Wire tracing equipment

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Rawls007

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Anybody know of an affordable wire finder that will locate covered up outlet boxes behind the walls? All of the models I've seen are $500 and up.
 
...and all of the models that will work well and not frustrate you are $500 and up also.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, the "fox and hound" phone man type toner equipment will work out half decent for just drywalled walls.
 
Wire tracers have their place but the first thing we do to find a buried outlet or switch box is to take a straight edge (long level or board will work) and hold it up against the wall and look for the bulge in the wall surface, there it is. This only works with drywall though.
 
A lot of the buried stuff I find couldn't be found with the "straight edge" method. The last buried box I traced was buried very deep inside a ceiling, and the only way to find it short of tearing the walls/ceiling open was with a tracer.

My Ideal tracing kit was about $550, and my Amprobe was closer to $1000. Yeah, it's expensive, but when you have a tricky troubleshooting job, they're definitely worth the money.
 
I recently had to locate a clogged sprinkler valve... not having my equipment here I went to the local Home Depot and bought 3 tone and probe kits for a side by side comparison. Gardner Bender, Ideal, and Fluke... the Fluke did by far the best... finding wires 6-8" behind drywall... (it was also cheapest and used regular batteries)
Unfortunately it couldn't find them below 1' of dirt... until I picked up a $25 metal detector at Harbor Freight Tools... it could pick up that tone from several feet away, no problem :D
 
Dave, Thanks for that information in your post. I tried the GB with no luck in a similar situation. Can you tell me the model of Fluke you used? Thanks.
 
Yeah, I was disappointed with the GB also... Its nice and small but I didn't like that it took those expensive watch batteries and had such short range. The little adapters that come with it are cute but they are easily made in the field if necessary.

I'm not sure what model the Fluke was... but its under $50 and the only one Home Depot carried... next time I'm there I'll get a number.
 
Fox and Hound

Fox and Hound

mdshunk said:
...and all of the models that will work well and not frustrate you are $500 and up also.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, the "fox and hound" phone man type toner equipment will work out half decent for just drywalled walls.
Click to expand...

I've been using the fox and hound for about 12 yrs now and the majority of the time it works great. With some practice you can hit almost dead center of your box.

J.S. Harvey
 
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