of a #10 cord, 15 amp plug cap, and a 30 amp rated switch to hard short the circuit after the plug is installed in the receptacle. I don't have the nerve to use one of these, because you also stand a pretty good chance of blowing apart a marginal connection before the breaker trips. Then, you have that bad connection someplace to fix too. Plus, if the receptacle you picked to plug your shorting device into has worn contact wipers, you can have a little fire fly out of the receptacle when you flip the shorting switch, which customers tend not to enjoy.


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## Bkessler (Oct 8, 2005)

No, I was never a big fan of intentionally tripping breakers. But I bet someone who reads this will be putting one together on monday morning and be excited to identify something!


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## light (Dec 18, 2006)

hi all, its my first post.been here for a little while and enjoy the reading very much . what i sometimes do to i.d. a circuitis put one of those washer type socket flashers into a pigtail that i modify with a male cap.screw in a 100 watt lamp and use an old analog amprobe to see which circuit is giving my needle a 1 second pulse.hope that helps. andy


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## Bkessler (Oct 8, 2005)

Hey that's great. I am gonna try that one for sure.


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

light said:


> hi all, its my first post.been here for a little while and enjoy the reading very much . what i sometimes do to i.d. a circuitis put one of those washer type socket flashers into a pigtail that i modify with a male cap.screw in a 100 watt lamp and use an old analog amprobe to see which circuit is giving my needle a 1 second pulse.hope that helps. andy


You're a genius. My hat's off to you. :thumbsup:


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## dkillianjr (Aug 28, 2006)

Wow that is a great idea! I'm deffinetly gonna try that. There was acctually just a house fire in my area that was caused by an electrician that was trying to find a breaker and he intentionally tripped it. I'm guessing it was a bad connection somewhere or something. 


Dave


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## RobertWilber (Mar 5, 2006)

I have been using a PF-610 for twenty years.
With a little imagination, it is an incomparable tool and can be used to find buried junction boxes, trace circuits underground ....
I have used it to locate buried ground faults


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## Bkessler (Oct 8, 2005)

*Mr Wilber*

what is a pf-610. I dont speak in achronyms or model numbers. OR am I just stupid for not knowing!bk


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## dw electric (Dec 29, 2006)

*Pathfinder PF610 Circuit Tracer Kit would be my guess
*


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Bkessler said:


> what is a pf-610. I dont speak in achronyms or model numbers. OR am I just stupid for not knowing!bk


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## Bkessler (Oct 8, 2005)

So it's yellow and intresting looking what's it do? signed stupid!


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

An old supply house poster:


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Bkessler said:


> So it's yellow and intresting looking what's it do? signed stupid!


Same idea as the fox and hound tool for phone, but for live lines. It's a couple hundred bucks, so pretty cheap as far as live line tracers go. I think it's made in France or maybe Germany, if I'm not mistaken. Havn't seen one in person in quite some time. Saw one at a yard sale over the summer for 5 bucks. Should have picked it up, maybe. Perhaps Robert will let us know who makes it.


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## dw electric (Dec 29, 2006)

I was going to say it is used to trace circuits but MD's reply is much brighter


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## RobertWilber (Mar 5, 2006)

An outfit called PCI made them when I got mine.
It is possible to find suppliers by using Google and searching pf610.
They are about $500-600 now
Mine are beige [I used to keep one in a van and one in a bucket truck I used to have].
Yellow is nice too.
At the time, they were the ONLY game in town.
I can't speak for any of the other manufacturers' units, but I WILL speak for this unit.
To the best of my knowledge, it generates a square wave on the circuit which can be followed with the sensor.
The nice thing about it is that it is dumber than a brick, so I can use it any way I like.
I have often run a single hot wire outside from the panel and used it to feed a "dead" circuit back down the neutral through the tester to determine circuit path. Works a treat to find partially dead circuits, because you can trace the wiring through the walls, floor and ceiling when you just have the one conductor [even in conduit] generating a signal [no cancellation from parallel conductors] and it works from 9 volts to 600 volts, ac or dc.
It is useless if the circuit conductors are ALL completely open, but it is a good place to start.
With all the old knob and tube around here, it is priceless.
I once used it to find a fuse panel in an attic closet that the homeowner didn't know was there. It took 20 minutes. The guy didn't argue with the service call fee.
Then there was the remodeled restaurant with an open in a HUGE junction box buried in the wall behind a refrigerator. I went double or nothing on the bill.
The crushed conduit in a parking lot .. and on and on.
This tool has made me look good a LOT of times.
... and just for the sake of argument, I think light's idea is brilliant.


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## faber307 (Jan 7, 2007)

*Circuit Tracer*

I use the Greenlee 2011 circuit seeker.:thumbup: 
I paid a little over $500.00ea. for the two that I own. 

On the high setting you can identify the correct panel or bucket through the door! Once the source is located, trigger it to low and swiped all breakers over and over. The sensitivity continually drops until only one breaker is picking up the signal, Voila.

The only time it tricks me is when I don't have one lead with a good ground, then you'll read multiple breakers. But once you get used to using the thing, you know what adjustments to make.

It comes with a demonstration VHS tape that is valuable to watch if you're not familiar with the unit.

Nice because it goes through metal.


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## mdcorreia (May 21, 2006)

I never paid $500 for such a device. I think an urgent need, many times, becomes the mother of a quick invention. Once I needed to ID a receptacle in a circuit quickly but had to keep the power on. My brain went into some kind of mode that I resolved it quickly. What I did was: Plug in a long extension cord to reach the panel, plugged my variable speed drill into the extension and kept playing with the trigger while watching and moving my amprobe to different wires at the panel!


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## faber307 (Jan 7, 2007)

mdcorreia said:


> I never paid $500 for such a device. I think an urgent need, many times, becomes the mother of a quick invention. Once I needed to ID a receptacle in a circuit quickly but had to keep the power on. My brain went into some kind of mode that I resolved it quickly. What I did was: Plug in a long extension cord to reach the panel, plugged my variable speed drill into the extension and kept playing with the trigger while watching and moving my amprobe to different wires at the panel!


Try that in a 80,000 sq. ft grocery store that has been re-habbed a half dozen times.


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## mahlere (Aug 6, 2006)

these things work better than any $1000 circuit tracer we've ever owned










under $100, and probably 99% accurate for finding the right circuit.

We've used them in everything from single family residences to 200,000 sq foot warehouses. Use them in 100,000 sq ft grocery stores all the time.


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## rhinoguy (Feb 8, 2007)

hi all, its my first post.been here for a little while and enjoy the reading very much . what i sometimes do to i.d. a circuitis put one of those washer type socket flashers into a pigtail that i modify with a male cap.screw in a 100 watt lamp and use an old analog amprobe to see which circuit is giving my needle a 1 second pulse.hope that helps. andy

I have done the same thing with a flasher for Christmas lights that plugs into the wall, then the lights into it. I use my halogen work light, 250 watts, a bigger signal. The flasher is available at real hardware stores, like Ace and True Value.


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## hcecalaska (Apr 1, 2007)

i have both the greenlee and the new ideal circuit testers. both are very good tools, but like most good tools they arnt cheap


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## frenchelectrica (Sep 26, 2003)

one other trick i do used from time to time i have slow speed air compressor it do really pulse on the line so i used the anlog ampmeter and i can read the pulse other wise if noise is the issuse then i used the electric heater [ portable type ] and add a cycling timer the hevey duty verison i made it .

it pulse on / off every 3 sec so i can trace it pretty fast but for open circuits i used the inductor tone to ring it out to see where it goes it work allright with me 


merci , Marc


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