Is this a spur?

[taylor414]

thanks for your help Ban

 

[roberta1000]

You should never need to test this live!

Isolate power, test for dead.

Check continuity of the ring at the socket using low ohms on your meter.

Would you be able to explain this again for me - ie test for dead and then do a continuity test.

Im going to buy a cheapish multimeter today but have never used one before.

Many thanks

Cheapish is OKish for what you need. Even cheap meters from maplins are pretty good nowadays just not able to reliably measure very low resistances.

1. Make sure that your meter is working OK on the volts range by setting to a >250V AC range and checking on some known live circuit (eg a lampholder) that it reads OK. Note AC - there will be DC ranges too which won't do.

Note that you need to be careful here not to short the thing out or connect yourself to it. I assume you know all that?

2. Switch off the mains, open up the socket in question, check with your meter between live and earth and between live and neutral that there are no volts. If you want to be quite safe (and it costs nothing) also check between neutral and earth just in case.

3. Undo the wiring and separate all of the wires.

4. Make sure that your meter is working OK on the ohms range by selecting the lowest ohms setting and shorting the leads together. You should get a reading of zero or nearly so.

5. Check for ohms (continuity) between the 2 lives, the 2 neutrals, the 3 earths. If you get continuity (ie a very low ohms reading - possibly as low as 0 depending on your meter) it's a ring (because the legs are joined together far away at the consumer unit). If not it's not (because the spur is now not connected to anything). If it's somewhere between around 1 ohm or so and something higher get an electrician because there's a problem with the ring continuity.

This isn't infallible but it's good enough for what you want.

 

[taylor414]

The clear instructions are very much appreciated.

thanks

 

[333rocky333]

You will need to ensure everything else on the circuit is unplugged and any spur units switched off , when you do the continuity test or you will get misleading results

 

[roberta1000]

oops!

 

[saxondale]

You should never need to test this live!

Isolate power, test for dead.

Check continuity of the ring at the socket using low ohms on your meter.

Would you be able to explain this again for me - ie test for dead and then do a continuity test.

Im going to buy a cheapish multimeter today but have never used one before.

Many thanks

Cheapish is OKish for what you need. Even cheap meters from maplins are pretty good nowadays just not able to reliably measure very low resistances.

1. Make sure that your meter is working OK on the volts range by setting to a >250V AC range and checking on some known live circuit (eg a lampholder) that it reads OK. Note AC - there will be DC ranges too which won't do.

Note that you need to be careful here not to short the thing out or connect yourself to it. I assume you know all that?

2. Switch off the mains, open up the socket in question, check with your meter between live and earth and between live and neutral that there are no volts. If you want to be quite safe (and it costs nothing) also check between neutral and earth just in case.

3. Undo the wiring and separate all of the wires.

4. Make sure that your meter is working OK on the ohms range by selecting the lowest ohms setting and shorting the leads together. You should get a reading of zero or nearly so.

5. Check for ohms (continuity) between the 2 lives, the 2 neutrals, the 3 earths. If you get continuity (ie a very low ohms reading - possibly as low as 0 depending on your meter) it's a ring (because the legs are joined together far away at the consumer unit). If not it's not (because the spur is now not connected to anything). If it's somewhere between around 1 ohm or so and something higher get an electrician because there's a problem with the ring continuity.

This isn't infallible but it's good enough for what you want.

only 1ohm or below?

 

[roberta1000]

only 1ohm or below?

Ohmmeter of uncertain quality and ranges.
But this is a gross check rather than a signoff.

This isn't infallible but it's good enough for what you want.

 

[333rocky333]

The op only wanted to determing whether it is a ring or a radial

He wanted to know as he does not want to spur off a spur, quite correctly.

He had already passed the stage of removing the socket so I presume he knew how to isolate it, even if unable to prove it.

I tried to advise him how to acheive this, I do not want him to work on live gear either, just refit the socket and simply plug something in, repeating with each red leg with the other sealed off, a simple plug in tester would have been sufficient.
Isolating each time before touching.