Old homes are “tricky “ what you end up opening sometimes is a Hidden Gfci that powers half the House and no breakers opened in the panel🤣now you to have a House with no power and a Random Gfci to Look for
I've only being doing diy electrical work since buying my first home a couple years ago, I literally did this exact same thing when wiring in new smart switches. I only did it once and bought this exact tool that evening, worth every penny for that extra bit of safety. 👍
Whenever I've had to mess with I always took the nuclear approach and just turned off the main power to the whole house as I have no intention of getting shocked
Watch out for neutrals on mult-iwire branch circuits that aren’t on proper two pole breakers. Dish/disposal is common one but in some older houses they were used throughout. It’s two hots sharing a neutral and if in single pole breakers you can shut one off and it will not show as hot but it will be carrying voltage on the neutral because of the other closed breaker.
Mom asked me to test dryer heating element; switched off the breaker but tested with multimeter (before non-contact testers were invented). I got an arc, found wires were crossed so one leg of the 50A stove breaker was connected to the dryer outlet, and one leg of the 30A dryer outlet was feeding the stove. Similar situation many years later in a US Army hospital in Germany in the feeder for an X-ray machine. The arc blew a 100A fuse at 380V.
Your tips certainly help with time. Time duration stated for every project is never accurate for me i.e. 45 min = 5 hours I always have something not quite like the example. Never fails, and this begins my learning cliff. I either spend time finding an irregular situation or make the mistake that creates the time consuming rework... so, your channel helps trim that off! Thanks!
You convinced me to get this, and I spent yesterday labeling a panel. It went from a couple labels (from trial and error during the current remodel) to all but a couple breakers that I couldn't find where they went too
One big trip/help is to label the outside of junction box covers; you can also label the inside of the covers or simply the non-visible portion of the outlets switches, as these then get covered with a cover. Covers also cover more than just the box, especially with todays larger covers and a simple label or fine tip marker putting circuit numbers on the wall under the covered area can be good. As an institutional electrician you get to expand this out to facilities with quite literally dozens if not a hundred plus panels, then add three phase and this gets quite fun. I’d also suggest running the breaker test again after you shut the first breaker off as you can actually get dual feeds, especially in DIY work or after a new service, especially if you’ve ever had knob and tube in the house.
I have this circuit breaker detector and it works great. I went through the house, identified the individual breakers and the circuits (e.g. receptacle west wall dining room, upstairs hall lights, etc.), put them on an Excel spreadsheet and taped them to the box. I also noted if there is a GFCI and its location on the circuit. I labelled the receptacles on the cover so I can easily see what breaker it's on.
this is the best tool I've purchased in years. I wanted to separate two bedrooms. Plugged on end in the bedroom socket, used the other to find the wire in the attic out of a sea of wires. Fantastic.
Oh my goodness! This is just what I need. I go out to the breaker box and keep running in and out of the house to see if it's the right breaker to turn off. 70 yrs old and live alone.. Have to fix things myself. I'm getting pretty good at it. I haven't been shocked yet. Thank goodness. But this is a great tool. Gotta' get one of these.
I had this exact same thing happen to me just a few weeks ago. I was changing out the old three way switches for smart switches for the foyer. One switch was by the front door and the other was at the top of our staircase by the bedroom door. This one had two switches sharing the same box . I shutoff the circuit breaker for the light I was working on verifying it when the light went off. I went back up the stairs to the satellite switch and as I was taking off the switch cover I looked at the other switch realizing that this switch controlled the lights in the upstairs hallway. I wondered if it was on another circuit and decided to flip the switch to see if the hallway lights came on. Sure enough they did. I am so glad I decided to do that. I'm certain it saved me from being shocked. Another reason for purchasing this tool after watching one of your other video's. Amazon delivered it today. Thank you very much for another informative video.
Thanks for the video. Certainly have to rethink on how to handle those switches on the same plate that handle lights in different areas. That might require 2 or 3 breakers to be flipped to ensure no cross circuits. Nice ideas for the breaker box labeling. Will definitely check those out.
Moved into a house last year, with two main panels. The labels in the boxes were nothing more than "AC, AC, Heat, REC, LIGHTS". zero description of where, what or anything. I used this tool to remap every single circuit, outlet, light in the whole house and made a very detailed panel label printout for each box. This tool is awesome
very helpful video, thanks! I made a google sheet with the breaker assignments and printed a copy taped inside the box, and also made a QR code to the sheet. That way, I can scan the code and go right to the sheet on my phone
That is a great tool. I have an Ideal SureTrace 957 that does the same thing, plus a few others and has come in handy many times. Even after I believe I have identified the correct breaker and used a non-contact device to see if the AC seems turned off, I then use my trusty DMM to triple check and confirm the circuit is off.
Sure trace is better! The Klein 310 even displayed red light when I ran it past the main breaker. I don't this is worth the money now that I bought it. And yes I followed the instructions and calibrated it.
