Cable, pipe, stud finder - recommendations?

Looking at the moment and as usual Amazon has a mix of 1* (doesn't worj) and 5* (want to have its' kids) reviews so not much help there.

Are they all of a muchness or should I go for a known name?

Cheers

dave R

Reply to
David
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I've have a Plas Plugs one, simply called a stud finder and not claimed to do pipes/wires etc, for years (20 if not more).

While it isn't claimed it finds pipes or wires, I've used it for both. I've even used it to find wood blocks behind a metal skin on our motorhome.

Reply to
Brian Reay

every one I have bought hasn't worked very well ... but I am a cheapskate and buy junk.....

Reply to
Jimbo at the Trailer park ...

I have a cheapo stanley one, not very good

I also have a blue bosch one, with dedicated metal/wood/electric modes and still overall not very good, it manages false positives and false negatives :-(

Reply to
Andy Burns

I made one with CMOS gates, works very well at finding live wires. Doesn't do anything else. A metal detector would do the rest presumably.

Not tried it but I see you get get mobile apps that pick up the mag field from mains wires carrying current, don't know how useful they are.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I have an old basic B&D pipe/cable detector which just has a sensitivity control - it reliably detects metal in walls , I trust it and to me its an essential tool. I also have a Zircon Multiscanner Pro with settings for studs, deepscan ,metal and AC - its unreliable and I never trust it by itself.

Reply to
Robert

I've had reasonable success with a Zircon one, possibly this one:

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- it's a curvy shape like a mouse, but I don't remember the 'Deep Scan' switch.

It found studs behind plasterboard and tiles, and cables were easy. No idea about pipes (but if they're metal it shouldn't be too hard).

You have to calibrate it right, which might be the problem with people reviewing it.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

For finding the nails in lath and plaster walls or screws in skimmed plaster board walls and hence the studs I've found the Zircon M40 metal detector to be very effective and much better than cheap stud finders.

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Reply to
alan_m

Personally, I've had a few over some time. The worst tool was a cheap Stanl ey one which constantly thought there were studs everywhere, even when away from the wall. The best one Bosch GMS120 Digital Multi-Scanner (find a rev iew on it here

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Btw, it's on sa le now.

Reply to
tetianashpek

I have one of those, as a cable finder it gives false positives and false negatives.

Reply to
Andy Burns

I have an (old) PlasPlugs stud finder one which I've found remarkably good. While it wasn't sold as a cable finder, it does find them. I don't recall using it for pipes but I would be surprised if it didn't work.

I've even used it on my motorhome to confirm where the 'strong points' to mount thing on the rear are- it worked through the thin metal skin.

The trick is to use the calibrate function correctly.

Reply to
Brian Reay

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