What should I do when there is no ground wire in an outlet?

Question

If there is no ground wire then can I just ground to the metal box? I did that once and when I tested my tester showed "no ground". Since it is hard or impossible to bring a ground wire from the box then what should I do to get "ground OK" when I test?

Answer 1

You might be able to ground it to a water line, since that is one of the backup grounds from the main panel anyway.

There really isn't too many things that will act as a ground.

I guess you could run a wire outside and to a grounding rod.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Older wiring used the metal conduct that it was enclosed in as the ground and it automatically grounded the box to the source ground. If all your outlets were two-pronged then this might be the case....but then it should ground when you hook the wire to the box (in theory). I was just about to replace some of these old two prong receptacles and thats what I was going to do. If it doesn't test as grounded then I suppose the source must not be grounded and if thats the case you will need some expert advise as how to ground at the source.

Answer 3

Its not code, but it should work, if the box and pipe are METAL, to ground the pipe somewhere to a water pipe. If this gets you a proper reading, you won't die in an electrical fire. Probably. If the water pipe is grounded. It should be. Do you get a proper test from any outlet? If not, your whole system is not grounded, and you need to put in a grounding pole outside.
You should have an electrician look at it.

Answer 4

The correct thing to do is pull new wire which has a ground wire to the outlet.; Second solution is to run a ground wire from a cold water pipe and attach it to the receptacle.

Answer 5

Older homes did not have a ground, my home included. I added a ground rod and ran a ground to my computer and outside outlets and left the rest of my home ungrounded.

Answer 6

DONT FVCK WITH IT!!! LOL