This is the best video I have watched, so far, of the circuit breaker finder. I am glad I subscribed to you 6 months ago. I have been looking at a lot of your videos. Man you are good. Very detailed and an expert at your craft.
I have used the radio method in the past but in noisy environments, I will plug an extension cord into the outlet that needs attention and carry the female end to the breaker panel. I use a noncontact tester on the extension cord to find the breaker in question.
I have an older house. We had two outlets in the kitchen, and one in the living room on one breaker. Then the fridge and another outlet together. Got fridge on its own now.
At first I thought you had a really small hand, before I realized it was just a pointer. I just got one of these circuit finders last week its great. I also got a baldr power meter which is great for checking the load from any appliance or device.
I use a shop vac for non-visual confirmation. Pretty loud and it will turn back on with the breaker to confirm 2x. Not all radios will come back on. IMPORTANT: ALWAYS check prior to any work with a tester and if you can’t see the panel from the work area lock the breaker out either with a proper lockout device or at least some tape
I use a spreadsheet that I print and laminate to keep near breakers. For numbering devices I always start in NE corner of every room and go clockwise, R1 R2 R3 for outlets and S1 S2 S3 for switches. I don’t actually label the switch plates I just count clockwise when I need to turn off something and then refer to my spreadsheet.
I do pretty much the same thing. 20 years ago, I started doing the maintenance on a 4 story rather spread-out building that has 8 circuit breaker boxes with over 100 breakers, and almost none of them were labeled. I spent close to a week running around trying to figure them all out. I tool like this would have been helpful, for the outlets I used a radio turned up loud and started flipping breakers until it went quiet.
Call me parnoid, but after testing with a wireless tester, after I pull the outlet out I test again with a DMM to again verify no voltage. I also test the wireless against a known live circuit before hand.
In the UK, our lights upstairs and downstairs are generally on different circuit breakers. Hallway and landing twin switches generally have both circuits going into the same box similar to in your video. When working in a light switch box, I generally switch off all the lighting circuit breakers partly because I don’t want what happened to you to happen to me but also because I don’t want to keep going backwards and forwards to the panel trying to identify which circuit breaker powers the switch I’m working on… Work smarter not harder.
Very good information. I continue to face a big mess with house wiring and outlets. In the case of one outlet, there is no circuit breaker that controls it! Dangerous and exasperating! Maybe it somehow connects to the large outdoor main panel? Also, in this old house we have Knob&Tube wiring, with some new additional romex wiring and outlets. I last paid my electrician thousands to do what he could, but his solution to our lack of ground wires is not very satisfying. He installed occasional GFCI's, but never mapped outlet by outlet to find just which outlets are downstream from each GFCI. Because the house is quite full of "stuff", one or two of these GFCI's is not so accessible. I spent the last 2 years unable to turn on overhead lights in a large office room, figuring that a GFCI somewhere had tripped. Years later I was repairing a wobbly receptacle in the kitchen and had to move hundreds of pounds of cabinetry and its contents, and found another GFCI. Seeing that it had tripped (which did not affect anything in the kitchen!), I finally noticed that the lights in the office room worked again! Most unexpected. I have had many discussions about doing a whole house upgrade to eliminate the K&T wiring, but the disruption and cost of doing so would probably equal the entire value of the house. I am not kidding. There is no drywall, only wood and plaster walls. Ripping those open and then repairing all the walls in the entire large 11-room old house would be an impossible nightmare, certainly impossible to afford. Plus, almost no contractor can satisfactorily do this kind of work. Yes, they will demolish your walls and put in new wiring, but will they fix the walls after that? I don't know any contractors doing plaster-on-lath work, and also none that can match 100+ year old wood beadboard walls. I try to learn as much as I can about making electrical fixes and changes, but sometimes we are kinda stuck with problems that cannot be solved.
Only to find something like this.. - proceeds to show pics of DBs that are a household average in South Africa .. I'd be happy to see any of what I saw in that series of pics
I have the ET300, a lessor capable Klein circuit tracer. One thing I find however is it doesn't seem to work properly through GFCI receptacles. Works fine for all other circuits.
lol when you were describing your throught process on decyphering the breaker box's label, first time I laughed in weeks because I can relate exactly lol. Subscribed!
Doing some minor DIY work, turned off a breaker, light went off. Got a bad shock! History: This was an old (1912) house, original fuse box had one fuse for each side of each circuit. We had a licensed electrician replace fuse box with a breaker box. He ran a 50 A disconnect and feeder from main service, and rearranged a new 3-phase breaker panel so there was one breaker for each neutral, and one for each hot. Breakers were not ganged! I had turned off a neutral, leaving the circuit live!
@@LRN2DIY yes, that same house had a really strange 3-way switch setup. One wire from the fixture went to the center of the first switch that would switch it to line or neutral. Other wire from fixture went to the second switch that would switch it to line or neutral *on a different circuit* ! So socket could be live when off, and you had to turn off TWO circuits to be safe to work on it!
