Mains/Polarity Tests

wildebus

Full Member

Messages
7,873
Always think it is a good idea to have a mains tester if you are rocking up to random places and hooking up :)
I have bought the "habotest" test ones and I liked them as they have the lights that show you the status of the connection AND they have a voltage display and also an RCD Tester (all very useful features when using unknown EHUs
BUT ... Had 2 or 3 of them and over time one of the LED indicators has failed (different ones on different testers) so that aspect cannot be relied on and recently I noticed the one I keep in the motorhome has the LCD voltage display no longer working :(

Below it is plugged into a socket that is active but it is telling us there is an open ground (the middle LED is blown) and the voltage display is blank.
1775298260197.png

When working, I do like these units, but not sure of the longevity of them. I think though that it might have been at least partly my own fault? I leave this plugged in to a socket, not least so I can easily see it and check, but I have a Victron Multiplus and when it is 'Low Power' mode the AC output comes on every few seconds so as a mains tester it has probably - in the number of times it has been powered up and gone off - had the equivalent of a whole lifetimes amount of use in just one day of being plugged in!

So time to get a new tester and I quite like the look of another Habotest model - the HT107E (my old one is a 106E) - with a bigger and more informative Voltage display which lights up in green or red depending if connection correct or not (y)
1775300717086.png


But when I get a new tester, this time I won't be leaving it plugged into a socket full time!
 
When I was still working we always used to buy the orange case ones from RS for our engineers, never had a problem with them but were probably more expensive
 
When I was still working we always used to buy the orange case ones from RS for our engineers, never had a problem with them but were probably more expensive
From RS? At a rough guess, maybe 20x the price? I've still got a few RS tools but I don't think I would ever use my own money to buy tools from there!
 
From RS? At a rough guess, maybe 20x the price? I've still got a few RS tools but I don't think I would ever use my own money to buy tools from there!
lol, kust had a look and cheapest one is £24 plus VAT. Think they were under a fiver last time I bought from them. Probably 9 or 10 years ago
 
My campervan's inverter has "no neutral" the 230v output is 115v to the negative (chassis) ground on both lines. The ground fault circuit breaker will still work fine and I have a double pole protection circuit breaker and automatic double pole EHU changeover so, knowing which line is neutral is not really important.
 
Back
Top