Open ground outlet issue/ question

[ChargedUp!]

Background: we are in process of selling our house and building a new one. In order to do so, we had to get a point of sale inspection. When the inspector came, he did a few things and one of the things he did was plug a plug into an outlet and it came up with a ground fault. See picture.
So I bought one of these little tools at home depot when I got off work since the wife was the one with him during the inspection. I get the same reading he did.

Here's the question. The sleeve says this code means ground not connected but when I take the outlet cover off and pull the outlet out, everything is connected and tight. There are 6 outlets apparently sharing the same circuit and they all show the same. In each case, they are all tightly connected. Each outlet works fine but I need to fix it to get a signature. What do I need to look at here? How do I fix this? Suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

Have you tried all the outlets in the house with your device? I use one of those two. I've found a number of incorrectly wired outlets with it and fixed them.

In my case the hot and the neutral were reversed; which was an easy fix for a regular person. I look forward to the sparkies on the Forum answering your question.

 

[Engineer61]

It means that the ground terminal of the plug isn't connected to a real ground. Do you have a bare copper wire hooked to a green screw on the outlets? If you have the bare copper wire but it's not attached to the green screw on the outlets, hook it up and problem is most likely solved. If no bare copper wire at all in the outlet box, that's the problem, there is no ground wire and you would need to have one fished into each outlet box.
If there is a ground wire hooked up to each outlet, then check that the ground wire for that circuit is hooked up to the ground bus at the panel. If it isn't, you need to get it hooked up, if it is, then the ground wire most likely is broken somewhere between the first outlet and the panel. Unless you have easy access to the wiring to check to see where the ground wire might be broken the easy way to fix it is simply fish another ground wire from the panel to the first outlet.

 

[matt151617]

Follow the circuit to the panel. I've seen this plenty of times, someone taps in to an old ungrounded circuit. Since you can't get ungrounded wire anymore, the ground wire is there, but it isn't hooked to anything. You may have to run new wire from the panel to wherever these outlets start.

 

[BFBOB]

Follow the circuit to the panel. I've seen this plenty of times, someone taps in to an old ungrounded circuit. Since you can't get ungrounded wire anymore, the ground wire is there, but it isn't hooked to anything. You may have to run new wire from the panel to wherever these outlets start.

Right. Example- my 1929 house, originally all knob&tube, still a good bit of it in place and active. Start your troubleshooting at the breaker box. First logical step: what do these outlets have in common? As you said, all on the same breaker. Look into the box, see what kind of wire. If it is 2 con without ground (entirely possible in an older house), there's your answer. The proper fix is running a new cable (romex, bx, with ground), not just a new groound conductor. I can't quote current code, but I've seen regulations to the effect that a separate ground conductor is not allowed. It must be in the same cable with the hot/neutral, or if conduit, in the same conduit. As I recall, this derives from the requirement that the ground wire provide a low impedance path back to ground. That's the same reasoning that prohibits using the shield of BX unless there's a separate bonding conductor, requires bonding the ground wire to metal boxes, requires all grounds being common in the breaker box, etc.
All this has not stopped me from adding separate ground wires in my house, (better than nothing) but I'm not prepping it for sale. You are, so I'd suggest you check with a REAL sparky before proceeding (I'm officially only a lo-vo guy). If the inspector only repeats the gizmo test, you'll pass, but a casual glance at the panel would reveal that separate green wire emerging.
Let's hope one of the electricians on the Board chimes in on this. I'd like to see what he has to say too!

 

[ChargedUp!]

Thanks for all the replies. The bare copper wire is connected to the green screw and is tight at all plugs. That's as far as I'm comfortable going so I made an appointment for a pro to come out and make some money this Friday. I'll post up what he finds and how he fixes it.
Thanks!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

.....The proper fix is running a new cable (romex, bx, with ground), not just a new ground conductor. I can't quote current code, but I've seen regulations to the effect that a separate ground conductor is not allowed. It must be in the same cable with the hot/neutral, or if conduit, in the same conduit. As I recall, this derives from the requirement that the ground wire provide a low impedance path back to ground. That's the same reasoning that prohibits using the shield of BX unless there's a separate bonding conductor, requires bonding the ground wire to metal boxes, requires all grounds being common in the breaker box, etc.
All this has not stopped me from adding separate ground wires in my house, (better than nothing) but I'm not prepping it for sale. You are, so I'd suggest you check with a REAL sparky before proceeding (I'm officially only a lo-vo guy). If the inspector only repeats the gizmo test, you'll pass, but a casual glance at the panel would reveal that separate green wire emerging.
Let's hope one of the electricians on the Board chimes in on this. I'd like to see what he has to say too!

That's not true. Code allows EGCs to be run separate from circuit conductors in existing installations only, to allow the installation of 3 prong grounded receps. Check 300.3 exceptions (a) and (b), 250.57(b) exception 3 and 250.92(c)(2) and the exception there!

 

[BFBOB]

That's not true. Code allows EGCs to be run separate from circuit conductors in existing installations only, to allow the installation of 3 prong grounded receps. Check 300.3 exceptions (a) and (b), 250.57(b) exception 3 and 250.92(c)(2) and the exception there!

Thank you for setting me straight!! I kinda thought there should be an exception, but that would be TOO reasonable.

 

[porcupine73]

Right it sounds likely that the ground is not connected properly in the panel. Do you get any outlets in the house that read properly?

I have a really old house that had knob&tube originally, and all two prong outlets. At some point someone had a licensed electrician come in to install upgraded wiring. And that he did. Except for whatever unknown to me reason, he snipped the ground wire off in every outlet box he installed. Yet he installed 3 prong grounding outlets. He connected the ground wires to the bus in the panel though. That was a major pain to fix, because naturally he cut the ground wire off very short inside the box so it was almost impossible to get enough slack to get a wire nut on.