PTEWire Tracer & Circuit Tester -Tone Generator & Probe Kit - Find & Trace Wires & Cables, Test Circuit Continuity, Network Telephone Line, Coaxial, Automotive - Features Alligator Clips & RJ11 Plug

I knew this was what I wanted, but it saved me so much work by tracing wires without destroying the walls. I've used many times over.

Worked great. Simple to use. Saves time

I bought this after having the typical problem with a front porch outlet: it had Christmas lights plugged into it, there was some rain, and the lights stopped working. It wasn't a tripped breaker, so clearly there was a GFCI outlet in the path somewhere that I had to find. I noticed the garage outlet and the lamppost were on the same circuit, because they also stopped working. I tried manually searching the house for GFCI's. I found lots of them, but none of them were tripped. I was certain I had checked every inch of the house. Bought one of these out of pride - I'm not calling an electrician to watch them embarrass me solving a simple problem. So, I turned off the breaker to the outside outlets, garage, etc. Pulled out the front porch outlet and connected the red clip to the hot (black) wire, and the black clip to the ground. Turned on the probe and started searching all over the house. Everything made sense. I could trace it to the garage, and various other places. Went into the utility room, and no tone over the breaker box - again, just as it should be. Just about to leave the room when it started making noise near the door. Looked to my right - there was a huge shelf that we have always had stacked up with suitcases, tents, sleeping bags, etc. Pulled those out, and there was the missing GFCI. Tripped, of course. VERY IMPORTANT: Went upstairs and pulled all of the testing gear off the outlet, put the outlet back together, then turned the breaker back on, then pressed reset on the recently discovered GFCI. All is back to normal. Electrician probably would have done the same thing in 10 minutes and charged $200. The only reason I can't give it 5 stars is that it is clearly made inexpensively - cheap plastic, etc. I am sure it will not last forever, but in one used it has already paid for itself many times over.

I had run tons of wiring through an for an outdoor deck we planned on building over 15 years ago (ah, the best laid plans...) Now that we are thinking of moving and selling our house I was panicking over the 10+ wires that were out there and needed a way to remind myself WTH I had envisioned a decade and a half ago. I figured a tracer would help me greatly in that endeavor. Looking at the tons of tracers available I continually found myself coming back to the Klein products. But, I also kept thinking, "It's a tracer that I need for this one task right now and maybe in the next 15 years I might need it again, so, do I really need to buy something so expensive?" Though I almost didn't buy this tracer because by comparison it was so much cheaper. But, I pulled the trigger anyway (figuring if it doesn't work I can always return it) and am so glad I did. It did everything I hoped it would do and in under half an hour I had identified every single one of the wires I had out there (except for one, and that isn't the fault of the tracer, it is my fault for not keeping a single stupid piece of paper identifying everything in the first place... The wire isn't live, not even the tiniest sound is produced by the tracer no matter how many switches and circuit breakers I turn on or off so that one will remain a mystery). If you are looking for a great tracer/circuit tester at a great price, this one is highly recommended!

I understand that you are not responsible for the making of this device, how ever my opinion of this device is not that great. Based upon the description I was lead to believe prior to purchase was that this device has the ability to locate a wire that could not be seen. Yes this device does this to a very small degree. When the wire in question is attached to and the attempt is made to locate the wire sounds a lot easier than what the reality indicates. What happens is that as you move the wand with the receiver tip over the wire, yes it does emit a tone from the sending unit. How ever it is only if the wand is within 1/2 inch from the wire. If the wand is farther away, the device gives out no indication of an existing wire. Unless the wand is directly over the wire you will have no indication of a wire. Now understand when you are searching for a wire it is a wire you can not see. So if the wire in question you are looking for has to have at the most a distance of one inch in order to be located does not give you much room for success in locating that wire. Other than that the device is OK.

was not able to trace a wire, which was why I bought it. Returned.