I ran into this but caught it with the non-contact tester before moving anything. I think the code changed around 2006 to require ganging of the breakers if more than one breaker went to a box. In my case, half the panel would have had to be ganged just due to poor layout (which I didn't fix). If there were plans, no licensed electrician reviewed them. Everything in that place was apprentice level or lower.
That doesn't really mean anything because I'm an apprentice and my work always looks better than the journeyman I'm working with. 9 year apprentice cause I make a dollar or 2 less than a journeyman and have none of the responsibility. Cant be stuck running a crew or be responsible for other peoples mistakes. Lol
@@charlesstidham2788 I hear you. Really it comes down to the person. If you care about your work, and it sounds like you do, Charles, that's the most important thing. My apologies to apprentices everywhere.
Every house Ive moved into, the panel was marked garbage, or not at all. Everyhouse I have left, is all labeled correctly, but the old school way. Turning the circuit off and some yelling, is it off yet?
What you're describing about the circuit breaker is exactly what mine looks like. We bought our home brand new but some of the labels look like they're written in another language! Recently changed our doorbell to a camera doorbell and we had to try each lever before we knew which switch was right. Thank you so much for the tips you offered! I'm a single mom (after 17 years of marriage) & learning how to do a lot on my own. I very much enjoy it but it can be really intimidating! Trying my hand at replacing our kitchen faucet next! Both excited & super nervous! 😬 😀
I never got shocked except once when I was plugging a cell charger when I was a kid and touched the prongs. I was isolated from ground by a rubber mat, so it wasn't that bad. How to not get shocked in the terrible old wirings. Just shut down the master switch and put a lock on it.
In the 70's that tool did not exist. I worked for a contactor who built one. It was a big piece of machinery. Every time we used it all the other tradesman would flock to it in amazement. You would have to open the panel and put a current meter around each wire until the meter dial stated to pulsate. He always wanted to market it. I always wondered if he did. Every time I see one I think of him.
you should always check all the electrical devices in the same box. just because the switch or outlet you want to work on is dead does not mean that one of the others are either. sometimes you could have multiple devices in the same box wired to separate breakers/fuses. older houses are a notorious for having faulty and mis wired stuff by todays standard. back in the day the electrical codes did not exist for certain things and so it is common to have wiring problems.
I’ve learned to take NOTHING for granted! And when I don’t have someone available to be my “eyes” when I’m flipping Breakers off/on, I use one of my spare Wyze cams. 👍🏼
that two circuits ran through one double light switch blew my mind.... scary. There is also my favorite for when in doubt flip the main or flip them all. It is better to go overkill in making sure everything has no power.
My father was an electrician/electrical engineer. He used to tell me. “Don’t stand behind me!” Of course I knew more than he did. . . . . Until I got a screwdriver bounced off my forehead when he got bit and threw it. Ouch!
I discovered the hard way that electricity flows in neutral wires too! I was on a ladder, outside, and i cut through a bundle of neutral wires. I'm not an electrician, but as a qualified aircraft maintenance technician I should know better!
I have used the plug in part plugged into the outlet and then set up my iPhone camera and then face it tords the lights on the plugging and open the camera feature on my Apple Watch and watch the flip the breaker I think it is till I find it till the lights go out on plug looking on my Apple Watch. Works great when by my self
400 deaths from high voltage in the US every year ? Where did that statistic come from and I’d bet very few of those happen from a DIY homeowner. And I’d say the 30,000 electrocutions barely scratches the surface and that the majority are unreported….heck I got zapped a good 20 times last week alone. In 25 years working in the industry I’ve never ever heard of an electrical death in a residential setting.
very good video thanks for the tip I've been shocked once never underestimate electricity I'm not a contractor just a DIY but I buy the best equipment that I can your life may depend on it.
I bought a house that's over 50 years old and the breaker box have NO labeling...none. Also the house was a fixer-upper so this tool was absolutely necessary.
Yeah, but you had 2 circuits in one box (!!!) and I certainly would assume that the one light fixture I tested with the circuit breaker tester (which I do own and love) that I had covered it. Thinking to probe all switches in a box has not been on my mind, it will be now!
It's not exactly click bait. The tester can help identify the circuit breaker in question when you don't know which one it is. It cannot save you from being ignorant about testing EVERYTHING in the box you're working on before you work on it.
Thank you! Just liked and subscribed! I have been wanting to smart upgrade the 3 way switches that control my hallway lights on the parlor and top floors of my townhouse but I can't find the breaker at all! Should be on my 1st floor panel or possibly on the main basement panel that feeds each floor but I've traced out most breakers and still can't find it with the run and check if the light turned off method. Gonna buy that tool with your affiliate link right now!
Great video just confused about the alligator clips. I've seen other videos where black clips were connected to black wire and red connected to white. Your video you did the opposite.
