Now I just took off a two-way switch there were two sets of wires in the back of the box one set I left alone the other set I took apart and now can't remember which two to put back together before I put the three for the switch any idea how to do a quick check on which two I put together they looked a little fried so I want to clean them up and put the back together before I put the switch back together went to go get a tool and forgot which two it was and he suggestions I'm used to changing switches and outlets normally I don't need to use a voltage box but in this case do I turn off the power first cuz I always shut the power off to change my switches bit electrocuted before wasn't fun PS love the video
Hey guys and gals, I hope this was helpful. If you liked it, please let me know by clicking the like button and consider subscribing! If you have any questions feel free to shoot them to me here!
How can i test a hot wire without a ground , to see if there is voltage like you explained if we have an older home we would need to find another way to test the hot wire if there isn’t a ground
This wasn't helpful for my issue. I can't figure out why 2 different dedicated GFIs stopped working. They won't test or reset. I wired a regular outlet to one circuit & still won't work. Tested just the wires after removing the GFIs & get 2 different results. Get ground to white hot on one circuit & the other both ground to white & ground to black is hot. 2 different wire test results. Can't figure the issue unless there is a loose wire at the panel or something else going on. I have no clue.. Any help appreciated!
Thank you for this video. I have a multimeter and a no contact probe. Now I know how to use them both. I have a 1998 park model, which is a mobile home type vacation unit, and I'm trying to replace two faulty self-contained light switches. The switches are in the bathroom. One switch goes to the exhaust fan and the other switch goes to the light above the vanity. I purchased two two single pole SC070 switches from a mobile home dealer. When I removed the two old rocker switches, I noticed there were four white Romex cables coming up from the bottom. There was one large staple stapling them to the wood. Doesn't look like there is any problem there. Each switch has one white cable going into the top and one white cable going into the bottom. Between the two switches is a short 6-in white cable. It comes out of the top of the first switch and goes into the bottom of the second switch. Somehow they are using a power tap or power tap and splice method but I'm not sure the person who installed this did it correctly. I have downloaded the installation instructions for the Pass & Seymore switches. Before I removed the switches I marked each one left top, left bottom, right top, and right bottom. Then I marked the connector in the middle as left top, right bottom. This is so I would know exactly how to put the cables into the new switches. When I opened the left SCD switch, some wires just fell out. They weren't connected well. Because of this, I couldn't tell which wire was pressed into the blade connectors first, second, and third. Do you have instruction on this type of switch, an SCD070? I have seen videos where they have gotten rid of the self-contained switch and used a modern traditional switch. It makes sense except for no one talks about the connector cable between my two self-contained switches and why they just eliminate it when they switch to a modern box switch. If you could elaborate at all, that would be great.
Wow, thank you very much for the feedback. I am very humbled by your kind words. It is really encouraging to hear when a video was able to help someone or can help multiple folks. So I really appreciate the feedback Jeff and hope to see you around! 🙂
Very helpful video. For those of you who live in the Chicagoland area, you may or may not know that all wiring has to be installed in metal conduit. Commercial and residential. What that means is you probably won't see the ground screw being used on light switches, because the conduit system is the ground. Anything that is connected to the conduit is part of the ground system. Keep that in mind if you need to put a probe lead on ground.
If I was building today, I would put all wiring in stainless steel conduit, all exposed, not hidden inside the walls. Plumbing too! Right after my divorce.
Great video. Clear and precise description of how to test for which wires are hot. I'm installing new switches today and until I watched this video, it wasn't clear to me which black wires were load and which were line. Two Thumbs Up!!
Good video. So glad you didn't clutter it up with a bunch of graphics and titles and corny music. What caught my attention was that phrase in your description, "...regardless of wire color." Mine are indecipherable, pink, red and yellow. None of them correspond to what one would think. First try to replace the switch tripped the breaker. Although the voltage tester "pen" works great, I like your suggestion. First I'm going back to the wall box to separate the three wires as far as they will stretch. Then test them again. I have a feeling I'll have to borrow someone's multimeter. Thanks your instruction. ADDENDUM: I used the pen-type voltage tester to find the hot wire, it's red! Perfect! Now all I have to do is figure out what the pink and yellow ones are. Thanks again!
