On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 22:42:06 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 21:01:15 -0400, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 17:45:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 15:15:22 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 25 Apr 2020 14:52:42 -0400,
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 11:04:54 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 1:49:23 PM UTC-4, KenK wrote:
Just out of curiosity, is there a way to tell if two wall outlets are on
the same circuit breaker without tripping the breaker or turning breakers
on and off? I'm pretty sure it's not possible but maybe there's a way I
hadn't thought of.

TIA


--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

They have fox and hound style tracers, where you plug a small widget in
the receptacle, it generates a signal and then you use the sniffing wand part
at the panel to trace it down to the particular breaker. I've never used
one, IDK how well they work. Even if it narrows it down to one of say
two breakers, it would be a big help.



I have one, they work pretty well but you are only sure when you trip
the breaker.

You might not have to trace a receptacle back to the breaker. Perhaps
you can also detect the tone at the other outlet that Ken is thinking
of.

But you'd want to do some verifying, like checking other outlets
probably not on the same circuit, and yes, evenually tripping the
breaker to be 100% sure.

My breakers were all labeled by the original electrician. He doesn't go
into detail all the time, and the one circuit I added isn't marked. I
plan to write a long letter for the new owner about all the
not-so-noticeable things about the house.

The breaker testers are not true fox and hound (tone) testers. They
set up a resonance in the overload winding of the breaker that the
detector can detect. You won't see anything at other outlets on the
circuit. A wall wart in the receptacle might create enough magnetic
field to tickle the detector but I never tried.
Mabee some - but mine will actually trace a circuit in a FUSE panel
- which would shoot that theory down.

Then it is a circuit tracer, not a breaker tester. I bet you can find
other outlets on the circuit with it too.
Likely. I'd consider a "breaker tester" something to actually TEST
the breaker