I bought a mains cable detector from Toolstaion and admittedly it was el cheapo ..£8 or so but it's very erratic ..it sometimes beeps for cables that are not live and sometimes doesn't beep for cables that are .. Can anyone recommend one that they use and find good . There don't seem to be many in either Toolstation or Screwfix ...
Live Cable Detector Recommendation
Dec 26, 2009
6 Replies
1 - Place one hand on the wall whilst using
2 - Bosch DMZ-100-Zoom-Thingy-Ma-Bob
Do a search on Ebay, about =A330-35-40-45 from memory some years ago.
How old is the house?
- If it is pre 1960 (and even a little later) it is not uncommon for plaster over doorways to be reinforced with chicken wire where it spans say wood-to-floorboard/joists above. As a result you can get induced voltage and other weird effects.
- Also realise that lighting circuits have a fair distance carrying just Live so can induce voltage.
- Similarly cables running alongside one another can induce voltage via inductive & capacitive effects, put your arm along a cable and you can feel a tingle for this reason and IR testers may complain a circuit is live when it is disconnected at both ends but run alongside several other cables which are loaded.
Do you mean the kind that find cables in walls, or the type that tell you if an exposed cable is live or not?
In message , Usenet Nutter wrote
Although I haven't used one, the Zircon devices are often recommended when similar questions have been asked
Approx £45 to £140 from RS
The former
Thinking about it should the one that does the former not also do the latter ... or does it just find cables live and dead ?
One detect metal, the other detects metal which is live or has a potential upon it.
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