On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:10:33 -0500, E Z Peaces
wrote:

E Z Peaces wrote:
Smitty Two wrote:
So the g.f. and I are chipping in on a newly remodeled investment
house in her city, 300 miles from me. Home inspector sent a report
that included a notation that the outlet intended for the refrigerator
is giving an odd indication on the 3-LED tester: All three lights
illuminate.
Any speculation on what could cause this unlisted and presumably
improbable test result?

Each terminal of an outlet can be hot, open, or grounded. That makes 27
possible combinations.

With the tester I know you don't get all three lights unless the hot
terminal is grounded and neither other terminal is grounded. Both the
neutral and ground may be hot, or one may be open.

In order to detect each of 27 possibilities, this kind of tester uses
capacitive coupling to the person's hand as a ground reference. If the
person's hand is at or near line voltage, a properly wired outlet will
show three lights.

I wonder if the inspector was picking up leakage from something he was
touching, such as the refrigerator. If he was insulted from ground he
wouldn't feel it. The impedance may be to high to be hazardous.


Neon or LED tester? The old neon testers could do this - but the led
testers are NOT capacitively linked and can not display this anomoly.
Don't think the neon 3 lamp tester has been sold in Canada or the USA
in the last 10 or more years.