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Bootleg ground at wall outlet. You have to be a skeptic to find these.

Found this on today's inspection. An older house that had 2 prong outlets in most of the house, with several new 3 prong's installed.

Someone used a jumper wire to go between the neutral and the ground lug on the outlet. This creates a potentially dangerous condition. It could have been done out of ignorance, or maybe to try to fool a home inspector, don't know. I just know that some inspectors would have plugged in their tester, seen a grounded outlet and moved on.

Yep, I'm good, if I do say so myself.

Posted by Jack Feldmann on 05/09/2009 12:52 PM

Comments (11)

made my day, can fool some of the people some of the time, cant fool

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11 Comments on Bootleg ground at wall outlet. You have to be a skeptic to find these.

MAY

Great info. I have to trust the inspector because there is a lot that can be missed-Dinah Lee

Good work Jack. Many inspectors would just assume everything to be okay if the tester indicated it was. Great that you pulled off the plate to see what was there. I assume the box isn't grounded and that it's a 2-wire system.

Yep, box not grounded and it is a 2 wire system.

MAY

Jack, it is extremely important to be thorough and it looks like you were.

Well done. I'm impressed.

MAY

Jack---good catch. Sometimes it is important when you find an outlet that tests as grounded to know whether you need to say "thats cool" or need to ask "umph---why?"

Just plug in a SureTest circuit analyzer to find bootleg ground/false grounds.

Vince,

Not all SureTest's check for bootleg grounds.

Not everyone owns that model of SureTest.

SEP

Jack,

Way to go! How did you know to pull the outlet to look for this? Did you have a bunch of ungrounded 3 prong outlets, but this one showed a ground?

Thank You,

Richard Acree

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Richard,

The house was older and had some 2 prong outlets, so I knew there were some un-grounded outlets in the house. When I found a grounded one, I suspected a bootleg, so I pulled the cover plate off and took a look. I removed the outlet to take the photo.

I do use a Suretest, but don't always trust it when it says OK.

NOV

I had one of those today - a GFCI breaker that acted ungrounded when I tested it in the kitchen (usually the first spot I test indoors). went "hmmmm" and looked a little closer. Not willing to believe willful deception when ignorance is still an option.

And yes, you're good!

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