Earth Tester?????????

[Hephs-little-lady]

We just had our holiday supplies confirmation letter and it say's don't forget to take your earth tester with you if you are on the homechoice machine.

What is an earth tester. Anyone have any ideas?

[deej]

Nobody replied so I thought I´d tell you that I read your post but have no idea. Sorry. But I´m very interested in finding out what it is, too.  You could write back to the company maybe.

[goofynina]

I have never heard of that but i am on the homechoice too so if you find out, please let us know.... thank you, oh, btw, I AM SO HAPPY THAT IT IS WORKING OUT FOR YOU GUYS........  you both are so awesome.......

[angieskidney]

I am not sure but might be something to do with circuit testing?? I am doing a search but so far have come up with nothing.. 


Why don't you call up your suppliers and ask them?

[livecam]

I don't know for sure but "earth" in the U.K. is what we here in the U.S. refer to as "ground".  It is an electrical term and in your case probably refers to an electrical grounding test on the machine for safety purposes.

[jdat]

I will confirm that this appears to be about the "earth" or "ground".

I can't believe they would expect you to have such professional type of equipment.

Basically what this does is measure and test your differential circuit breaker to see if it shuts the current off if there is an electrical leak through the electrical system in your house.

Sorry for the technical mumbo jumbo. .... it just makes sure that the electricity gets shut off if there is a current leak; if there is a leak in the network in your house the current could potentially go back up the tubing on your dialysis unit/cycler.

It is vital that you have your machine plugged into an electrical plug that is grounded!

[Hephs-little-lady]

Thanx guys for your help. I'll probably give Baxter's a call tomorrow and see if we can get one from them or if we have to buy one! 

[Black]

I will confirm that this appears to be about the "earth" or "ground".

I can't believe they would expect you to have such professional type of equipment.

Basically what this does is measure and test your differential circuit breaker to see if it shuts the current off if there is an electrical leak through the electrical system in your house.

Sorry for the technical mumbo jumbo. .... it just makes sure that the electricity gets shut off if there is a current leak; if there is a leak in the network in your house the current could potentially go back up the tubing on your dialysis unit/cycler.

It is vital that you have your machine plugged into an electrical plug that is grounded!

Wouldn't it be just as safe and maybe even easier to use a circuit/plug with a GFI?

[jdat]

I will confirm that this appears to be about the "earth" or "ground".

I can't believe they would expect you to have such professional type of equipment.

Basically what this does is measure and test your differential circuit breaker to see if it shuts the current off if there is an electrical leak through the electrical system in your house.

Sorry for the technical mumbo jumbo. .... it just makes sure that the electricity gets shut off if there is a current leak; if there is a leak in the network in your house the current could potentially go back up the tubing on your dialysis unit/cycler.

It is vital that you have your machine plugged into an electrical plug that is grounded!

Wouldn't it be just as safe and maybe even easier to use a circuit/plug with a GFI?

humm yeah that's a good idea too.
Now I'm not really sure if there really is a diference for the end user as far as protection between a differential circuit breaker and GFI.

[Hephs-little-lady]

I have a circuit breaker plug so i'll probably pack that and give it a try. Thanx. 

[Hawkeye]

In my oppinion they are talking about a GFI / outlet tester.  It is a piece of equipment we use to test GFI's and regular outlets to make sure that they are in working order and pop either the GFI or circuit breaker whichever the case may be at the recommended settings.  This way if there is a power surge it doesn't travel back up into the machine and cause damage to the machine or patient if they are hooked up at the time.  If they didn't give you one (not sure if it is practice to or not) you can pick on up from your local big box hardware store.  As kind of a side note, the older Fresenius machines had a separate dedicated ground wire that hooked to a special jack on the wall.  The ground screw were the wire attached still exists on the H and K models, but it is just used for electrical leakage testing now.  For those of you that owned a turntable back in the day, you might of had one with a separate cable from the power that you had to connect (or should have connected) to one of the case screws for the stereo you were hooking it up to.  It is the same kinda thing.

[Hephs-little-lady]

All sounds a bit complicated if you ask me. We leave in a few hours so if we don't have it now it's too late. I'm sure you'll here about it though if we blow Heph's cycler up! 

[Hawkeye]

I have a circuit breaker plug so I'll probably pack that and give it a try. Thanx. 

Definitely pack that, it will protect the machine just fine.

[Hephs-little-lady]

The circuit breaker worked just fine, in fact both of them did. I didn't realise it, but there was one on the extension lead we needed plus the individual unit we used. We had no problems at all.