Advice needed for electric pedestal tester

pianotuna wrote:
Hi J-d,

That is why I load the outlet with a 1500 watt device when I'm testing.

Since you didn't quote what it is j-d said that you're referring to I'm guessing you mean his last statement - "We still don't know if a pedestal breaker has "gone soft" but at least we won't burn something out or get shocked, if we lead off with a Tester." :h

If this is what you're referring to I guess I can see your point - load the circuit as you test to emulate the load your rig itself might place on that circuit. However, I've not once had my Progressive EMS connect if there was anything amiss ... the only reason I even bother with a tester is so that if that source does turn out to have some sort of issue I don't waste my time and effort dragging out multiple lengths of main service extension cable, which here in Ontario can often be over 100'. Most times that turns out to be a "make work" project 'cause the power source almost always proves to be acceptable, at least when I first plug in ... most of the errors I run into seem to occur later on - most often low voltage, sometimes accompanied by loss of ground. I've never detected frequency issues and have yet to run into a mis-wired pedestal but maybe I've just been lucky. :D All that said I am getting lazier and lazier as each season comes around and am more likely in future to just not bother pretesting at all but to simply plug in and let my Progressive EMS do what it's designed to do, automatically, with no effort on my part ... and likely what the vast majority of EMS owners also do. :D