If you are going to do electrical work,You need Electrical Testing Tools!

In a recent You Tube video I reviewed a few electrical testing tools that I use everyday.If I could only have one tester to use everyday, I would choose the Fluke T5-600. This tester will check voltage,amperage,ohms/resistance.

This is just basic information to explain to you the use of electrical testers,it is not to be thought of as a troubleshooting guide.

Voltage testing is essential when checking your work.As a general rule of thumb in residential and small commercial settings a +/-  10% of your supplied voltage is acceptable for proper operation of most products and equipment.One example would be a appliance with a required voltage of 110v. If you have + or – 10% of 110v at your outlet serving power to your toaster your fine,if the percentage is of a larger or lessor voltage the appliance will not function as it was designed to.

The hot stick tester (voltage sensor variety) Non-Contact Adjustable Voltage Detector By Greenlee Textron may be useful when you have a box full of wires and you want a quick check to verify if there is any voltage present in that box without  removing a device or wire nuts.I do not consider this tester a tool to analyze the correct operation of electrical equipment.

I like the (plugin style) GFCI/outlet testers,GFCI-Outlet Tester ,for checking gfci’s and outlets only.They are not designed to be used testing any other equipment or direct contact with exposed wires!These testers have a label on them that will show you,by light combinations on the tester,if your wiring is correct.You could have a hot and netural reversed or no ground wire attached and this tester will check for these problems.When the 2-indicators light up on the right,the outlet is wired correct.

The last one I’ll discuss today is not like the testing tools as described above.It is the Ugly’s Reference Book.
UGLY’s Electrical References, 2008 Edition.  IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO ELECTRICAL WORK,you need to have this book.The link above allows you to view pages in the book before you buy.Ugly’s deserves its own article which I will be doing soon.I have three of them,one in my tool bag,one in my briefcase and one at my desk.

I hope this article has helped a few of you that were unfamiliar with these tools and you’ll be sure to have them in your set of tools.

Sparky

Tagged as: education, Electrical Training, electrical wiring, electrician tools