How to avoid digging up electrical lines while metal detecting.

[Jay of MS]

I have been metal detecting for over ten years, a lot more recently. I have always had it in the back of my mind everytime I dig that I may indeed be digging a potential dangerous hazard (electrical lines).

What do you guys do to avoid this? I have thought about using a pvc trowel to dig but that just wouldn't work in some of the terrain I metal detect in. If we cut or push through a live line we are toast!!!

Anyone ever dug into a line? Any tips on how we can avoid being fried to death?

 

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[DeadElvis]

I have been metal detecting for over ten years, a lot more recently. I have always had it in the back of my mind everytime I dig that I may indeed be digging a potential dangerous hazard (electrical lines).

What do you guys do to avoid this? I have thought about using a pvc trowel to dig but that just wouldn't work in some of the terrain I metal detect in. If we cut or push through a live line we are toast!!!

Anyone ever dug into a line? Any tips on how we can avoid being fried to death?

With any submerged electric line you will have a hard time penetrating the insulation. Phone lines are another matter, but unless you wear a pacemaker you won't get a dangerous shock from them (phone lines).

In most areas, excluding recent neighborhoods, electric is above ground. If you are digging into an electric main I would hope you'd realize it before you hit copper.

DE

 

[old digger]

Around here I think "code" is that any burried electric line is supposed to be two feet down. Not sure elsewhere?

 

[Hemisteve]

More than likely, your MD will be going crazy or overloading if you are over live wires.

 

[Diggit]

I wouldn't worry at all. 90% of all electrical is overhead,and anything underground is so deep that with a standard coil type detector, you won't notice it.

 

[dustytrails123]

Some older homes didnt get buildt to code so things could be shallow...i used to burry cable for charter cable company and it was only 12 inches with the machine and 6-12 by shovel so im sure someone would be upset if you put your shovel through there cable and there tv was out all weekend... But i use the pin point on my detector and can trace things like that we would use that method from time to time while i worked at charter also and then marked it with yard paint

 

[snakeyes]

All the electrical at my house is under ground, and I can't even turn my detector on near it, it goes completly nuts.

 

[jeff of pa]

only Electrical lines I ever dug into were old. (Very Old)

in most cases while detecting look up, see if there is a pole between you & a building.
if there is, see if there is a line heading into the ground from the pole.
If there is & It's not bare it's probably not a Lightening rod.

I agree 9 out of 10, it's either going to drive your detector mad,
or be too deep, maybe even encased in pipe.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Be The Tortoise,

"toasted tortoise".

Sorry, could not let it go by; be safe.

have a good un........
SHERMANVILLE

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

About the only place where this would even be a concern, is *maybe* private yards of homes. Because I would assume that public utilities in public places are buried deeply. In a private yard, feeding singular lines, maybe someone didn't follow code to bury deeply? But in my 35 yrs. of this, doing 100's of yards, I've never had any such encounter. So I would not worry about it. Also: a strand of wire is hardly the signal you'd chase (it wouldn't give the type signals you're typically chasing for turf/yard hunting.) You'd have to be chasing linear faint non-pin-pointable type signals (assuming you could even hear such a signal, if it was approaching depths of 10" or more, with standard coin machines, set up in a standard way) to even hear them.

It'd have to be very shallow, and you'd have to be practically in all-metal mode, going after very unlikely signals, ignoring the fact that the signal extends in a line, etc... So it's just very unlikely to be a problem, anywhere.

I have been metal detecting for over ten years, a lot more recently. I have always had it in the back of my mind everytime I dig that I may indeed be digging a potential dangerous hazard (electrical lines).

What do you guys do to avoid this? I have thought about using a pvc trowel to dig but that just wouldn't work in some of the terrain I metal detect in. If we cut or push through a live line we are toast!!!

Anyone ever dug into a line? Any tips on how we can avoid being fried to death?

 

[TerryC]

I haven't had any problem with buried lines BUT ..... OLD electric lines in attics and walls were simply seperated by about 6 inches of AIR! Close enough for a metalic digger to short out and BAM! TTC