Very helpful, actually the best video for an electrical beginner like me. My condo was built in the 80's. I added a separate light switch for the bathroom exhaust fan. I only have a yellow wire and a white wire in the ceiling to connect to the fan. The fan has connectors and you only get one shot at it. The connector has white, black, ground. I think the yellow wire is the hot wire but if i stick it in the black hot wire portion of the connector and its supposed to go into the white! Well once you put a wire into the connector it will not come out. Your video showed me exactly where to test and how to test. I'll flip the breaker on and test at the switch then test the two (white and yellow) wires for the exhaust fan. Thank you.
I have a problem with my wires it is old wtre with just white and black wire and wire is old paper coated in my ceiling there is at least 8 white wires a d 8 black wires and upstairs I have no bed room lights what do I do to have my lights working.
This video was doubly helpful. Several other videos recommended the pen-type voltage detectors, without a full explanation of possible downsides. This one demonstrated not only pen-style detectors, but also multimeters ... I already have a multimeter and now will save the time and $ of adding a pen-type detector to my DIY arsenal. Kudos!
Really should get a non-contact voltage tester as it is quick and the situation may arise where the wire you want to test has a wire nut on it. Or you’re working on a ladder and reaching over your head to find the hot wire. What he didn’t mention is that you should check the NCV tester on a hot circuit before using it to make sure it is functioning properly. BTW- I have both devices.
Just as Patrick commented already, very helpful for electrical beginners or someone like myself that has done it before but it's not often and has been a long time. Subscribed!
Great video and very well explained. I know you mentioned that the non-contact voltage tester cant be relied on 100% in some circumstances. What about just verifying power is out after turning off a breaker? Would you rely on the voltage tester alone or bust out a multimeter?
Great video, I thank you for sharing the warnings of when not to rely just on the tool, as a novice, or someone that just knows enough to be unsafe! Great reminder to double check and also take that extra step and just kill the power, be safe, we matter!
Thanks so much for how you explained everything. I'm a first time home owner and have had to learn just about everything by myself. I watched at least 4 other videos first that still left me unsure, really appreciate your help.
Adam, this was a great presentation. What if you don't have a ground or neutral in that switch box? In most cases you don't. The switched side of the circuit is the only thing in there. Have you ever used a two wire neon test light? You can identify the HOT or line wire without a ground or neutral. You might not want to show this in this venue, but it works.
I really like simple straight forward videos on how to do very simple tasks and that was PERFECT! great job.. After I do this a dozen or so times I will look to do more difficult routine checking.. thanks again.... Jim
It was helpful, BUT, what if I don't have any ground cable or anything to put the black probe to ground? Being a concrete wall with plastic wire boxes, no ground wiring and nothing nearby to use as ground...
Run an extension cord from a nearby live outlet- that IS grounded- to the area you’re working in. Stick the black probe into the female ground of the extension cord (the round hole).
I really appreciate your videos, they are well explained and they show a step-by-step process until the end, there are no shortcuts you get to see the results with no missing steps. I've watched many how to do videos and many would edit and you are like "what just happened", once again thank you.
Adam, another very helpful video. Thanks! I will keep searching for information on my challenge of a two-wire older home I recently bought. Great house and property but I believe it was wired back in the dark ages. ...Tom
Adam awesome video. My question is why did you change the tester when you went to the bare wires. Could I have still used the original cheap multimeter tester you started with or was this a special situation with the bare wires where you needed to change the multimeter?
I have had 3 Klein testers, never a problem. My very first tester was a commercial electric brand, and it burned me the first month I had it. Buy quality for this kind of stuff, I believe it helps.
Thank you for the video. My light switches don't seem to have a ground wire. Where I live we don't have neutral wire in the light switch either. So how do I test for the live wire? Thanks.
Hi Adam, I heard you say that depending on the home, some neutral wires will be hot...why is that? My home is wired that way and still trying to figure out why the white wire enjoys shocking me every so often. Great videos I recently subscribed and so glad I did...Keep them videos coming. Thank You!
I don't think that he said "some neutral wires will be hot", but rather some "white" wires will be hot. This can be the case in switch loop wiring, in which the power comes in to the light first.
Nicely done, not overly technical or talky. Could you update this with a view to the many newer designs of switches and outlets? Leviton (and probably other makers) have obscured the actual connections so it's hard to test once you've seated a switch! Any way around that problem when swapping out older switches or receptacles?
