Have no ground wire in romex is that why gfci tester shows 'open ground'

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vikasintl

vikasintl

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My gfci tester shows open ground ..is it because there is no ground wire in that romex? this is kinda old house and it has metal junction box but only white and black wire ..is this reason why gfci outlet shows 'open ground' ?

if so is there any solution without putting a new romex with ground wire?
 
Yes it is because, there is no ground and yes the fix would be new wire. But the gfci will work as advertized and outlets on the load side of this can be chaned to 3 prong outlet if you label them with no ground.
 
nealtw said:
Yes it is because, there is no ground and yes the fix would be new wire. But the gfci will work as advertized and outlets on the load side of this can be chaned to 3 prong outlet if you label them with no ground.
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So even thought tester says 'open ground' on this gfci receptacle ....and there is no ground wire in this old romex ...gfci will still protect me and the circuit? ..yes when I push test button it shows light and device attached to it stops working ...is that enough for safety?
 
vikasintl said:
So even thought tester says 'open ground' on this gfci receptacle ....and there is no ground wire in this old romex ...gfci will still protect me and the circuit? ..yes when I push test button it shows light and device attached to it stops working ...is that enough for safety?
Click to expand...

That is how I understand it. The gfci measures the balance of power between power and nuetral and if it goes out of balance it turns off.
 
GFCI is a code compliant setup to get three prong receptacles on an ungrounded circuit. The receptacles should be labeled as no ground.
 
vikasintl said:
My gfci tester shows open ground ..is it because there is no ground wire in that romex? this is kinda old house and it has metal junction box but only white and black wire ..is this reason why gfci outlet shows 'open ground' ?

if so is there any solution without putting a new romex with ground wire?
Click to expand...

Yes there is, and as noted the lack of a grng. conductor has led to the reading.

What's interesting, is that you were able to test the recepticle, without a NEMA adapter.

A NEMA adapter allows you to plug a 3 prong device into a 2 prong recepticle.

An electrician would not have set a 3 prong recepticle as a finish in a 2 conductor circuit, so someone has changed this in the past.

While changing a 2 prong too a 3 prong recepticle was a common homeowners practice because of the prevalence of grounded appliances, before GFCI's had been approved for use.After their approval it became a recommended practice that each replaced recepticle be with a GFCI recepticle, because of the practice of mixing lights and plugs on the same circuit could create a hazard, were a failure to occur.
 
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