...know which wire is Hot, Nuetral and Ground when the...

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Answer by lindsey
Submitted on 8/4/2006
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Well.. The only way you'll find out if you can't find the schematics is if you read it out with a multimeter. Now.. you have to be very careful with this procedure if electrical power is applied, if it has internal power coming from somewhere or anything like that. If it is not plugged in anywhere then you are pretty safe, but still remember that whenever you read out a wire with possible power coming from it to put your black meter lead in a ground first. It's easy to find a good ground if you aren't familiar with electricity. If you have a multimeter set it to read ohms(which looks kind of like an upside down horseshoe symbol) I would suggest using a ground on an electrical outlet (which is the fattest hole on modern outlets and it is also underneath the two skinny slots. Be careful not to touch meter leads inside of the skinnier slots because you don't need to read out your electrical outlet, you are just looking for your ground wire. So always be sure to give your meter a ground first and foremost, and then just touch it to each wire and see if you read 0.0 ohms or 0.04 anywhere around there would be that you have found a ground. Now if you are reading 0.L. on the meter it means the ohmage is out of limits so you don't have continuity, so that means that would definitely not be your ground wire. Keep your black meter lead in the ground and move your red meter lead on to another wire until you find one that reads 0.0ish. If you get 0.0 right away I would suggest checking all the other wires just to be sure and if none of the other wires give you 0.0 then you have found your ground. Now as far as reading power out.. it's REALLY important that you have the black lead in the ground before you touch the red lead to the wire. This could cause burns or electric shock if you accidentally touch the wrong thing with your leads. And the only way you can read out power is if there is power going to the unit... so if you can't send power thru it, it might be hard to tell.... but if you can... make sure you set your meter on the right setting... Does your unit run on AC or DC electricity? If it runs on AC then move your meter to the symbol that looks like a wavy thing.. and if it runs of DC then move the dial on the meter to the symbol that has one solid line and a dashed line on top of each other. Then I must reiterate... MAKE SURE YOUR BLACK LEAD IS IN A GOOD GROUND BEFORE YOU TOUCH THE RED LEAD TO THE POSSIBLE POWER SOURCES. Also it's a good idea to do this with a buddy that knows CPR.. I don't know how electrically minded you are.... but electric shock can cause cardiac arrest and if you don't have someone there... well... I sure you understand.. if you have any doubts about your abilities... then you should probably call an electrician. But good luck and be careful. Hope this helped.

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<< Back to: Electrical Wiring FAQ (Part 1 of 2)

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Question by Robin
Submitted on 5/29/2004
Related FAQ: Electrical Wiring FAQ (Part 1 of 2)
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How do I know which wire is Hot, Nuetral and Ground when the wire colors are not the usual Black, White and Green? For instance the wires for my stove range blower are Blue, Red and Yellow and no wiring configuration was supplied with the installation manual. Please Help!

Answer by someone
Submitted on 9/21/2004
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Touch all the wires and you will coem to know which is hot and which is cold! Nice Idea

Answer by geyes
Submitted on 12/15/2004
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you need to use a current tester, voltage meter that can be found in any hardware store. with that you will be able to test for an active current.

Answer by Tyrone
Submitted on 1/13/2005
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One word. Multimeter.

Answer by kulu
Submitted on 1/27/2005
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I can tell you how to distinguish between the ground and the nuetral. Connect any wire to the mains(hot or +ve)and check the other two wires for cotinuity, with a tester.if nothing glows then interchnge the previous wire and put another one.Its basically that the negative positive pair give a continuity where as negetaive -ground or positive ground dont give any continuity

Answer by saledunk
Submitted on 2/8/2005
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red-hot, blue neutral, yellow-earth

Answer by finalz
Submitted on 5/12/2005
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luckily I've just done a physics exam ;), lol anyway the live wire is the one connect to the fuse(usually red/brown) the earth wire is in the middle and goes to the top probably connected to the far end of the fuse cant remember its late(usually yellow/green twist) and finally the wire that goes off to the left is the neutral wire usually blue, hope that helps

Answer by ken
Submitted on 6/12/2005
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Red is live (hot) Blue is Neutral and Yellow is Earth (Ground) Hope that helps

Answer by Koschei
Submitted on 6/27/2005
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Grab a stray cat or the neighbor's kid (entice them in with candy) or something and make it press different wires together. Don't forget to wear rubber gloves.

Answer by movzx
Submitted on 9/3/2005
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Ground should be connected to chassis, this can be easily checked with multimeter. Distinguishing hot and neutral wires is not essential.

Answer by andy tenery
Submitted on 1/13/2006
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This one's easy. When you get shocked.

Answer by arnold
Submitted on 1/14/2006
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You get into tha choppa then you live and find out

Answer by Ed
Submitted on 3/10/2006
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If you have a volt meter, touch the black meter wire to the stove chassis and the red to one wire at a time until the meter reads out the voltage related to the appliance. This is assuming the stove is plugged in. The one with the voltage reading is the hot.

Answer by gillman
Submitted on 10/22/2006
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maybe u could touch them. The ground will do nothing, and when u touch the hot and neutral at the same time u may die or suffer from cardiac arrest. Thats what i would do, hope this helps

Answer by Jess is an idiot
Submitted on 2/22/2007
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Guess! That's what makes it fun.

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Answer by damienoh
Submitted on 4/12/2007
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get a multi metre, separate the cables, turn on the power and put the metre across until two cables you get a 220v or 110v depending on which country you live, then you have your neutral and live (hot) Now get a phase tester and find the live wire.

Answer by S.
Submitted on 6/25/2007
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neutral is blue or black live is red or brown earth is green or green and yellow.