Dangerous Open Ground Fix 

Thanks.

Thank you for showing this. I had no idea you could easily trick a tester like that.

nice video they call that a boot leg ground i saw it once , i enjoy your videos

My son bought a house knowing that there was an issue with an electrical sub panel that the inspector found. The basement was contracted 20+ years earlier to a general contractor to be finished. A 60 amp sub panel was installed. At the main panel, the black and red were in the breaker lugs with the white and bare on the neutral ground bar in the main panel. At the 60 amp MLO panel, the black and white were in the bus lugs, the red was in the neutral lug, and the bare was on an added ground bar. Single pole breakers were installed every other space so they would be on the bus connected to the white conductor. Almost every receptacle had the ears broken off and only one screw on each side. And of course, they were wired black on silver and white on brass so it would pass the plug in tester. Also found a GFCI was connected backward and did not work when test button pushed.

the question that I always have and no one explains in their videos is why can't you have that if in the end the neutral and ground are joined at the main panel?

What happens if you put a socket tester into a 2 prong outlet with a 3 prong socket for the 2 prong outlet? (If that makes sense)

I think they call them a "bootleg" ground. Not legal for sure.

Any serious home inspector should own and use an Ideal SureTest 61-164 circuit analyzer. It will find bootleg grounds without having to pull receptacles, along with other wiring problems. It’s not cheap, but it will save you a bunch of time and allow you to be very thorough.

`WOW THE IS A NO NO !! I am just a handy man but I no not to do that , nice video .👍

That was the standard way to ground in many countries in the past. You are correct that it is not allowed in the US but it does ground and is not just about fooling the tester. There are reasons why it not not allowed basically anywhere and it has to do with interference it can cause.

So a gfci connected with 2 wires? Wouldn’t the tester still show its open ground?

Holy crap! My mom's old house has two pronged outlets like the one you showed and I was going to replace it with a grounded wire just like in your video! I've since removed the outlet and capped the wires due to the following issue. Her outlet wires has power to it but not the receptacle and when I plug anything into it the power to the outlet wires goes away! I changed outlets and the same thing happens. Any ideas on why and how to fix. She did have a new panel put in and since then the issue to this outlet and the one upstream of it has the same issue. Thanks for the video and for any tips you can give me on my issue.

could you run a seperate ground wire from the panel to a two prong outlet to put in a three prong?

As a homeowner working to educate himself when I was first introduced to a GFI outlet tester, like a Klein RT210, I thought I had found the "holy grail" of troubleshooting tools. I believed that if the correct set of light were illuminated in the tool then that meant all was well inside the outlet. Like most things this tool has it's limitations. When one is starting out on this electrical education journey typically one don't know what those limitations are. As you demonstrated it is easy to "fool" this tool. I had actually previously seen this scenario. You did not get into it; interestingly enough the neutral and the ground at the receptacle ARE actually joined together (ELECTRICALLY) and are at the same electrical potential, back at the home's main electrical service panel where the neutral and ground bus bars are connected. I am in no way suggesting that "jumping" the neutral and ground at the receptacle is an acceptable practice. On a side note I used this GFI outlet tester last week and it indicated correct wiring. When I opened up the box and separated the neutrals I ended up getting surprised when I "discovered" one of the neutrals was hot. When I measured that neutral it had 120 VAC. So I learned about "shared neutrals". The tool is helpful, but as in many things in life "there is more to the story". Just because the indicating lights light up "correctly wired" on a GFI circuit testing tool there still may be issues lurking inside the box that do not meet current code. And as you so perfectly demonstrated it does not mean that things are correctly wired; should be, probably is but not positively. While I am here, and this is already a long post, I have a question for you if you care to take the time to answer. At a residential panel in a home built in the 70s there are two separate circuits, each one protected by a separate 15 ampere (Ah) circuit breaker (C/B). And then there is a single 14-3 Romex. The black wire, from this single 14-3 Romex, is secured to one of the 15 ah circuit breakers. The red wire, from this same singe 14-3 Romex, is secured to a different 15 Ah C/B. Then this 14-3 wire is routed to a box in an upstairs bedroom. Inside the box in the upstairs bedroom the red wire is connected to a black wire from a different 14-2 Romex. That different 14-2 Romex goes to power a set of outlets in a different room. The black wire from the original 14-3 Romex powers the outlet, and then powers four other outlets in the same room plus the ceiling light using a second 14-2 Romex. Is this wiring lay out safe? I thought a size 14 wire was only good for 15 amps. The way this is wired, is it not possible that both upstairs circuits could individually be demanding 15 amps? If that were the case isn't that 30 amps on this 14-3 Romex? Since there is only one neutral wire from the original 14-3 Romex leading from the service panel up to the upstairs "box", and both circuits "share" this neutral; is not that neutral wire undersized for the total potential load? What would be the "fix"? Would running a second size 14 neutral wire from the box in the bedroom to the neutral in the panel be a safe & code compliant fix? Would I need to add a separate ground wire as well? Thank you for your valuable time and expertise. -Respectfully.

So, I'll have to upgrade my entire home or put all GfCI in ?

this is what i have at my house.bought it last year

Im having trouble myself. I put in a new receptacle with hot, neutral, and ground connected. Tester is still telling me open ground 🤷‍♀️

So helpful, thank you. Please help me figure out how to upgrade from a 2 prong outlet with no ground, to a 3 prong GFCI that is safe for equipment use. If the outlet box is plastic with no ground in sight, would the following be correct: 1. Change out the plastic box with a metal one 2. Use a self tapping screw to attach a 6” ground wire to the metal box 3. Install a GFCI that has a ground screw, connect the 6” ground wire, neutral and hot

You mention @1:47 that a gfci is acceptable, but does the gfci still trip to protect against shock?

How is a GFI going to work properly without a ground?

Then why in equipment such as ranges and dryers do they have a bonding jumper between neutral and ground that you only take out if you have a 4 wire recep and plug.

I knew it before you ever removed the receptacle… let’s pray that this said “electrician” has never trained any help and hopefully he has lost his license.

I hooked up a GFCI outlet to a non-grounded house. The green light is on. Is it OK to run my computer off of that outlet not truly being grounded don’t care about getting shocked or electrocuted. I don’t want a backfeed or something to fry my computer. I always thought the ground was so you don’t get shocked, but I heard that if it’s not grounded, the computer can build up static and fry electrical components.

The Fluke SureTest analyzer will not be fooled by a bootleg ground. While it is expensive at $300, it’s handy

Why not fish a new ground from the outlet back to the panel?

My entire house I just bought was this way and it fooled my inspector

Dangerous AF!

That’s called a bootleg; illegal and dangerous

*“Lectrician”*

Can you help me understand why this is bad? I believe you, but I'd like to understand it from a more technical standpoint.