Bought a cheap voltage tester that almost got me hurt

I was rewiring a kitchen in a house from the 70s last month and grabbed this no-name voltage tester I got online for like $15. It was reading zero on a line I was about to work on, so I started pulling the old wire out. My hand brushed the copper and I got a solid 120 volt zap, scared the life out of me. Turns out the tester was junk and didn't pick up the load because of some weird backfeed from another circuit. I wasted the $15 on the tester and then lost about two hours of work time calming down and re-checking everything with my Fluke. Has anyone else had a close call with a tool that just wasn't up to the job? What's your go-to tester you actually trust with your life?

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3 Comments

ryanh566mo ago

Had a similar scare with a cheap stud finder once. It kept beeping all over the wall, so I drilled right into a pipe. Now I just use the old knock-on-the-wall method, honestly.

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kim_west6mo ago

Yeah those cheap ones are basically just random beep generators. Honestly a strong magnet to find the drywall screws is way more reliable.

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tylermartin6mo ago

Totally agree about the magnet trick... it's saved me a bunch of times. Those cheap finders just seem to guess where the studs are. Now I just run a magnet along the wall and mark the screws.

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