I can't tell you how helpful this was. I've had the same Klein tracer for a year and have almost thrown it away several times being unable to trace anything. Why would this info about "tuning" the sensitivity not be in their documentation? Go figure! But wow, now I can actually trace. Thank you so much.
@@toolsandtacticsyou're not a qualified electrician. You just taught your viewers to poke a screwdriver around a live panel. First thing to do is turn off the main, turn on a flashlight, and connect the tone generator to the wire you think it should be. I don't even know how you have an electrical credential showing people to shove a screwdriver near live wires inside the panel like that. It's not just one wire at a light switch. If you contact two wires with your screwdriver, you get two legs shocking you, and you can die.
@@toolsandtacticsalso, if you don't know what the extent of damage is from a short, check resistance with a test leg of wire and a multimeter. Old school. Kids these days are useless.
Thank you BIG TIME! I can't think of any RU-vid video I've ever watched that has helped me more than this one. There is No mention of tuning the tone volume and watching the light - in the Klein owner's manual. I'm tracing wires in a giant house feeding 105 keypad switches in a Crestron lighting and ceiling fan system. I wanted to scream with all the false readings I was getting. Not anymore! Fantastic job, great video!
OUTSTANDING!! I was one of the "lotta people" who got this wrong. Thanks for the video. (Note to self) Read the manual next time. This is a HUGE help to me after misusing the toner for years.
Great video. Very helpful. I have that Fluke toner and it works great for me. Reviews on the Klein pointed out that it has weaknesses as well. 2 good choices for sure.
I will say the actual generator for the fluke. Is very nice and I've used them in combination with each other. But the actual wand 4 fluke isn't as good
Thank you! I have been watching a lot of video, but your is the most helpful on earth! I used to click on neutral on the black clip to trace, not ground, not accurate. I also didn’t know I used to set the highest level, it cause confusion like you say. Thank you!
Well sort of. Sensitivity varies by distance of the run. You may still need to turn up the sensor if the receptacle if far away from the breaker panel if you want to use the light.
Great video! Can this tool trace a neutral wire in a dedicated circuit in the panel? This video is one of the best I’ve seen on the practical use of a tone generator to trace electrical wire in walls and receptacles for diy
the fluke 1 is ok, I have it too, but this 1 has the light!Ffor a while I used a fluke toner and klein probe and discovered the light.. and what a difference!
The video is good, respectable and in terms of tracing lines in short circuit, the Klein Tools ET450 is much more precise because you can trace even over sherock walls with or without power, and even if you have lines on the ground. example in the garden or patio. This tracer is good but an error and if the circuit to God tracer is energized. Otherwise, as I said, the video is good.
So I have a customer where they have a leak in their copper line set for the hvac system. But they had an addition done in the past. So I don’t know where the copper runs. Can I use this to trace the copper line? How would I do this? The copper is already grounded.
Im considering this toner for some old knob and tube trace and replace. Understand I need a good ground for it to work. Found some 14/3 that was used from the panel to a junction box where tw seperate runs of knob and tube start. They used the red wire on one breaker as a feed and the black as another. It was hidden pretty well but when going to insulate the attic space, we found knob and tube. 🤦 Would you recommend this tiner for such a job?
Thanks for the tips. Question what exactly are you doing at 5:37...Are you trying to adjust the sensitivity of the probe? Because i checked the manual of that klein probe (VDV500-820) for link you provided, and supposedly all those buttons do is adjust volume. I don't see anything about sensitivity .
The fluke 3000 is a good tester. If you’re toning out a line all you have to do is touch the line with your hand while pressing your toner if you have the correct line it will make a sound. I’ve never had an issue.
@@toolsandtactics Man sorry to bug, but a quick question. I've got a dead outlet, and having a hard time tracing wires with this tool. When tracing hot wire to panel, I can't pick up a tone there at all, but also having a hard time just even tracing the wire behind wall in conduit. I got the red clip on the hot wire and the black clip on ground wire, so I think that's right. Also, how to trace a neutral wire on, since attaching clips to it and the ground wire will show continuity?
I have a HOT ground wire (120 volts) on a small light/outlet circuit. Breaker tripped occasionally, now it instantly trips. Should I use your suggestion with the extension cord and plug it into a different/good circuit? Then would I be able to trace to find the short behind drywall? Thanks for any suggestions - and GREAT tutorial!
Yeah to trace all parts out so you know where to look use a good ground from the extension cord and try that but most likely either 1 of 2 are very common 1 fed from a gfci ( maybe this is an outside light) or 2 most common open the switch that controls it and you will find a melted mess and ground touching the black wire or hot terminals or behind the panel cover a melted mess Your gona have a hard time Traci g it out if the hot is touching the ground with a multimeter ( in continuity) so if the black ( hot) goes to ground this could get tricky check ever box you suspect that circuit to be in commonly a long run will need to be replaced I can make a short explaining what to do if you want to Email me a basic drawing /diagram of the room light and stuff
@@toolsandtactics Thank you for the advice and the offer to make a short! First I'll try opening the wall up right where I found the Hot ground wire first, and check everywhere else I can (switches, outlets and fixtures). I think with your suggestions I might be able find that... "melted mess", hopefully it's close to where I found the Hot ground. If my investigation draws a blank, I might have to take you up on your kind and generous offer. It's going to be a couple of days before I can get back on it, but I'll certainly keep you updated. This might help someone else too. THANK YOU again!