Thanks Sir. Excellent Video. I made a Map of the House, for each Floor and made a Spreadsheet with Amperage per Breaker. Found the Dryer 220 Volt wire had other 110 Volt run off it. Bad Bad Bad. ReWired that.
Remember! In an old house, the logic for how power is run may not be as logical as you believe. I live in a 90 year old house that has power run to the first floor hallway that also happens to run to one or two outlets on the second floor. In other words, back in the day, it was not uncommon for an electrician to grab the closet (or easiest) power he could find to wire up a receptacle.
So, the non-contact voltage testing tool that you used is defective. I always use my Fluke Meter and touch the leads to the contacts or wiring. The Fluke Meter is a reliable tool.
First thing I was taught when I went into the trade was always treat all wire as live even when you shut it down and never assume anything with electricity it can get you killed.
If you want to print something but don't want the paper to disintegrate then here's a simple way to make indestructible printing paper. Get hold of some Tyvek Building Cladding paper (construction sites will have it as a waste) and trim a flat piece to 8.5" x 11". Now feed this into a LASER PRINTER (ink jet won't work) and print your document. You can put this 'paper' outside for years and it lasts.
So you know. You can also use the Klein Digital Circuit Breaker Finder to find (Identify) other receptacles on the same circuit using the same testing procedure as used at the circuit breaker panel, but by scanning other outlets etc. It just speeds things up a little rather than testing every plug against the circuit panel. That said, you still need to verity that any circuit is open prior to working on it. :)
What am I missing? When I plug the transmitter into a receptacle and then use the tester on another receptacle in the same branch, I get nothing. Even if I pull the cover off and touch the hot wire. But it works at the wire in the panel. Actually, makes no electrical sense. I'd like to be able to plug into one receptacle and just touch other receptacles and switches to see what's on the same branch. I'm using the ET-310. But I just tried it again and it worked but on other receptacles it doesn't. I wonder if a small extension cord could give me closer access for the receiver to touch.
Funny is cause I decided to do this on a whim and found out that it works by detecting the hot wire on all the connected series of outlets.... It makes it easier to remove the covers and scan the hot wire sides. I did however find that the tester loses tracing capability so I turn off and on and go scan a known outlet and then try again. Found my issue with open ground. Did all this in 10 mins. If I had to trace by continuity, it would have taken forever.
My wife and I started at 1130 pm trying to label our panel box. Wow they put 3 or 4 rooms on a 15 amp breaker.master bed room,a master bath,a closet,and a 2nd bed room
be careful, some homes have "switched receptacles" and they'll be on a different circuit in the same box as lighting switches. if you're going to do this, remember that around 0.2 amps can stop your heart. let's say you have an incandescent lightbulb at 60watts, or a string of LED's equivalent. 120volts / 60watts = 2.0 amps .....you kids stay safe out there.
there's also the electroboom way: just short the plug and the correct breaker will open.
...will open, hopefully.
Old homes are “tricky “ what you end up opening sometimes is a Hidden Gfci that powers half the House and no breakers opened in the panel🤣now you to have a House with no power and a Random Gfci to Look for
Very dumb way to do it and a fire risk
I've only being doing diy electrical work since buying my first home a couple years ago, I literally did this exact same thing when wiring in new smart switches. I only did it once and bought this exact tool that evening, worth every penny for that extra bit of safety. 👍
Whenever I've had to mess with I always took the nuclear approach and just turned off the main power to the whole house as I have no intention of getting shocked
Drastic, but effective.
Just go to the green box from the city and turn off everything, can never be to careful
Watch out for neutrals on mult-iwire branch circuits that aren’t on proper two pole breakers. Dish/disposal is common one but in some older houses they were used throughout. It’s two hots sharing a neutral and if in single pole breakers you can shut one off and it will not show as hot but it will be carrying voltage on the neutral because of the other closed breaker.
Shit...I think you just solved a workplace problem for me. Thx!
Yep, happened to me, I'm still alive, and smarter for it! Shock of my life!
Shared neutrals, Oooof!!😬 Hackers, garbage etc...
Mom asked me to test dryer heating element; switched off the breaker but tested with multimeter (before non-contact testers were invented). I got an arc, found wires were crossed so one leg of the 50A stove breaker was connected to the dryer outlet, and one leg of the 30A dryer outlet was feeding the stove. Similar situation many years later in a US Army hospital in Germany in the feeder for an X-ray machine. The arc blew a 100A fuse at 380V.
Your tips certainly help with time. Time duration stated for every project is never accurate for me i.e. 45 min = 5 hours I always have something not quite like the example. Never fails, and this begins my learning cliff. I either spend time finding an irregular situation or make the mistake that creates the time consuming rework... so, your channel helps trim that off! Thanks!
You convinced me to get this, and I spent yesterday labeling a panel. It went from a couple labels (from trial and error during the current remodel) to all but a couple breakers that I couldn't find where they went too
All this information is fantastic but that Vanna White hand is introducing the tools is freakin awesome!!
