"bob haller" wrote in message
news:2b3da6e2-4fdc-45ea-8658-

stuff snipped

Thanks for your input. I hooked up a three wire line cord to an outlet to
see if there was any detectable brightness difference in the LED
indicators
due to that resistance. I was hoping the tester might have some way of
detecting the "false ground" and could tell if is was hooked up correctly
v.
someone pigtailing the neutral wire to the ground terminal. There wasn't
any detectable change in brightness and the tester reported the
jury-rigged
neutral pigtail to ground as OK. )-: This was on one of the longest wire
runs in the house, too.

I'll do a little more research to try to see if there's a way to use a
multi-meter attached to a line cord to detect the "forged" connection. I'd
like to be able to detect the condition Nate's described with a plug-in
test
device that doesn't require shutting down the appropriate breaker at the
panel. People get hinky about buyers or inspectors opening circuit panels
or even turning valves on the plumbing.


well you could disconnect all the white lines at the breaker box then
check with a light bulb between hot black and ground. hacked ground to
neutral wouldnt power the bulb, use a 60 watt incandescent minimum. doesnt
help home inspectors but it would detect hacks

I can see the look on a seller's face when I start disconnecting the wires
from the neutral buss bars! (-:

I believe inspection of a few outlets would reveal what I want to know. But
I'd rather have a plug-in tester that could detect bozos pulling a "neutral
as ground" scam.

--
Bobby G.