@@toolsandtactics I apologize for the late update! I was able to find the short. Luckily it was very close to the switch that fed another room. I just traced it around to the next outlet it fed, opened up the drywall and bingo! There it was, FRIED. It was burnt bad, burned all the way through a 14/3 Romex cable. It appeared to be a mouse had chewed through it, but not sure... as there was no mouse carcass. Anyhow, THANKS for helping me out with this scary situation. Best to you and your channel.
Would this work through walls? I’m trying to trace a mystery light switch in my house. I’ve already checked all the obvious stuff. Breakers off for the switch and nothing else in my house turned off. Last resort is to just see if I can follow the wire through the wall.
I’m curious if you ever found what that mystery switch controls. I’ve got a couple of them in a 30 yr old house I recently moved into. I suspect one was intended to control a ceiling fan light that’s no longer there; and the others I suspect were intended to control outlets installed inside multimedia cabinets back in the day when ppl hid their ginormous stereo components in cabinets.
Can you put the toner on a live circuit for instance if you looking for a breaker but the panel isn't labeled and you can't just flip breakers on and off due to being in industrial plant? Also voltage too much to just short out safely. I was wondering if the voltage would fry the toner or not. Usually it's 480v but figured you could attach toner to one leg but would be 240v on it to neutral. Every video I see has toner on dead circuit.
This is a federal Pacific panel, not the best, but obviously still works. Yeah you better test that a bunch of different ways before you confirm it still works
Yeah You don't have to use the ground from the circuit just a good Ground source like you can use an extension cord and plug some scrap wire into the ground prong and put the black clamp on that and the red clamp on the black to trace out the other wires on the smoke detector cable conductors
@@toolsandtactics great thank you. There’s a break in the wire coming from the panel to the first smoke alarm. So hoping to set up tester at the panel and find the broken wire somewhere behind the ceiling wall. Thank you
@@nickmillionn7319 for best results disconnect the ground on the romex from the panel completely, attach the black clamp from the toner to the ground bar in the panel and alternate the red clamp from the black to the white on the romex
@@nickmillionn7319 YOU COULD ALSO, 1 WITH POWER OFF AND FULLY DISCONNECTED FROM THE PANEL BREAKER ECT JUST THE ROMEX IN YOU HAND you could first check to se if any of the conductors ring out continuity to ground 2 disconnect the other detectors from the daisy chain too and verify that they ''ring clear'' then intentionally ground the disconnected romex to the first smokey and ring them out but you probably already did that ( meaning not unintentionally grounded ) (sorry if this is basic im just being thorough lol)
Hello my friend, i want to ask you one question do you think i can trace a wire in the car with this tool, if it's possible can you help me please, how to setup the tool to find a wire, does the battery has to be connected or disconnect. Thank you in advance.
@Luis Martinez hey, yeah disconnect the battery, and before you hook anything up try toning ( with a Multimeter the wire in question to the bare metal chassis of the car to see if it's shorted if it is the toner won't help you very much If its shorted you wont get a great signal you can leave the toner hooked up and listen to see if the sound changes when you cut or remove the wire you suspect , to speed things up Hope that makes sense
@@toolsandtactics thank you for responding promptly, i sincerely appreciated, i am going to try the way you say, i will let you know tomorrow. Again thank you.
I'm sure this was very informative if I didn't need to turn my volume down because of the constant beeping. What was the purpose of having to record right next to the unit the entire time. Your voice was further away, so it focused on the alarm. Anyway, I appreciate the tutorial. Best of luck.
I would say.. zinsco do federal don't trip so there has to be something wrong with the wiring first... zinscos( aluminum bus) arc at random for no reason other than they hate your house and want to make it ash so in short I think federal are bad but zinsco Sylvania gte are worse and deserve more attention thanks for comming to My ted talk lol
It's not a circuit identifier it's a toner you can't use it with electricity on you would usually turn off ALL the breakers to find the 1 But then we wouldn't have any lighting for the video hope that helps thx
Could of been a very helpful video if not deafened by the sound 90%of the time. Half the stuff yo say can’t be heard cause you have to turn the vol down so low to not go deaf from the tone. So this is not a useful video on you tube lil common sense goes a long way. Maybe find some before your next video
Lately I’ve been using that fluke toner not the one that they used to sell at Home Depot the blue one I’m talking about, but the one that had the numbers on it with the light but right now I Literally just received the ET 450 Advanced circuit tracing kit.. I’m not trying to shit on your video or anything like that I just use that toner and I know it only tones up to 200 feet I believe I know there’s two different ones I might be mistaken that one for the cheaper one
@skunkbri that's cool, some of the higher end ideal 1s work amazing This is the best non hand tool klein makes usually the meters and stuff from klein is garbage compare to others for the price. Thanks for the input!
Excuse me, one question is this tool good for tracing a short on a car, cars work with DC-(direct current). Do you think i can trace a wire with this tool he is showing. Please help me, also does the battery has to be connected or disconnect, thanks in advance...