Good video. I have 7 panels in our warehouse and could not LIVE without this tool. I also test with a meter just to be sure. THX
One big trip/help is to label the outside of junction box covers; you can also label the inside of the covers or simply the non-visible portion of the outlets switches, as these then get covered with a cover. Covers also cover more than just the box, especially with todays larger covers and a simple label or fine tip marker putting circuit numbers on the wall under the covered area can be good.
As an institutional electrician you get to expand this out to facilities with quite literally dozens if not a hundred plus panels, then add three phase and this gets quite fun.
I’d also suggest running the breaker test again after you shut the first breaker off as you can actually get dual feeds, especially in DIY work or after a new service, especially if you’ve ever had knob and tube in the house.
Dude, thanks for the video. Very helpful. Guys like you make the world a better place.
That's so kind - thank you!
I have this circuit breaker detector and it works great. I went through the house, identified the individual breakers and the circuits (e.g. receptacle west wall dining room, upstairs hall lights, etc.), put them on an Excel spreadsheet and taped them to the box. I also noted if there is a GFCI and its location on the circuit. I labelled the receptacles on the cover so I can easily see what breaker it's on.
Thank You. Your videos are MOST HELPFUL. You may have saved some lives.
this is the best tool I've purchased in years. I wanted to separate two bedrooms. Plugged on end in the bedroom socket, used the other to find the wire in the attic out of a sea of wires. Fantastic.
Oh my goodness! This is just what I need. I go out to the breaker box and keep running in and out of the house to see if it's the right breaker to turn off. 70 yrs old and live alone.. Have to fix things myself. I'm getting pretty good at it. I haven't been shocked yet. Thank goodness. But this is a great tool. Gotta' get one of these.
I had this exact same thing happen to me just a few weeks ago. I was changing out the old three way switches for smart switches for the foyer. One switch was by the front door and the other was at the top of our staircase by the bedroom door. This one had two switches sharing the same box . I shutoff the circuit breaker for the light I was working on verifying it when the light went off. I went back up the stairs to the satellite switch and as I was taking off the switch cover I looked at the other switch realizing that this switch controlled the lights in the upstairs hallway. I wondered if it was on another circuit and decided to flip the switch to see if the hallway lights came on. Sure enough they did. I am so glad I decided to do that. I'm certain it saved me from being shocked. Another reason for purchasing this tool after watching one of your other video's. Amazon delivered it today. Thank you very much for another informative video.
Thanks so much. This really made this totally unknown world of electrical workings much more clear for me.
Also…. I ADORE the little hand pointer!!!!😁
Thanks for the video. Certainly have to rethink on how to handle those switches on the same plate that handle lights in different areas. That might require 2 or 3 breakers to be flipped to ensure no cross circuits. Nice ideas for the breaker box labeling. Will definitely check those out.
Moved into a house last year, with two main panels. The labels in the boxes were nothing more than "AC, AC, Heat, REC, LIGHTS". zero description of where, what or anything. I used this tool to remap every single circuit, outlet, light in the whole house and made a very detailed panel label printout for each box. This tool is awesome
very helpful video, thanks! I made a google sheet with the breaker assignments and printed a copy taped inside the box, and also made a QR code to the sheet. That way, I can scan the code and go right to the sheet on my phone
That is a great tool. I have an Ideal SureTrace 957 that does the same thing, plus a few others and has come in handy many times. Even after I believe I have identified the correct breaker and used a non-contact device to see if the AC seems turned off, I then use my trusty DMM to triple check and confirm the circuit is off.
Sure trace is better! The Klein 310 even displayed red light when I ran it past the main breaker. I don't this is worth the money now that I bought it. And yes I followed the instructions and calibrated it.
Nice work man, congratulations!
Testing for a light switch was so cool, hadn't thought about it myself. Great video.
This is the best video I have watched, so far, of the circuit breaker finder. I am glad I subscribed to you 6 months ago. I have been looking at a lot of your videos. Man you are good. Very detailed and an expert at your craft.
I have used the radio method in the past but in noisy environments, I will plug an extension cord into the outlet that needs attention and carry the female end to the breaker panel. I use a noncontact tester on the extension cord to find the breaker in question.
I have an older house. We had two outlets in the kitchen, and one in the living room on one breaker. Then the fridge and another outlet together. Got fridge on its own now.
At first I thought you had a really small hand, before I realized it was just a pointer.
I just got one of these circuit finders last week its great. I also got a baldr power meter which is great for checking the load from any appliance or device.
Thank you. Your panel pics used to look like ours . Expensive to pay pros but keep me alive . Appreciate your video .
I use a shop vac for non-visual confirmation. Pretty loud and it will turn back on with the breaker to confirm 2x. Not all radios will come back on. IMPORTANT: ALWAYS check prior to any work with a tester and if you can’t see the panel from the work area lock the breaker out either with a proper lockout device or at least some tape
Yup. 100% Same thing happened to me, installing the same switches and finding the same issues.
