UK "Open Ground" reported by socket tester

[Kevin D]

Using a cheap plugin socket tester ( yeah I know! ) a few of the sockets in my house report " open Ground ". However, when removing an offending socket faceplate and using a multimeter on the terminals I get 230v between Live and CPC. Please, before I call an electrician does anyone know why the tester is reporting open ground? Ground would seem to be there as far as I can tell with DMM.

Thanks

Kevin

 

[mainline]

Really, you need someone who's competent and has a decent tester, if the socket tester is OK on some and not on others it suggests something is wrong.

There are other ways, but I'm not going to give advice on how.

 

[brianmoooore]

Your multimeter needs an extremely small amount of current to display a voltage reading. If the cpc in your socket is not connected to earth, but does connect to, for instance, a couple of metal back boxes set into a masonry wall, that could easily provide enough current for the meter to show what it does.