Finding break in buried cable

Bill · 2015-05-17T13:23:41+00:00

Son has one of these automatic mowers to deal with his lawn that goes round 2 1/2 sides of his house. The mower mulches as it goes. When it goes. Today he was forced to get out the old Webb ride on motor mower (thanks for the help here in years gone by with advice on the repair of this). He moaned that he had to get the help of 2 men at the tip to get the grass cuttings into the skip, and that he was asked again whether this was domestic rubbish. The automatic mower works within a very, very long wire buried a few inches deep all round the edge of the lawn. Somewhere there is a break in this. He has a tone generator and receiver and has tried with a radio as a second detector, but says that neither of these work because, he believes, where the wire is broken it is earthed. The mower manufacturer's only suggestion is to dig at, say 20 yard intervals and divide the wire into sections until the problem section is found. He thinks this will be difficult and leave a less robust cable installation. My suggestion was to somehow put a very high voltage into one end of the wire and look for smoke, but I have been told that this is ridiculous. Any suggestions?

May 17, 2015 40 Replies

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gareth 11 years ago

A bit late in the day, but the old-fashioned Megger with the wherewithall to do the "Varley" measurement would have suited.

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Finding break in buried cable

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