Question of The Week 02/28/16

Inspection Education Topics Inspection Education & Training
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All parts of the question must be answered in one post.
Editing your post will not be allowed.

First correct answer (as judged by the Award committee or Poster of the Question) wins.
The lucky winner will get a case of “Now that you’ve had a Home Inspection Books” shipped to them at their address on file.
Make sure your Address on File with Inachi is correct.

Courtesy of Nick Gromicko.

Winners of the Question of The Week shall request their prize by emailing fastreply@nachi.org and submitting their Mailing address for shipping.

Allow 2 weeks for delivery.

Question of the Week:

Standard three light electrical testers are** NOT**always reliable because:

A. Some receptacles only have two prongs
B. Three light testers sometimes have broken bulbs
C. Three light testers will not detect multiple wiring problems
D. Different test device manufactures have different light patterns

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I say C

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E. All of the above

4

A, B, C.

A. technically is unusable vs. unreliable
D. is not an issue as the manufacturers list the meaning of their light patterns. If an inspector can’t follow and interpret them, it’s the inspector who is unreliable not the tool.

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And the winner for this week is Gabriel V. Portillo.

Reference this post and email fastreply@nachi.org for your books.

Well done. :slight_smile:

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Congrats Gabe!

For sake of discussion… Answer 'C’ as written is not the correct answer.

Does this photo NOT show


Sure looks like MULTIPLE problems to me.

Perhaps the correct answer should have been worded:

7

Go for it Jeff, learn us dat English.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing, so in a sense I agree with you for once.
Don’t expect that to happen often. :mrgreen:

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Thanks Jeff, and you are correct. I wanted to say E: all of the above. I was trying to get my response in quickly.

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The tester cannot detect multiple wiring problems other than the ones shown on the tester itself. So, in a case such as below, it would not be detected.

And this was a question on the National Exam.

Simple three light testers cannot detect two potentially serious house wiring errors: (1) neutral and ground reversed at the receptacle. (2) a bootleg ground, where the neutral and ground pins have been connected together at the receptacle. This may be done by someone fitting 3-prong receptacles on a circuit that has no ground wire. These errors can be detected with a multimeter and a test load, to verify that the ground connection is separate from the neutral and is not carrying normal circuit current.

http://www.thecircuitdetective.com/outlet_tester_readings.htm

And also here;

Yes, a three-lamp circuit tester is inexpensive. But the truth is: These devices can be very inaccurate and give you a “CORRECT” indication when, in fact, the outlet has one or more problems. Following the indications given by the circuit tester can lead to additional problems later.

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So it can detect multiple wiring problems, as indicated on the tester label. However, there are also multiple wiring problems that it cannot detect.

Wording counts in a test question.

BTW: I know of no outlet tester that can detect all possible wiring problems

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I apologize for hot having it worded to your liking.

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It was a good question Marcel and you came back with a good reason.
Got us all thinking and talking.

Give the guy his award and take a bow :smiley:

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A and B