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Thread: circuit breaker finder

  1. #1

    circuit breaker finder

    I am in the process of rewiring my shop and am looking for a good circuit breaker finder.

    I bought one by Sperry and it finds the circuit but I have to find the exact circuit breaker since it beeps on 2-3 breakers.

  2. #2
    Never used something like that, I have used wire tracers that work fine on dead circuits. May just have a friend and talky-walkies, plug a lamp into an outlet and you start shutting down the breakers until you get to that one and mark it, do for each breaker.

  3. #3
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    I use a shunt to trip the breaker

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    I use a shunt to trip the breaker
    I knew a guy that did that... his "shunt" was a screwdriver.

  5. #5
    I just plug my work light into the plug I need to find the breaker to. Turn the light on and point it at the breaker box. Then turn off breakers till the light goes out. Then I do the work.

  6. #6
    When I'm alone, I plug in a radio and turn it up loud enough to hear it at the breaker box.


  7. #7
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    I also have one of the inexpensive circuit tracers and find that it can be tricky to use. The signal picks up on adjacent items, which sometimes makes it difficult to be sure which is the real live one. I have found that it helps to open the panel and separate the wires leading to adjacent breakers as much as possible, though manipulating wires inside the open panel isn't especially safe.

    An assistant with a cellphone is the best solution, with a loud radio as Harry suggests a good alternative.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Andrew View Post
    I just plug my work light into the plug I need to find the breaker to. Turn the light on and point it at the breaker box. Then turn off breakers till the light goes out. Then I do the work.
    Quote Originally Posted by Harry Hagan View Post
    When I'm alone, I plug in a radio and turn it up loud enough to hear it at the breaker box.
    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Gan View Post
    May just have a friend and talky-walkies, plug a lamp into an outlet and you start shutting down the breakers until you get to that one and mark it, do for each breaker.
    All that's fine when you're checking an outlet, but what about a switch?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Moyer View Post
    All that's fine when you're checking an outlet, but what about a switch?
    Surely the switch controls something?


  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Meiser View Post
    Surely the switch controls something?
    Yeah. Just turn on the switch and proceed as suggested. If the switch is dead, of course, none of the above will tell you what circuit it is on!

  11. #11
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    I was just making the point that it's not always as simple as plugging something into an outlet. For instance, we moved into our current house almost six years ago and there are a couple of switches that I still haven't traced to a breaker OR an end source. I suspect one was sent to an outdoor light that is no longer there, one possibly to a roof vent fan that used to be in place but was removed when a new roof was installed, etc.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Grano View Post
    ...it beeps on 2-3 breakers.
    I've used several types of those tracers and on all of them the transmitter (the little box that plugs into the receptacle) was line powered, not battery powered. If your transmitter does NOT have a battery then just shut off the indicated breakers one at a time. When you get to the one that powers the receptacle with the transmitter it will no longer transmit and the beeping will stop.
    Beranek's Law:

    It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion.
    L.L. Beranek, Acoustics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954), p.208.

  13. #13
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    I have a Klein one, and even it is not 100% reliable all the time. I just wire one circuit at the time, mark on the wire cover at the box what circuit it is. Set the box cover near the box when you wire the breakers, and mark each position in the cover as you hook up each wire. It really doesn't take any more time, and certainly less than having to trace every circuit.

    If we are tracing old ones, we use walky talkies.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Moyer View Post
    All that's fine when you're checking an outlet, but what about a switch?
    You can always pull the switch out of the box and measure the voltage across the leads while someone else toggles the breakers. Alternatively, you can use alligator clips to on the lugs to power a device and proceed as mentioned.

  15. #15
    I would hook a light onto the switch so you can turn on the light, then see what breaker turns it off.

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