Ring Or Radial

[cyberjunction]

Morning All

Can someone please sanity check for me.

Replacing an old 6 circuit fuse board.

There are 2 lines for what apprears to be the ring for all sockets in the house. There is only one ring for the upstairs and downstairs. Here is the problem

End to End, line and neutral fine but seems to be broken earth somewhere.

I have disconnected one side of the ring at the consumer unit and all the sockets downstairs work, I did the same for the other side and the upstairs sockets are all working but not downstairs, how can this be when end to end results on the line & neutral come back fine? Surely taking one leg out all sockets should still work as a big radial? Really confused

 

[sparks_114]

It could be a loose connection either on the line or the neutral conductor that works intermittently. I've had a similar case where that was the case and someone had borrowed a live from another circuit at the switch point (it was lighting circuits) which caused the circuit to be fed by two breakers (perhaps also a possibility there?!) and both had to be disconnected for the circuit to be dead! Have you also carried out the figure of "8" test which which could help locate the problem?

 

[cyberjunction]

Many thanks for your help not done anymore testing yet, being fairly new I am taking things slowly but surely and listening to advice like yourself to ensure safety and looking for common known problems, my next step would be to do exactly that......figure of 8.... to see what readings I get...
Thanks again

 

[Electro-tech]

Zs readings at each socket would give you some indication as to distance of socket from Consumer unit,whether upstairs or downstairs ringed or radial. May be lucky to find bad earths aswell.

 

[cyberjunction]

cheers many thanks

 

[Electricalserv]

Proper fault finding on rings. Start at the central most socket. Do an I/R test on either leg of the ring at that socket. Whichever way you get the bad reading you then go to the central most socket that way and repeat until you find the bad egg!

 

[cyberjunction]

cheers mate - It was one of the options I was looking and at nicely and simply put - thanks

 

[Electricalserv]

If I was you I'd be going to the very last sockets on each floor and looking for 1 leg in that socket. If you only find 2 in all sockets you know you have a ring with a break in it.

 

[telectrix]

also, there could be a bridge on the ring, thus explaining why some sockets don't work on 1 leg.

 

[cyberjunction]

did check all sockets, all suggests its a ring with 4 spurs

 

[cyberjunction]

also, there could be a bridge on the ring, thus explaining why some sockets don't work on 1 leg.

I was coming to that conclusion also it would make much more sense

 

[telectrix]

a quick check would be a socket tester to find which sockets, if any, had missing cpc. this might help localising the cpc break.

 

[cyberjunction]

thanks telectrix I did try that first, it turns out it is definately a ring so when i used a socket tester, one leg of the cpc was connected so it gave me a reading each time i was ripping my little left hair out.

I have now solved it and traced it back to a bad butt connector. I ran a new cable and voila!!

Again thanks to everyone, this forum is fantastic and so many of you are giving your time to help people like me without anything in return. I hope day I can be in the same situation to help others one day!