A portable socket tester is put into your receptacle and provides back a reading, indicating whether your socket is working as intended.

A socket tester is a necessary element of any electrician’s toolkit. If you are doing electrical troubleshooting around the house, one of the first products to pick up is a socket tester that’s certified, quality-built, and which works.

Check Your Wiring With A Socket Tester

An AC outlet socket tester will tell you whether a socket has been properly wired or not.

See if the outlet is grounded or not, for example. If your outlet does not have a ground wire, a socket tester will indicate that. There’s also a risk there is a ground wire that isn’t properly connected or that the socket is grounded to some sort of electrical box that isn’t properly grounded.

This serves to indicate something important. A socket tester can tell you something’s not working right. What it cannot do is tell you how to fix it or where the issue is. If you intend to be your own electrician, there’s more to be done.

What Do the Readings On A Socket Tester Mean?

In terms of what a portable socket tester will tell you, there are multiple readings on it.

• ‘open ground’ means you have a three-pronged receptacle that is not connected to a grounding
  conductor.
• ‘open neutral’ means somewhere in your chain of electricity there is a loose connection or a wire
  that is not connected.
• ‘open hot’ would indicate a wire should be connected to power but isn’t getting any electricity
  coming through.
• ‘hot-gro reverse’ stands for ‘hot ground reverse’ and means the hot wire and ground wire are
  reversing.
• ‘hot-neu reverse’ stands for ‘hot neutral reverse’ and means the hot wire and neutral wire are
  reversing, similar to hot ground reverse.
• ‘correct’ means everything is working as it should.

A properly working outlet will also give a reading between 110-120 volts. If you don’t find this accurate to your socket, there may be an issue with the wiring requiring a fix or replacement. Subsequently, the socket can be improperly installed or faulty and also require a replacement.

Testing will save you time and, depending on what you find, may save you a service call from a professional electrician.

The PrimeCables.ca portable socket tester is cETLus and UL-listed for safety and will indicate standard problems with receptacles such as those mentioned. Check and confirm your outlets have been wired properly. Do some of your own electrician work DIY. Shop handy tools and gadgets like this at PrimeCables today.