I'm about to put my 1885 Victorian on the market. When I moved in, every receptacle except those in the newly-remodeled kitchen was a "2-prong." There are otherwise no ground wires or armored cable in the house. For convenience, I installed new "3-prong" plugs, ungrounded of course, throughout. I was fully aware of the consequences. (I'm an EE.) I have no doubt that any prospective new owner will have a home inspector come in to check things out. While more of an industrial/factory new build EE, I honestly wasn't aware that replacing the old receptacles with ungrounded 3-prong receptacles broke code. Now I do. I've familiarized myself with NEC 2014, and begun installing AFCI/GFCI breakers in the modern panel. I called Leviton and they sent me a pile of "GFCI Protected" and "No Ground Connected" stickers to place on all of my receptacles. So I think I'm good, right?
On my last trip to Lowe's to get some more breakers, I bought one of those cute little plug-testers -- the one with the GFCI test button -- for about 8 bucks. Yikes! When I plug the tester into any of the receptacles in the circuit for which I've installed the AFCI/GFCI breaker, my initial reading is "Open Ground." (Yay. It works!) But when I press the GFCI test button on the Southwire tester, the AFCI/GFCI breaker does not trip and I get a code for "Hot and Neu Rev." It would seem to me that the Southwire tester's circuitry is attempting to use the ground wire that isn't there to perform this test. Is that true? I remember reading something a while back that the home inspectors' circuit testers don't report GFCI tests properly on 2-wire, ungrounded systems. If that's true, is there a tester that "properly" tests a GFCI on a 2-wire system? (Note: Both the AF and GF test functions work perfectly on the breaker itself.)
I noticed that one of the modern, new-ish GFCIs installed in the updated kitchen also seems to lack a proper ground, and yet when I depress the "test" button on the GFCI it does trip it. But the Southwire's test button does not trip it. Five feet away is a properly-wired GFCI, which reads with my tester that a ground wire is present and this GFCI trips with both its internal "test" button as well as with the test button on the Southwire tester.
In an effort to reduce how many pages long my potential buyer's inspection report will be (peeling exterior paint, ancient furnace, etc.) I'd like to make sure that the wiring is at least up to code standards. If I have to install new 2-prong receptacles, I will, but I'd rather offer something better.
Here are my questions:
Is this Southwire model 50020S-A receptacle tester really that bad that it can't trip a GFCI of any kind without a proper ground wire present?
If the answer to #1 is yes, is the LED indication that the hot and neutral wires are reversed when I depress the "test" button meaningless?
If the answer to #1 is yes, is there a proper receptacle tester that I should be using?