Opinions on this wire tracer

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mark32

Senior Member
Location
Currently in NJ
Hello,

I'd like to purchase a descent wire tracer (Mainly for residential use, i.e. underground circuits) but don't know too much about them. I found this one on Ebay, perhaps someone can enlighten me as to it's quality, completeness (Is everything I need pictured) and a reasonable price you'd pay for it as I can't seem to find any info on it. Here's the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/Amprobe-Pasar-C...ryZ50971QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for your time, Mark
 

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
I would go with the Amprobe AT-2001.

at-2001.jpg
 

Thomp

Member
Greenlee make a decent one too. Don't know about buying something like that on ebay. Good Luck Thomp
 

blue spark

Senior Member
Location
MN
I guess I'm a bit confused. You said underground and neither shown will do that. Are you looking for a locater? We have one that picks up on 50-60Hz stand-alone or 85Khz induced for locating and depth or 812Khz induced for fault locating.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
My first reaction is to be leery of a device that says it can locate wires 13' down using nothing more than a 9v battery. The accuracy of such a low-power signal would, IMPO, be quite suspect. It may show the general path of a buried cable, and the approximate location of a fault, but I'd rather spend the money on something that is more like a locator you see the utilities use, as well as a dedicated fault locator. The funds spent on accuracy will be more than recouped when you don't have to dig a hole the size of a small basement to find the wire.

Personally, I use a Rycom 8879 and Progressive 2003.
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
The other day I used this

Amprobe AT-2005
AT-2005.jpg



To find this

Short circuit in underground wire
BadSplice1.jpg


Located here
BadSplice2.jpg


BadSplice3.jpg


I traced the wire from both ends to make sure of the location before digging.
When the ground was dry the breaker would hold. When the ground was wet the breaker would trip. It was an easy find but then again it was only 6 inches deep. Typical when a landscaper does the installation. They don't want to pay those pesky expensive electricians to do the work when they can do it themselves.
 

mark32

Senior Member
Location
Currently in NJ
Thanks for the replies. Basically I just want to trace/locate underground runs and the like, didn't think about finding a fault but that would be a sweet tool to have. There's no real need for me to have one at the moment but I always wanted to own one. Special thanks to Aline for the pics.
 

solaeros

Member
Location
Beautiful IDAHO
Have to throw my 2 cents in. I just purchased the Amprobe AT- 4000. works well tracing underground lines as well as through walls, but I think the 9v battery limits it's power. However, I purchased the 24v ac booster which helps alot.
 
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