Circuit Detective Breaker Finder Review
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- Опубліковано 13 лют 2023
- This is a cheap and relatively common circuit breaker finder tool, it seems to work well enough but you have to rave the wand several times for it is self calibrate before it finds the correct breaker and you have to make sure to keep the tool sideways or it will not work.
Been using the exact same one for about 15 or more years installing residential lighting fixtures and doing electrical repairs. Has saved me a lot of time and legwork trying to find the right breaker. I’d say it works about 90 -95 percent of time. I’ve only had a few panels that it would not work on. You don’t need to wave it around. Scan all the beakers one time. Then on second pass it will identify the correct circuit.
I used to plug in a lamp and flip the breakers until the light went out, then I realized I could plug in a radio and not have to go up and down the stairs to the breaker box in the basement. 🤠
"Scanning" pass is necessary to calibrate the tool to the specific circuit breakers in your panel. Square D may have a different thickness of plastic or resistance. A problem occurs when you have a subpanel that uses different breakers than your main. I calibrated the tool on the smaller 10 circuit square D subpanel, and it would not recalibrate without removing the battery (or waiting 5-10 minutes between scans. It's always best to use a new battery since it's usually a year or two between needing this tool and even though it works at the box, it may not be strong enough to pick up the receiver on the fall side of your mansions west wing. My $0.02.
One other tip? If you've jury-rigged something tapping power from a junction box (like an idiot/me) and you also have that going to a breaker as well (in essence getting power from two breakers), 1) you are lucky if they are in "phase" or fed from the same leg of the main and 2) did not go boom. This causes a back-feed issue and is not good because you need to turn off both breakers to shut off power. If it's back fed, you may think it's "off" but you are still getting juice from the 2ndary breaker. This will create at minimum a neat light show ... or worse.
Tip 3 - never use your tongue to test a breaker.
Over-n-out.
Bought one. It worked for outlets on my downstairs where the breaker box is, but not for any outlets on the second floor.
Thanks for info very helpful.
I hope you cured the fungus on your thumb.
I got one and it works but it has a certain range it can go up to. It works in my kitchen which is closer to the breaker. But not in my living room which is further from the breaker.
yea, junk, and one thats next to the box shows multiple breaks, it works but it doesnt
These are very useful although I'm not so sure about that "learning" feature.
I have the Klein unit and it works great, saves my tail a whole lol time chasing down circuits.
Thanks for the video brother.
The Klein is a way better tool (at 3x the price). The calibration is a detriment when tracing circuits of a main and sub that use different breakers as you have to remover the battery to recalibrate after "learning" panel 1 (GE) if you want to check panel two (squareD) every single time.
So I bought this same one and did it exactly how it says ran it twice and it beeped on a certain one on the second pass I turned it off but I still had power on the socket I’m trying to work on. Can you help ?
Nice find.
Does the plug in outlet have to be hot ? I am trying to figure out which breaker but the outlet is dead at this time
Would think so as it can't transmit if there's no power (light indicates if it's hot)
didnt work for my box, found one know circut, then all over and multipy hits for the one i needed. box and breakers 1986 lol, and one outlet nothing, sometimes easier to flip each breaker in the amp range for rooms etc etc
We are going to Make America Rich Again .