Gardner Bender GRT 500A Receptacle Tester and Circuit Analyzer

Customer Reviews

Mine is broken

2002-01-18
The package says this item is warrantied for one year, but I can't figure out how to contact the G B Instruments Co, 800 phone number or email. Can you help. I just bought the item at K-Mart and it is intermittently not working. I am am an electrical engineer and we have several of these in the office. All the others work great.

Necessary addition to the tool box

2001-06-28
How much easier could it be? Just plug it into the the outlet. No possibility for human error or misinterpretation. If you do any kind of electrical work, whether new wiring or just replacing existing outlets, this little tester is the quickest, easiest tool for making sure the wiring is done properly at each outlet.

Easy outlet check and analysis

2008-06-30
Quick delivery from amazon. Just plug it in and decode the lights. Easy to use.

Great tester

2008-05-09
This is great to test wiring you have done or to check out the wiring in a shop or home you will be working in.
1) I use it to identify outlets that are live, switched, or on a given circuit in my house.
2) I use it at work where a reversed neutral or missing ground can wreak havoc on sensitive electronics equipment.
3) I used it to check out the wiring in my house before I bought it to verify all the grounds were properly connected. If they were not, the seller by law would have had to fix them.

The right tool for the job

2008-03-16
I bought a fixer-upper house where the original owner was not as handy as they believed themselves to be. I have had to undo many things including numerous wiring mistakes. When it came to the electrical, most of the outlets were flagged on the inspection report as being connected with the hot/ground reversed.

With so many things needing to be done, I chose to correct the electrical outlet wiring problems myself. I had no previous experience in doing so, but found connecting an outlet to be simple enough, and chose to spend what cash I had on other more pressing issues instead of on an expensive electrician. The Gardner Bender GRT-500A Receptacle Tester and Circuit Analyzer helped me to determine which outlets I needed to work on and then determined if I re-connected them properly. The inspector's dots sometimes fell off, so I didn't consider them to be a reliable source.

The GRT-500A, by using three light combinations, alerts to six different possible conditions. The first light from left to right is red, while the second and third lights are yellow. When the GRT-500A is plugged into the outlet, the second light only indicates an open ground. The third (yellow) light only indicates an open neutral. No lights lit, when plugged in, indicates an open hot. The first (red) and last (yellow) light combo indicates a hot/ground reversal. The first (red) and second (yellow) light combo indicates a hot neutral reversal. The second and third (both yellow) indicate correct wiring.

The GRT-500A is an inexpensive way to find and correct problems. Purchasing this tester allowed me to correct wiring problems on my own while spending money on other problems that were beyond my capabilities to repair. If you think you need a tester, this option is worth considering.

PROS:
Simple to use
Accurate
Inexpensive

CONS:
I have experienced none

Quick and Easy - Does the Job

2007-12-21
This device does the job, and, for the price, it's a no-brainer. As a Realtor I use this device regularly to find faulty circuits both when we list properties for Sellers and help Buyers acquire properties. The tester will not make you a property inspector, but it's a convenient and fast way to ensure that electric circuits are live.

I even bought a spare in case I lose the first one.

Very satisified

2002-09-13
Just bought a house where the previous owner was an "electrician wanna be" and had to correct a number of errors. Plugged it in, and it worked great everytime. Recommended.