faulty plug socket?

i can only give general advice here,i have been an electrician for 37 years,you have no experience in electrical work,if you have any doubt get a spark in,the martindale tester is fine for checking the sockets,but if a nail has been driven through the live conductor,then you will only find it by getting a spark in who will test the cable with a multimeter,cant see it though,cables are not clipped to skirting boards on the inside,but as i said ,if your worried get a spak in,

mm,
March 2011

I am not an electrician but physics/electronics teacher .... having read your question a word of caution in using a 3-neon-plug-in-tester. While 3 neons will indicate that an appliance plugged into a passed socket should work it could give a false sense that all is well.
If you have been decorating it is possible that a nail or similar has penetrated a mains cable and made electical contact (most dangerous case) with the live wire while missing the neutral and earth wires. In such a case you will get 3 neons but you will also get a shock if you touch the nail!
A competent person could check this out when the MAINS IS TURNED OFF by testing for such an electrical connection by an electrical continuity test using a multimeter.
To get an electrical shock you only need to touch the switched-on-live wire and an electrical earth route such as the floor or a wall.
This is another storey version of drilling into a mains cable.

best wishes Nyge C
March 2011

the tester will cost you around £20.00 or so,as i said you just plug it in to the socket,and i think that last guy ment a voltage tester,not test lamps,test lamps do not show any indication of voltage,they just light up a bulb

MM
March 2011

or buy a martindale tester,you just plug it into the socket,it has 3 neons on it,depending on what ones light up,it tells you where the fault is,i.e.open circuit earth,live and neutral reversed,faulty neutral,its a lot safer for you just to plug it in rather than mess around with test leads,

MM
March 2011

You need a test lamp that shows voltage. if you put your test lamp on the wires in the back of the socket, red/brown is live, black/blue is neutral, your test lamp should show 240 volts, if its showing 50 ish volts its probably a neutral fault and you need to get a electrician to find the fault,
if the wires at the back are showing 240 volts then it could be a defective socket plate. As all ways with electricity DONT mess with it unless you know what your doing and you have the correctly insulated tools

Bidge
February 2011