Tracing Burried Romex in Yard

[Ray]

The previous owner of my home burried some Romex to power up a pool pump and he ran a branch to a receptacle for a non existent sheded off this to provide a receptacle to a non existent shed.

I like to do some trenching in my yard to run conduit to a workshop that I built but want to avoid the existing romex.

Is there a way/device to help me find the burried romex. I tried a metal detector and after adjusting the sensitivity it still picks up a lot of stray stuff in my yard and does not give me a clear picture of the location of the romex.

Thanks,

[BocesLib]

Shouldnt use romex in the first place, remove it by finding where it comes out and start pulling it up. Easy to find them

[roger61611]

If it's hot maybe one of those wire-finding things could locate it. But that is a dumb way to run power, it's sposed to be in a PVC pipe I think. I would not only rip it out but also check the previous owner's other wiring "handiwork".

[Dave Morrison]

One would assume the wire buried was UF type, before advising to rip it out you might suggest that the original poster used the wrong name and he should check to see if it really is interior Romex. Dave

[Andy]

Andy writes:

I haven't tried this, but I've heard of others who tried it....

Into the receptacle, plug a hair dryer or electric drill and have your wife or somebody run it..... this puts a LOT of static on the power line.

Use a little transistor radio to probe around in the vicinity of where you think the underground feeded might be..... The feeder will be radiating a lot of interference, and you might be able to track it this way......

If you have success, please let us know about it on this group. Thanks.

Andy

[Matt]

A similar method that has been used is to turn off power to the circuit, strip the wires on the load end, and twist them tightly together, attach a wire nut, and then wrap the wire nut with electrical tape.

In the circuit panel, take the wires feeding the circuit and remove them from the circuit breaker and reattach directly to the incoming mains power.

[Jimmy]

Is this how you suffered your obvious brain damage?

[Matt]

I never said I used it, you big silly. I simply said it _had_ been used.

Pay more attention.

[Doug Miller]

Thus creating a dead short across the incoming mains, and one HELL of an arc. What a brilliant idea -- NOT.

You have no business offering electrical advice to anyone.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[Phil Munro]

[Matt]

Thanks Doug.

Cause, I mean, I was serious and everything, and I really expected someone to actually believe it.

Thanks for being the usenet safety marshall today, you are doing your job well.

Put a capital G on that geek, will ya?

Putz.

[Olaf]

I don't even see a remote possibility of that procedure showing you anything useful. It's been used to turn the power off to the circuit? By shorting out the mains?

I say the redneck method for turning a breaker off for a particular circuit without having to know which breaker it's on is to short out the hot to the outlet box with a screwdriver. You already know which circuit(s) the main provide for.

[Matt]

Well, I believe the theory is that the romex will heat up like a toaster element, burning a black streak from its origin to it's destination.

Sort of like on "The Money Pit" when Tom Hanks turns on the kitchen lights.

And careful with that redneck advice, Olaf.

You'll probably get a warning from the safety marshall.

[Jimbo]

Matt:

I like a joke as much as the next person but this group is a mix of seasoned individuals with a wealth off knowlege on may subjects and other who don't know much about anything. Going on a public forum like this and even indirectly hinting that shorting out the wiring at the main box might help a person trace the path of a wire is just plain stupid. If just one person out of the possible thousands who lurk on this site follows your advise you could be responsible for someone killing themselves.

I look forward to your response

Jimbo

[Goedjn]

Well, if you can get to the other side of the transformer, your heirs will be able to find where the wire was by hunting for the little furrow left when said wire exploded..

[Bennett Price]

[Matt]

Jimbo -

If someone goes out to usenet and follows advice that gets them killed, then they shouldn't have been messing with it in the first place.

Usenet is not a qualified, guaranteed safe source of information FOR ANYTHING, and I don't recall getting the memo that said if you follow advice given here, everything will turn out just dandy.

I'm also very tired of the line "you could be responsible for someone's death". If that is true, then the exact opposite is also true - people giving reliable instuctions on how to do something, and someone follows it and dies.

By that logic, this group should not exist at all - it's a hazard and kills people!

Bottom line is - if you don't know what you are doing, and "it" involves fuel, electricity, powerful springs (garage doors), or anything else that holds the potential to kill you (a clothes dryer, a stove, a microwave) ... then don't f*ck with it. Call someone who knows what they are doing.

If a person isn't smart enough to know their own limitations and capabilities, a usenet forum isn't going to change a damn thing.

[Jimmy]

You're a complete village idiot and a useless troll. And I believe you when you say you are incapable of learning anything from usenet. I have stumps in my yard smarter than you.

[Jimbo]

Your response in nothing less and nothing more than I expected.

I have been using usenet for years in my hobby of restoring old cars and in my sons specialty TIG welding business. Nobody can have all the right answer to every problem and I have always found most usenet posters to be very genuine and willing to help others through a difficult situation. The number of top quality professionals willing to share their knowledge is amazing to say the least. However I guess it should be expected that their will always be people like you looking for an opportunity to mess with peoples heads.

Have a great day

[Matt]

Yes, I've heard trees stumps are all the rage in mobile home parks.

I'm sure you have quite the collection.