I have seen one time a home being sold by an investor that had had it remodeled to make a quick buck. the receptacle on the peninsula did just that lit up all 3 lights. A quick test with the Wiggy proved the 240 volts. The kitchen remodelers, knowing nothing about electricity, had removed the cooktop and turned the circuit into a receptacle. The wires appearing in the receptacle box were romex, they had spliced into the cooktop circuit then buried the splice forever, or so they thought.
Kitchen remodelers are the worst at things like this, I see the worst and most dangerous conditions in sparkling new kitchens, behind the scenes.
However, I do have a SureTest.
I use it for my PREMIUM and TECH inspections.
I do not use it for my LIST, WALK, BASIC, or STANDARD inspections.
I always have it as a backup in case I drop the 3-light tester and break it.
Theoretically, if one has inspected 2,000 homes (or 1,000 homes, or even 500 homes), then one possibly has made some significant profits and can splurge for the $249 SureTest over the $9.95 3-light tester.
I splurged on everything before I opened my doors for business. Stupid, stupid me. Darn margaritas. Eventually I’m sure I’ll become an eBay junkie.
On a cheap tester you can get that with a loose outlet contact on the neutral. The hot voltage gets split between the hot, neutral and ground, lighting the neutral>ground light, along with the two that should always light.
I bet 2 are dimmer than the third.
Sorry RR…It was a rhetorical question…(didn’t require a response)
I caught the original posters’ implied message about having money to burn…
I guess on that logic I should have a house sized X-ray machine at about 10,000 inspections…
I can get sarcastic when asking a question about one piece of equipment, and get an answer that tells me to just get something else.
It is my opinion that the an inspector has to draw a line between finding defects, and diagnosing the defects found.
On this defect I documented the problem and referred it to an electrician for diagnosis and repair. What good would a Sure Test do in this case? (rhetorical) It would help me cross the line into diagnosis…It might have given me a better understanding of the concern. It does not help the buyer in many cases as they don’t know the difference between hot, neutral, ground, etc. etc. (you can tell by the glazed over look in their eyes)
Nothing wrong with cool toys…if nothing else they get oohs, and aaws from people who are impressed by them…
I was reading somewhere that if there is a loose neutral wire, 240 V can show up?
At any rate, sounds like a back feed to me. You are picking up the extra 120 V from an opposite leg, likely feeding back on the ground (which is obviously not grounded).
Not a loose neutral wire, just a weak spring contact in the receptacle that allows the neutral in the tester to float.
You would see half of 120 across each light. These are just 3 lights wired in delta across Hot Neutral and ground. If one is not connected you put the other two in series.
