Thread: Best electrical cable detector?

The general rule with house wiring is straight up and down, or parallel to the floor, so if you don't drill in those areas you should be alright.

For masoary walls I would be lokking at something like a Bosch de tect 150 about $780.00 depending on how well you can haggle

There's a small pen like detector at the big green shed, its yellow with a red plastic tip and a small torch at the other end. I have had a couple over the years and have found them to be fairly accurate and reliable, last one I purchased was about $24-00.

When you locate the direction (vertical, horizontal or angled, put some masking tape at 9eg to the direction of the wire and then mark on it each side where the detector picks it up. Don't drill between the marks

ALWAYS USE AN APPROVED SAFETY RCDC POWER BOARD WITH ANY POWERED TOOLS

thanks rwbuild. I bought one yesterday at JayCar electronics, but it di not work on wiring buried in concrete masonry and covered by gyprock.

The only time I could get it to work was if I actually put it on the toggle button on a light switch or power point, or touched it to an extension cord

My sparkie used something similar to locate a "missing" cable and it got within a few cm ... Not bad.

Originally Posted by Dengue

thanks rwbuild. I bought one yesterday at JayCar electronics, but it di not work on wiring buried in concrete masonry and covered by gyprock.

The only time I could get it to work was if I actually put it on the toggle button on a light switch or power point, or touched it to an extension cord

Aldi has one in next weeks' brohure but I guess it won't be much better than the Jaycar one.

Cheaper pen type have a range of 50mm max, more often about 25mm, so if theres Gyprock over the brickwork the are largely useless. Really intended as a live/dead indicator once you have located the cable, but you check them against something known to be live to ensure battery/detection circuit are working very frequently as they do not fail to safe, i.e. a non live indication may mean theres nothing live in range or it may meanthat the units stuffed, your choice.

I have a Stanley studfinder about 10 years old. There were a few models of these units, basic timber studs, timber and metal studs, timber and metal studs and metal pipes, and the all singing and dancing studs, pipes and power unit which i have. It can be helpfull, but at times when testing it can miss studs, so what else does it miss?

The surest way I know is to put the jol;e where you need it, if you can finish it it without the nasty bang, odour and smoke you got it right, generaaly you will get it wrong so don't do it that way.

Phone linesmen use a signal injector to place a signal on a line then use a detector to trace and identify lines in bundles etc. Mains strength equivalents would work for you, but I don't know if they exist.

Can you look in ceiling space or under floor to see where cables are heading? Sometimes a small battery powered transistor radio gets more static when tuned just off the station and held near hidden power cable. If nothing else works, could you drill the hole through just the plasterboard then gently hit a flat ended punch into the hole to sus out whether there is masonry, cable or open space beyond the plasterboard before venturing further?

Aldi have one on special next week

Originally Posted by crash486

Aldi have one on special next week

But untested, an unknown quantity. Have been having a bad run with their electronics and wouldn't touch them. You might be able to take it back if unsatisfactory, but if it kills you do to inaccurate results, it's a little hard to take it back.