Thanks for the very helpful video. Just a little question, some of my electrical outlets have ground and some don't. For the cases when there's no ground wire, can I run an extension cord from an outlet with with ground and touch the ground with the black probe and then touch one of the wires with the red probe to find hot wire?
Hey Clarke, yeah they still carry it and others like it. Just looks like the link that used to go to it has changed. I will get that updated soon. Thanks a lot for letting me know!
Non-contact voltage testers can also sense hot wires through Romex sheathing but not well, if at all, through the old 60+ year old type of sheathing that is covered in some sort of woven fabric type material. Even a high end Fluke tester barely lit up when I was tracing the path of a circuit. If you’re dealing with old cables, verify your voltage testing with some other method.
there seems to be a lot of confusion about 30A circuits DO THEY HAVE TO BE DEDICATED or can a 30A amp circuit have multiple receptacles? I understand that sometimes a 30A circuit has to be dedicated if the device is a high amp device but I believe that there is a confusion as to if a 30A circuit always has to be dedicated. That may be idea for a video
The way I would put it is that if you just need to find the hot wire the voltage tester will do, but if it is necessary to find a fault in the circuit then you need to use the multimeter to check for ground or neutral ground because if the neutral is broken somewhere, the circuit won't work; if you can't get 120v between hot and neutral then the neutral is broken somewhere in the circuit or panel.
What do you do when you are installing a ceiling fan and it does have: ground, hot and neutral wires but in the ceiling box there is not ground to conect, what do you do with the ground wire coming from your fan? Thank you
My home is probably full of wires that are red and white. I just wired one side of my garage after demo'ing out all the old outlets and the main wires that I hooked up in a new junction box were only red and white. No ground. Same thing with wiring up a chain of LED shop lights. What saved me was having those exact same Klein tools you used in the video.
You used a multimeter with just one probe touching ground, without touching the other end to a known ground. How does that work and what reading would you expect to get when touching ground?
Shalom Aleichem. As I'm a retired mechanic on disability I've not done much home electrical work, especially since being zapped 40'ish yrs ago with 220 vts. I'm currently staying at my lady's house while I fix up mine down the rd. She has a well an it was working fine until I got up one morning and the breaker was tripped. I clicked it back on and nothing happened, the pump didn't kick back on. I went out side and located where the wire from the breaker box tapped into the main wire leading to the well hiuse some 100' (+/-) away. I took my red lead from my multimeter and touched it to the black wire coming from the house and my black lead from the multimeter and touched it to the bare nutural wire and got 119.5 vts. I guess I have to go (slowly) into the wood's and check at the well itself. I know to test input wires & press switch, but anyone else have any other idea's that I'm not thinking of? Ratson haba b'shem YaHuah
Helpful video for sure, but I want to confirm something you said in the video, but did not demonstrate. My 1960's apartment boxes have no ground wire. I was told the metal boxes, conduit pipe, and BX cables are grounded by default, given the way the electrical was laid in my building. I have red and black wires in some of my switch boxes. If I want to test which wire is hot, I need to place the black probe to touch the metal box, and then use the red probe to touch each wire. Whichever wire indicates 120v on the meter, that's the hot wire. Do I have this correct?
Great video. I have a question about a garbage disposal switch.. Mind stop working and I can't figure out which wire is feeding the power to the switch so I can shut the breaker off. The switch is on the right side of a double box. I hope you can help. Thanks
Thanks for reading this I know your very busy. Once I find the hot wire, what about the neutral. Are they hot wire specific. Before I took off the 3-prong outlet, it was testing for open ground. They all are testing for open ground because someone just hooked up 3 prong receptacles to a two prong setup. Now that I put in a gfci its testing for an open hot but the little green light next to the test button is lit up. The gfci comes tripped and because the wires are still off or I need to ground the grci, It wont reset. Just stuck...
At 4:30 when checking the voltage do u have to be careful not to let the red tester touch the metal side of the light switch and the bolt 🔩 at the same time. I think I touched both with the red tester and a big spark popped
Good explanation, however: ■ If the switch is a 2-way switch (3 wires), you will find 2 "hot wires" depending on the position of the other 2-way switch that works together for the same lamp; so, you have to go turn on or off the other switch to find which one of your "hot wires" is actually the hot one; alternatively, you can unscrew all wires in both switches to find the hot wire. ■ If the switch doesn't have a ground wire connected to its ground screw, you will have to use your skin as a neutral, or a neutral from any near outlet (neutral is the larger of the 2 slots), I found a switch on my home, that doesn't have a ground wire connected to its green screw, I will fix that.
