Learn how to check receptacle troubles with a receptacle analyzer. With this tool, you can find out a lot about a receptacle before you ever remove it from a wall. The tester simply plugs right into a receptacle and does all the work. It sports three LED lights that, through different lamp combinations, will tell you the problem with your receptacle connection.
Some of the most common problems are open open hot, neutral, or ground wires. It also tells you if the hot and ground wires are reversed, whether the hot and neutral are reversed, or the if the outlet is wired correctly. The lighting patterns will tell the story of the state of your receptacle and is listed on the side of your tester. This is an inexpensive tool to buy and it sure saves a lot of time when tracing receptacle problems.
