Continuity test question...

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Dgonza9

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I finished wiring up my panel tonight. I decided to do a continuity test to check that everything was grounded. I have a stainless steel panel that I painted.

What I found was that the inside of the panel read zero when I touched it and the ground bus bar. However, when I touched the ground bus and the outside of the panel it gave me the infinite resistance sign.

The only thing I can think of is that the paint is acting as an insulator of some kind. Or is there something else going on? Is this a problem?

d12f2aaf.jpg


Thanks.
 
What Dan says. Take the tip of your meter lead and scratch through the paint (in a spot where it won't be seen easily) and retest to verify.
 
Yes the paint is preventing the meter probe from contact with the metal. Just a scrape into the paint until metal is seen will make the contact.
Or Yea what he said...... :)
 
Why bother testing the outside for continuity? If the unpaint inside is grounded the "outside" is grounded since it is the same piece of metal... or am I missing something here?
 
Right, I wouldn't expect to read ground through paint. Just open the panel and touch the lid from the back. If it has ground, good enough.

It does have a ground from the inside, so I'm good.

I connected the ground to the door of the panel, though. So I wanted to be certain the entire panel was grounded and not just the door. I couldn't tell if the hinge had a plastic piece in the center or something.

Just wanted to be sure. Thanks.
 
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