[Sierevello]

My wife told me that tonight she was in the shower and felt like she got shocked when she turned the water off. She said it was not bad but felt like a little tingle that was uncomfortable.

So I checked the continuity of the faucet knobs, spigot, tub outlet, and also the metal drain ring along with the plug actuator to open and close the tub drain. They all had continuity to each other. This is a home built in 1958 and the copper pipes are grounded in the box and there is also a ground rod outside the box in the back yard.

I then put one end of the meter in the ground of one of the bathroom outlets and measured the voltage of the spigot to ground and got nothing along with both faucet knobs.

However, when I measured the voltage of the tub drain ring and the drain actuator both showed 2 volts with reference to ground???

Does anyone have any idea what may be going on here? Also, if I have 2v on the ring and the actuator why don't I have any on the knobs and the spigot since they all have continuity to each other?

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks

 

[sirsparksalot]

Well, this needs to be fixed immediately. There's a grounding issue somewhere.

Do you have an electric Water Heater? It's possible that there's a problem with the elements.

Could also be a bonding issue, where the water pipes aren't bonded to the panel's ground rod.

Can be diffferent things, but you need to find out for sure.

I'm not sure of the voltage measurements required to diagnose this, so check back for the pros. In the meantime, you should try and find a cheap ($20-$25) Analog voltmeter. The digital ones can show phatom voltage and be incorrect for this type of troubleshooting. Make sure that the voltmeter can measure up to 240vAC.

Hope this helps.