Receptacle tester
Sperry Instruments GFI6302
Three-light receptacle tester with a GFCI trip button — plug it in, read the light pattern off the label.
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Best for
Checking every outlet in a house quickly for miswiring
Specifications
| Detects | Open ground, open neutral, open hot, reversed polarity, hot/ground reverse |
|---|---|
| GFCI test | Yes — trip button |
| Outlet type | 120 V three-wire (NEMA 5-15) |
Specifications as published by Sperry Instruments. Confirm against the current spec sheet before buying — manufacturers revise models without renaming them.
What's good
- Cheap enough that there is no reason not to own one
- Finds the single most common defect in older homes: a three-prong outlet with no ground
- Walking the whole house takes about ten minutes
What's not
- Light patterns cannot distinguish a bootleg ground from a real one
- No voltage reading — pass/fail only
Our verdict
Buy this before you buy a multimeter. It answers the question homeowners actually have — 'is this outlet wired right' — in one second per outlet, and a bad result is a concrete thing to hand an electrician. A bootleg ground (neutral jumpered to ground) will read as correct, so a pass here is not proof of good work.
Compare with the alternatives
- Klein Tools NCVT-3P — confirming a circuit is dead before you open a device or box
- Fluke 1AC-A1-II VoltAlert — a simple, rugged live/dead check on 120 v and 240 v branch circuits
- Klein Tools RT250 — diagnosing voltage drop or a flaky circuit, not just wiring order
- Klein Tools ET310 — labeling a panel without two people and a lot of shouting
- Klein Tools MM400 — a first multimeter that will not be outgrown for home work
- Fluke 117 — anyone who will do this more than once a year
- Klein Tools CL800 — finding out what a circuit or appliance is actually drawing
- Fluke 323 — measuring current in a tight, densely packed load center