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dpb dpb is offline
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Default Homebrew underground wire break locator.

Bob F wrote:
My father has a underground wire to a panel in his garage from his house. One
lead of the 220V service has apparently "opened" somewhere underground. It is
probably about 100 feet long.

I'd love to trace the break so I can dig it up next time I visit. We suspect
that a splice was made in the wire someplace that may have failed.

Can anyone offer any good ideas for a way to locate the break without digging
the whole thing up? Maybe something using a transister radio as a locator and a
relay buzzer or something as a signal source.


Probably most reliable is to rent a cable detector from the local rental
place. I'm fortunate a friend who used to do sprinkler systems has one
I can borrow on occasion. I suspect ones like his aren't that expensive
if it's something you might use more than once, but I really don't know.

It was reasonably successful in isolating a break in the feeder to one
of the waterers in the corrals last year -- we got within a couple of
feet at 3-ft depth on the one end. I was never able to find the other
end, though, even starting from that known point. In this case, it was
Al cable and the sheath had failed. Being in the feedlot, even though
that deep, it had been failed long enough a couple of feet had been
dissolved entirely by the strong urea solution in the water, even at
that depth.

But, it did find the starting point which saved quite a bit of time...

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