I don't like being shocked. Have not suffered a good shock
for over ten years. Then on a volunteer job, I debugged a
strange electrical problem that no one could solve. Got a
real good shock. Two circuit's hot wires were tied together
in one switch box. Two switches were suppose to control
separate circuits. The wireman tied both hot wires together
in that box. The 'unexpected' circuit got me real good. A
problem compounded by safety grounds not properly tied
together in another box.

Just one idea to investigate.

Joe Doe wrote:
I was trying to map the outlets in my house to the appropriate circuit
breakers. In addition to plugging in lamps etc. I was using a tracing
tool made by Sperry that you plug into an outlet and it squawks when you
position the receiving device over the appropriate breaker.

Almost all circuits in the house map fine - the tool adjusted for
sensitivity points to a breaker, I shut it off, lamps go off, all is
well.

In my kitchen, ALL GFCI outlets map to THREE!! breakers (all wrong).
All the GFCIs are on one breaker which is NOT picked up by the tester.
Two other(non GFCI) outlets and the fridge are also on this breaker.

This would suggest something is wrong. Any ideas?

I intend to have a professional electrician look at it but was
wondering what the error could be, and the urgency of having it
evaluated (have been living here for about 2.5 years and the house
has not yet burned down). House is 50+ years and mixture of
grounded and ungrounded wiring.

Incidentally, if I was trying to map the breakers with only a radio or
lamp I would not have detected what appears to be a problem.

I can be reached at if you prefer e-mail

Roland