I have a multimeter and I don't want to spend more money on other electrical test devices.
How do I use a multimeter to perform the same functions as a:
- circuit tester
- GFCI outlet tester
Electrical – How to use a multimeter to replace electrical testers, etc.
electricaltesting
Related Solutions
A non-contact tester might give you a false-positive on the neutral in some cases. Try testing the outlet with an outlet tester which will indicate if the hot/neutral are switched or open. Alternatively you can use a multi-meter to test it. If you are in the US, you should get ~120VAC between hot and neutral, but 0VAC between neutral and ground if the outlet is wired correctly.
I would recommend looking at the tutorial from SparkFun: How To Use a Multimeter.
It is a bit specific to the multimeter that they sell.
Related Topic
- Electrical – Why does the GFCI trip when I plug things into load side receptacles
- Electrical – Accidentally Touching One Lead Of A Multimeter While Other Is In Electrical Outlet
- Electrical – test an unwired light fixture with multimeter
- Electrical – How to test a three prong dryer receptacle for open neutral/ground
- Electrical – How to a GFI installed on an ungrounded two-wire line be verified
- Electrical – GFCI Outlet Trips with Receptacle TEST Button, but not with GFCI Outlet Tester Tool
- Electrical – How to test two-prong retrofit outlets downstream of GFCI
Best Answer
While, I understand your thought process, keep in mind that multi-meters, when combined with house wiring are not nearly as safe to operate as devices designed to perform these tests. You are paying not only for utility but also for safety (which is far more important).
I guess you mean outlet tester specifically.
Double check that you have the leads in the right sockets for voltage testing.
Measure the voltage
Check that the results match what you expect (e.g. 0, 120, 120).
You can't test this with just a multimeter. You need a load that will pass about 8mA at 120V (or >30mA at 230V for UK/EU readers) between hot and ground.
(Note, according to NEMA, a GFCI "test" button uses a 15kΩ resistor with a suitable voltage rating. This means the test current is nominally 8mA at 120V (or up to 9mA for a 10% tolerance resistor)
A typical multimeter has a 10MΩ impedance on its AC voltage ranges, so it passes less than 12 micro-Amps at 120V - too small to trip a GFCI. A "low-Z" range might use a 3kΩ impedance and pass 40mA at 120V - this is more than is needed for safely testing a GFCI. Note that around 10mA is the let-go threshold for humans and so currents above that can be problematic.
Fabricating something that is safe for use with 120 V AC is going be difficult to do for less than the cost of a purpose built tool.