Those are great switches
Home Kit Awesome!
Thanks and bought one. I have other testers which I could never get to work well. Like your videos.
Thanks so much and I hope you love it! I feel way safer now that I'm using this.
You can run an extension cord from the outlets you are testing down or over to the panel so you can use a lamp.
Awesome! Thank you so much!
😂😂😂
I had to replay the first part of the video like 3 times 🤣🤣
Awesome video 👍
I use a spreadsheet that I print and laminate to keep near breakers. For numbering devices I always start in NE corner of every room and go clockwise, R1 R2 R3 for outlets and S1 S2 S3 for switches. I don’t actually label the switch plates I just count clockwise when I need to turn off something and then refer to my spreadsheet.
@ Ray B - that is genius! Thanks!
Excellent plan, Ray. I'm going to use your system.
I do pretty much the same thing. 20 years ago, I started doing the maintenance on a 4 story rather spread-out building that has 8 circuit breaker boxes with over 100 breakers, and almost none of them were labeled. I spent close to a week running around trying to figure them all out. I tool like this would have been helpful, for the outlets I used a radio turned up loud and started flipping breakers until it went quiet.
I don’t use a corner. I start at the door. That way you don’t need a spreadsheet.
I label the backside of the wall plate and just refer to that.
Call me parnoid, but after testing with a wireless tester, after I pull the outlet out I test again with a DMM to again verify no voltage. I also test the wireless against a known live circuit before hand.
This tool is great for labeling receptacles finding the right panal
In the UK, our lights upstairs and downstairs are generally on different circuit breakers. Hallway and landing twin switches generally have both circuits going into the same box similar to in your video. When working in a light switch box, I generally switch off all the lighting circuit breakers partly because I don’t want what happened to you to happen to me but also because I don’t want to keep going backwards and forwards to the panel trying to identify which circuit breaker powers the switch I’m working on… Work smarter not harder.
Very good information. I continue to face a big mess with house wiring and outlets. In the case of one outlet, there is no circuit breaker that controls it! Dangerous and exasperating! Maybe it somehow connects to the large outdoor main panel? Also, in this old house we have Knob&Tube wiring, with some new additional romex wiring and outlets. I last paid my electrician thousands to do what he could, but his solution to our lack of ground wires is not very satisfying. He installed occasional GFCI's, but never mapped outlet by outlet to find just which outlets are downstream from each GFCI. Because the house is quite full of "stuff", one or two of these GFCI's is not so accessible. I spent the last 2 years unable to turn on overhead lights in a large office room, figuring that a GFCI somewhere had tripped. Years later I was repairing a wobbly receptacle in the kitchen and had to move hundreds of pounds of cabinetry and its contents, and found another GFCI. Seeing that it had tripped (which did not affect anything in the kitchen!), I finally noticed that the lights in the office room worked again! Most unexpected. I have had many discussions about doing a whole house upgrade to eliminate the K&T wiring, but the disruption and cost of doing so would probably equal the entire value of the house. I am not kidding. There is no drywall, only wood and plaster walls. Ripping those open and then repairing all the walls in the entire large 11-room old house would be an impossible nightmare, certainly impossible to afford. Plus, almost no contractor can satisfactorily do this kind of work. Yes, they will demolish your walls and put in new wiring, but will they fix the walls after that? I don't know any contractors doing plaster-on-lath work, and also none that can match 100+ year old wood beadboard walls. I try to learn as much as I can about making electrical fixes and changes, but sometimes we are kinda stuck with problems that cannot be solved.
Best electricians tool I ever owned next to a VOM meter.
Only to find something like this.. - proceeds to show pics of DBs that are a household average in South Africa .. I'd be happy to see any of what I saw in that series of pics
I have the ET300, a lessor capable Klein circuit tracer. One thing I find however is it doesn't seem to work properly through GFCI receptacles. Works fine for all other circuits.
lol when you were describing your throught process on decyphering the breaker box's label, first time I laughed in weeks because I can relate exactly lol. Subscribed!
Doing some minor DIY work, turned off a breaker, light went off. Got a bad shock! History: This was an old (1912) house, original fuse box had one fuse for each side of each circuit. We had a licensed electrician replace fuse box with a breaker box. He ran a 50 A disconnect and feeder from main service, and rearranged a new 3-phase breaker panel so there was one breaker for each neutral, and one for each hot. Breakers were not ganged! I had turned off a neutral, leaving the circuit live!
There are some crazy setups out there, and the older it is the more likely it is to be a challenge. Glad it was only a shock - I've had my share!
@@LRN2DIY yes, that same house had a really strange 3-way switch setup. One wire from the fixture went to the center of the first switch that would switch it to line or neutral. Other wire from fixture went to the second switch that would switch it to line or neutral *on a different circuit* ! So socket could be live when off, and you had to turn off TWO circuits to be safe to work on it!