Hello and thinks for sharing your knowledge. I have an old house that was built in the 50'S with the two prong receptacles and someone put in the 3 prong receptacles but they are test for open ground. They have no ground wire in the box. After putting in a gfci receptacle it tested for open hot. So I thought i reversed the blk wire the hot wire to the load and not the line. Still read for open hot . then I swapped the neutral wires around. Now im lost. When I test the wires with a multimeter it backlights red and I get 117.2 Volts and the other blk wire gives me a wired number like 9.679 or something. But the green button on gfci is lit up. I've read you can ground the receptacle box to the grn nut on the gfci. Please help. I need to get this up and running to feed the daisy chain.
The metal box in an old home is a source for ground? I'm asking because I don't have the neutral wire, just two black wires and a metal box in the wall.
It will let u know there is juice in the box which is good. I guess a meter is nice, I use a 'Wiggy' or one can use a lamp socket with 2 wires. I hold one wire to either neutral or metal box and probe with the other,one wire at a regular switch will always be hot the other wire depending on position of switch, a 3-way will have common or pole and one of the travelers as being HOT
What about finding a hot/line wire on an outlet? Would I have turn off power. Separate the wires the turn power on and then the wires to see what's hot?
What do you do when you are installing a new ceiling fan and it has: ground, hot and neutral wires to connect it, but in the ceiling box you find hot and neutral wires only ? What do you do with the ground wire coming from the fan? Thank you
Any idea why some resources say to turn off the breaker first? Made no sense to me as how will I read electricity when there’s no electricity running through.
Hello Adam can you use the Blue tester to test the wires in the box? Why did you which tools when you tested the light switch? And also I need to find a consistent “hot” wire to tie into to add a socket in my attic. What should I use? Thanks In advance
Ive done the multimeter test and ive stumbled upon a case in which none of the black wires would give out a reading. (single pole) i tried grouding with the ground wire and also with the metal outlet case. Any ideas whhy none of the wires have a reading? there are no issues with the light switch...not sure why this is hapening.
My doorbell circuit has two black wires and no ground. When I measure the voltage between them I get 18V AC. To find out which one is hot, I followed the instructions in this video, except I connected the black probe of my multimeter to the ground on a regular 120V outlet in my garage using an extension cord. I expected that one of the wires would read 18V relative to ground and the other would read 0V. Instead, I found that one reads 10V and the other reads 8V... Any idea what that means??
So I put the meter on AC reading, put my black on ground and red on black but it read very low. Did the same on black to ground and red to white and it read low, then I set the black on white and red on black and it read 120ac. How is that connected to a switch? I thought the black would be the hot and neutrals just get bonded together
I have and OLD house, tube and knob wiring, I have only a hot and a neutral wire, no box no ground. Both wires are cloth wrapped wire and the same color, how can I tell which is HOT?
So i am wiring a ceiling fan. I have one black wire that was tucked into the box. Thats my feed through. Then i have a white which is the neutral and a red and a white. I used a non contact voltagw meter with the breaker on and both had voltage. Someone told me to use the volt meter like you have to see which one is always on. Im assuming i have to have power off to do that?
Checking the switch with the multimeter like you did before the 5:00 mark. I’m getting nothing but I turned off the breaker. Should the breaker be on when checking it?
Dude! in the part where you are testing the loose wires with the multi Meter. There are electrical switches to the left of it. On the far right of that switch box there is a weird thing with a little screen at the top. I bought a house 5 years ago and have one of those and have never been able to figure out what it is. What it controls and why we have it. Any chance you know what it is? It is on the box that controls all the lights for outside the front of my house but it does not seem to do anything no matter what I press.
Yeah that is a timer switch. I have it to control my outdoor garage lights so that they turn on in the evening and off in the morning. By the way that it sounds that is probably what you have or had.
if you know for a fact that the white wire is a neutral, always go between hot and neutral to check voltage. electrical things will work even if you lose the ground, but nothing will work if you lose the neutral. is important to check between all three wires for correct voltage.