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Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 2:43 pm
by Nickp
Finally, after all these years of switching breakers on/off when not marked, I bought myself a circuit finder...Klein 310...

I picked this one strictly on the Klein name...other choice was Ideal...

Works like a champ...! Even with the half-breakers...

https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/elec ... let-tester

Do you guys use anything like this...? Which brand...?

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 4:13 pm
by Herb Stoops
I've been to 2 World Fairs and a Rodeo and never seen anything like that, Thanks.
HErb

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 4:36 pm
by Nickp
Herb Stoops wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 4:13 pm I've been to 2 World Fairs and a Rodeo and never seen anything like that, Thanks.
HErb

Transmitter is plugged into receptacle, receiver picks up tone (?) at the breaker.

Accessory kit (sold separately, of course) has a socket with alligator clips on the end in case there's bare wires to be traced to a breaker...

Next chance I get I'm gonna check all the markings on the breakers compared to what they supply...

...this model doesn't do 220v though...

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:37 pm
by smitty10101
Got one very similar years ago
pretty sure it came from----HF !!

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:38 pm
by Herb Stoops
Go Harbor Freight.......
Herb

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:16 am
by Cherryville Chuck
I bought mine from Lee Valley about 2 years ago. I don't know who would have made it but it works. Saves a lot of grief trying to find which breaker is the right one. It would allow you to make a map of at least the outlets on each circuit. LV sold them for a little under $30 last time they had them.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 7:18 am
by Nickp
Cherryville Chuck wrote: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:16 am I bought mine from Lee Valley about 2 years ago. I don't know who would have made it but it works. Saves a lot of grief trying to find which breaker is the right one. It would allow you to make a map of at least the outlets on each circuit. LV sold them for a little under $30 last time they had them.

Looks like they still sell it...$24.50US...

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:41 am
by honesttjohn
I like that!! Gotta find one.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:28 am
by Cherryville Chuck
I get email notices from LV about deals like that and the first time they offered them for sale they sold out so fast I missed out. I didn't hesitate the 2nd time they offered them. It paid for itself pretty quickly by eliminating the aggravation factor.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:56 pm
by DaninVan
I just use my finger... ;)

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 12:19 am
by Cherryville Chuck
DaninVan wrote: Sun Dec 27, 2020 2:56 pm I just use my finger... ;)
You use your finger to short out the circuit and then go see which breaker tripped? I guess that's the old standby method. Kinda hard on the old amalgam fillings though.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:45 am
by DaninVan
I was joking...but having said that, (I probable mentioned this in the past, at the Other Place) an electrician that worked on my projects did exactly that. For some strange reason he was apparently immune to the feeling of 120V AC. I never saw him do it with 240V though...
If a Workers Comp inspector had ever seen him do his 'touchy-feely' shtick...

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:53 am
by Herb Stoops
My Dad was like that, he would grab the wire to see if it was hot. I always thought it was because he was a welder by profession so he would be in contact with electricity all day long every day. When I was his helper in his shop holding things while he welded them, quite often I could feel a tingling from the electricity,but not like holding a bare wire.
Herb

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 12:04 pm
by Cherryville Chuck
A guy I worked for was the woodlands manager at the Canoe Creek sawmill in Valemont, BC when a transient type hitchhiking through stopped at the mill looking for handouts. He told the guys there that he had been struck by lightning and survived it but that it had changed him in several ways, one of them not being able to work at a steady job. He put on a show for them and did things like grabbing a live wire and lighting up a light bulb with the other. I'm pretty sure one of the things I was told he did was to stick his hand in a sink full of water while holding the live wire in the other. He was completely unaffected by it.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:09 pm
by kmealy
Old school. Plug in a radio, switch the breaker, if the sound goes off, that's the one.

Re: Finally...a circuit breaker finder...!

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:58 am
by Cherryville Chuck
kmealy wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:09 pm Old school. Plug in a radio, switch the breaker, if the sound goes off, that's the one.
Or leave something like a drill locked on. But then you have to go around the house and reset the clocks and the microwave and reboot the computers. That trick was pre-digital. The circuit finder is worth it for me to avoid that.