I ran into this but caught it with the non-contact tester before moving anything. I think the code changed around 2006 to require ganging of the breakers if more than one breaker went to a box. In my case, half the panel would have had to be ganged just due to poor layout (which I didn't fix). If there were plans, no licensed electrician reviewed them. Everything in that place was apprentice level or lower.
That doesn't really mean anything because I'm an apprentice and my work always looks better than the journeyman I'm working with. 9 year apprentice cause I make a dollar or 2 less than a journeyman and have none of the responsibility. Cant be stuck running a crew or be responsible for other peoples mistakes. Lol
@@charlesstidham2788 I hear you. Really it comes down to the person. If you care about your work, and it sounds like you do, Charles, that's the most important thing.
My apologies to apprentices everywhere.
Write the breaker number on the back of your outlet covers with a sharpie.
Every house Ive moved into, the panel was marked garbage, or not at all. Everyhouse I have left, is all labeled correctly, but the old school way. Turning the circuit off and some yelling, is it off yet?
luckily our box fan is loud enough it can be heard across two floors. there's also vacuum or shop vac
i've copped a 240V shock more than once
I personally prefer fluke non contact and meter testers.
What you're describing about the circuit breaker is exactly what mine looks like. We bought our home brand new but some of the labels look like they're written in another language! Recently changed our doorbell to a camera doorbell and we had to try each lever before we knew which switch was right. Thank you so much for the tips you offered! I'm a single mom (after 17 years of marriage) & learning how to do a lot on my own. I very much enjoy it but it can be really intimidating! Trying my hand at replacing our kitchen faucet next! Both excited & super nervous! 😬 😀
THANK YOU!
I have felt 120v but luckily to survive it!
Just turn the whole board off to be sure
DIYers said it yourself 👏
Cool tool though
I never got shocked except once when I was plugging a cell charger when I was a kid and touched the prongs. I was isolated from ground by a rubber mat, so it wasn't that bad.
How to not get shocked in the terrible old wirings. Just shut down the master switch and put a lock on it.
Always cover screws and wires on switches and plugs with electrical tape to help prevent shorting out!
Excellent video and very instructive. Thanks a bunch.
The radio method is a fantastic way to find out the D batteries in it still work. Also to remind yourself that there are D batteries in your radio.
Great video... and channel!! That tool is awesome!!! Just ordered one with the add-on kit, from watching this vid! Thanks!!!
If you could decipher a doctor's prescription you could probably be a good electrician
My right index finger and thumb both have a maximum voltage rating of 240 so I use them regularly when I can't reach my tick tracer.
In the 70's that tool did not exist. I worked for a contactor who built one. It was a big piece of machinery. Every time we used it all the other tradesman would flock to it in amazement. You would have to open the panel and put a current meter around each wire until the meter dial stated to pulsate. He always wanted to market it. I always wondered if he did. Every time I see one I think of him.
you should always check all the electrical devices in the same box.
just because the switch or outlet you want to work on is dead does not mean that one of the others are either.
sometimes you could have multiple devices in the same box wired to separate breakers/fuses.
older houses are a notorious for having faulty and mis wired stuff by todays standard.
back in the day the electrical codes did not exist for certain things and so it is common to have wiring problems.
He just did it to make it happen like that for the viewers to make an example he didn't have to uploaded it right think about that
At low’s you can buy a fluke outlet tester with Audible beeping so you can find the breaker.
I’ve learned to take NOTHING for granted! And when I don’t have someone available to be my “eyes” when I’m flipping Breakers off/on, I use one of my spare Wyze cams. 👍🏼
Excellent advice! Thank you, sir.
that two circuits ran through one double light switch blew my mind.... scary. There is also my favorite for when in doubt flip the main or flip them all. It is better to go overkill in making sure everything has no power.
Thank's ! For the info great !
My father was an electrician/electrical engineer. He used to tell me. “Don’t stand behind me!” Of course I knew more than he did. . . . . Until I got a screwdriver bounced off my forehead when he got bit and threw it. Ouch!
Our TV repairman told me that when I was a kid. I understood why.
I discovered the hard way that electricity flows in neutral wires too! I was on a ladder, outside, and i cut through a bundle of neutral wires. I'm not an electrician, but as a qualified aircraft maintenance technician I should know better!
Wow I learned so much! Certainly I’m going to have to go and label those in the panel
Awesome! Let me know if I can help!
I have used the plug in part plugged into the outlet and then set up my iPhone camera and then face it tords the lights on the plugging and open the camera feature on my Apple Watch and watch the flip the breaker I think it is till I find it till the lights go out on plug looking on my Apple Watch. Works great when by my self
400 deaths from high voltage in the US every year ? Where did that statistic come from and I’d bet very few of those happen from a DIY homeowner. And I’d say the 30,000 electrocutions barely scratches the surface and that the majority are unreported….heck I got zapped a good 20 times last week alone. In 25 years working in the industry I’ve never ever heard of an electrical death in a residential setting.
