Klein E-450 circuit tracer

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Eddie702

Licensed Electrician
Location
Western Massachusetts
Occupation
Electrician
Anyone use the Klein E-450 tracer kit and if so, what do you think of it. I would expect to use it for tracing Romex in residential more than anything else?
 
I have one and it is ok but not great. If I had to use it often I'd want something else to be honest. I also recommend making friends with it at home first.
 
Some of the reviews are bad but it's rated 4.7 out of 5 which is good. I guess there is a learning curve which I would expect. Bill on the "Sparky Chanell" on you tube says it is good
 
Now if you don't read how it works and end up just doing a non isolated ground and not disconnected nuetral your signal won't have a proper antenna so you need to be smart about what you're hooking up to. This applies to a dead short also
 
Side note: if you run into a lot of shared neutrals especially where they only use one neutral to feed 3 circuits from either a 120/208 or 480/277 volt panels please do your homework. I retired from a large hospital that was built over 70 years ago and only a few tracers performed great. We had the Amprobe tracers that cost over $500. One of the largest union electrical contractors in our state only purchased cheap tracers for thier guys and after losing a few hours trying to identify circuits they would have us use our Amprobe tracers to locate the circuits in a few minutes. We had a great electrical supervisor who demanded maybe ten years ago that every circuit must have its own neutral ( no more shared neutrals ).
 
Well, I bought one and I can see there is a learning curve as far as the different hook ups you can use and how to operate it. I expected that. But it did find the run of Romex I was looking for. It's all about using the right level setting to trace at I think. I think the more you can isolate the wire you are after the better.
 
letgomywago said:
Now if you don't read how it works and end up just doing a non isolated ground and not disconnected nuetral your signal won't have a proper antenna so you need to be smart about what you're hooking up to. This applies to a dead short also
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Can you please elaborate
 
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