Same place as the numbers of deaths from.....
Nah, nevermind. Don't question stats on deaths....
Great video content and editing! 👍
Thanks so much!
Your plastic hand waving over the circuit finder made me spit my coffee out all over my computer screen!
0:12 That's basically my electrical box in a nutshell xD
very good video thanks for the tip I've been shocked once never underestimate electricity I'm not a contractor just a DIY but I buy the best equipment that I can your life may depend on it.
Very good video. To the point and helpful.
I have one of the finders but I haven’t had the best luck for it working correctly
I bought a house that's over 50 years old and the breaker box have NO labeling...none. Also the house was a fixer-upper so this tool was absolutely necessary.
Yeah, but you had 2 circuits in one box (!!!) and I certainly would assume that the one light fixture I tested with the circuit breaker tester (which I do own and love) that I had covered it.
Thinking to probe all switches in a box has not been on my mind, it will be now!
You show switch shooting out, but not how the tool would have prevented that?
I use the tester on all wiring in an electrical box, just in case.
You did not say why non contact voltage tester did not pick up live circuit
Click bait
It's not exactly click bait. The tester can help identify the circuit breaker in question when you don't know which one it is.
It cannot save you from being ignorant about testing EVERYTHING in the box you're working on before you work on it.
Thank you! Just liked and subscribed! I have been wanting to smart upgrade the 3 way switches that control my hallway lights on the parlor and top floors of my townhouse but I can't find the breaker at all! Should be on my 1st floor panel or possibly on the main basement panel that feeds each floor but I've traced out most breakers and still can't find it with the run and check if the light turned off method. Gonna buy that tool with your affiliate link right now!
love the spare hand ya got there, back messager?😮
Sixty percent of the time, it works every time
Great content. Love it. Hope you get a million views and subscribers.
Great video just confused about the alligator clips. I've seen other videos where black clips were connected to black wire and red connected to white. Your video you did the opposite.
Thanks Sir. Excellent Video. I made a Map of the House, for each Floor and made a Spreadsheet with Amperage per Breaker. Found the Dryer 220 Volt wire had other 110 Volt run off it. Bad Bad Bad. ReWired that.
Great video!
Remember! In an old house, the logic for how power is run may not be as logical as you believe. I live in a 90 year old house that has power run to the first floor hallway that also happens to run to one or two outlets on the second floor. In other words, back in the day, it was not uncommon for an electrician to grab the closet (or easiest) power he could find to wire up a receptacle.
People still do that now
So, the non-contact voltage testing tool that you used is defective. I always use my Fluke Meter and touch the leads to the contacts or wiring. The Fluke Meter is a reliable tool.
First thing I was taught when I went into the trade was always treat all wire as live even when you shut it down and never assume anything with electricity it can get you killed.
All guns are loaded.
Helpful! Thanks!
If you want to print something but don't want the paper to disintegrate then here's a simple way to make indestructible printing paper.
Get hold of some Tyvek Building Cladding paper (construction sites will have it as a waste) and trim a flat piece to 8.5" x 11".
Now feed this into a LASER PRINTER (ink jet won't work) and print your document. You can put this 'paper' outside for years and it lasts.
So you know. You can also use the Klein Digital Circuit Breaker Finder to find (Identify) other receptacles on the same circuit using the same testing procedure as used at the circuit breaker panel, but by scanning other outlets etc. It just speeds things up a little rather than testing every plug against the circuit panel. That said, you still need to verity that any circuit is open prior to working on it. :)
What am I missing? When I plug the transmitter into a receptacle and then use the tester on another receptacle in the same branch, I get nothing. Even if I pull the cover off and touch the hot wire. But it works at the wire in the panel. Actually, makes no electrical sense. I'd like to be able to plug into one receptacle and just touch other receptacles and switches to see what's on the same branch. I'm using the ET-310. But I just tried it again and it worked but on other receptacles it doesn't. I wonder if a small extension cord could give me closer access for the receiver to touch.
Funny is cause I decided to do this on a whim and found out that it works by detecting the hot wire on all the connected series of outlets.... It makes it easier to remove the covers and scan the hot wire sides. I did however find that the tester loses tracing capability so I turn off and on and go scan a known outlet and then try again. Found my issue with open ground. Did all this in 10 mins. If I had to trace by continuity, it would have taken forever.
My wife and I started at 1130 pm trying to label our panel box.
Wow they put 3 or 4 rooms on a 15 amp breaker.master bed room,a master bath,a closet,and a 2nd bed room
4:50. That sure is a LITTLE *handy*. Bahahaha!
be careful, some homes have "switched receptacles" and they'll be on a different circuit in the same box as lighting switches.
if you're going to do this, remember that around 0.2 amps can stop your heart.
let's say you have an incandescent lightbulb at 60watts, or a string of LED's equivalent.
120volts / 60watts = 2.0 amps .....you kids stay safe out there.