or anyone that may be aware of a “Home version” AKA inexpensive version of something like THIS
Thanks
~Matt
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OK, that is a serious tool. Why would you need this? What problem are you trying to solve?
I’ve used something like this, available anywhere, easy to use, inexpensive, and you don’t have to stick probes into stuff
I need to be able to trace wires. Basically the room is filled with a plethora of wires and some of them are covered up. I could tear everything down…but I’d rather not. There are dead wires, junction boxes, and some wires that are merely capped and dead end in the wall.
I’m adding some lights and outlets and am trying to A) identify which current fixtures and outlets go to which circuits and lines and B) where the hell the wires are routed.
The initial wiring was obviously not done “professionally” so it’s very difficult to follow the lines. They may be going along and make a right hand turn to no mans land, hit a junction box somewhere “Unknown” and then head off somewhere else.
In previous rooms I pretty much took everything down so could visually follow the lines back to the breaker. In this room the actual construction is not as bad so I have not had to “rebuild” as much so the lines are hidden.
~Matt
Yes a lot of those out there but it doesn’t do what I need. Pretty much those and some other lower end stuff will get you from the outlet/socket to the breaker, but will not tell you if a wire you’re seeing is part of that circuit or not or if the wire is doing a figure 8 in the wall.
What I need is something that sends out an active single at some point that you can pick up anywhere along the line, preferably thru a couple inches of building material.
I.E. I locate where I where I want to put a new fixture. Open the ceiling and see 3 wires. I need to identify which one is part of the existing lighting circuit. Or I find a wire in the wall that has no power and I want to follow where that wire goes in the wall.
~Matt
Big freakin job. I don’t envy you. I have never used a tool like this. I always found another way to do it. If that is what you need to do, this is the kind of tool you need and it is candidly cheaper than I thought something like that should be.
I am guessing you have already dismissed the idea of doing the tracing with a helper, long leads and an ohm meter. I always made that work, though it wasn’t pretty.
I would be surprised if you couldn’t find a place to rent something like this. You are only going to use it once, then never need it again. Alternatively, see if it is available to buy on eBay, or if it ever has been. You could buy it with the idea of reselling once you are done.
Good luck. Wish I could be more help.
I am guessing you have already dismissed the idea of doing the tracing with a helper, long leads and an ohm meter.
No and yes. That is definitely an option but a major time consumer and pain in the but. Especially since some of the wires are from “Unknown” origins and directions etc. One could literally run thru the entire breaker box to find out that the wire isn’t even connected to it.
Seriously, in the previous room I took everything down to the studs and ended up “rebuilding” the outer walls because they were from the original barn structure. So the lumber was non standard spacing and raw lumber size making for a very wavy and difficult drywalling job. I actually found wires that ran from one side of the house to another that were not connected to anything at either end. The other option here is to simply pull everything down and go “Fishing”. That’s an option but not one I savor as it would involve removing all the outside insulation, which surprisingly is in decent shape AND removing all the drywall in part of another room I’m not currently doing.
Right now it’s more of a time/money/headache decision. Spending 500$ on a tracer tool doesn’t appeal to me, something less maybe. OTOH spending several days poking, prodding, removing etc isn’t all that fun either.
Anyway that’s what you get for moving into your mother in laws house that was built out of a barn. Gives me something to do in my spare time 
~Matt
Here you go:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94181
$14.99 damn I love harbor freight.
Matt,
For residential AC there are items like this. Go to Home Depot or Lowes. You plug the transmitter into a live circuit, and trace it back to breaker. Some have a sensitivity adjustment that could easily ‘see’ through dry wall. Plaster is a different story.
Greenlee has a non contact voltage tester - Lowes - $15 Not sure if you could trace wires through walls though
there are different versions of this too.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=12334-1781-GET-1200&lpage=none
Scott
I never did that job, but, candidly, it sounds really cool to use a tool like that. You aren’t in South Florida, are you?
Best of luck.
The only thing you have to watch for is the use on live circuits. The tester you found, doesn’t seem like it can handle a live circuit, let alone a 120V residential circuit.
There are testers out there for less than $50 that can be attached to live circuits, inject a harmless signal on the circuit that a wireless detector can pick up. I use them at work every now and then.
Scott
Right, that thing isn’t for live circuits. You would turn the house off, attach one end of it to the circuit, and wave the wand to find a tone to follow.
The other thing to consider “it was not done professionally”.
You may want to replace the wiring all together. I don’t know how old the place is, or how it was installed, but things have changed in 30 years. Most wiring is only designed for a 30 year life. It will last longer than that, or sometimes less depending on conditions.
If its as bad as it sounds, tear it out, all of it, and do it right the first time. If you don’t want to tear it out, abandon it, cut it off to an unusable point, and pull in new. Yes it sucks, but for peace of mind it might be worth it.
If you decide to leave it in, i would megger all the cables before they are put back into use. You may or may not know - a megger - (megaohm meter) blasts a 500V shot down the wire. Your ohmic reading will tell you if the wire is open or has a short, or a damn near short.
Scott
Nope Northern Il.
~Matt
I pretty much did replace everything in the original “Older” section. That wiring was right around 30-35 years old at the time. The wiring here is a bit newer, probably only 20-25, but a good idea none the less.
I really have no desire to replace everything. Without doubt this is a house that one project leads to another and the less I can disturb saves me multiples in time.
I ended starting the remodeling job in the first room because we had an outside fixture that went out shortly after we had siding put up. Turns out the wiring to the fixture was run OUTSIDE the frame and the side drove a nail right thru the wire. OK no problem, pull the paneling down, a chunk of drywall and run new wiring. Well pulling the paneling down removed all the paper from the drywall, I didn’t like the paneling anyway so “Hey lets’ re-drywall while were at it”. Removing the drywall reveiled that the wall was raw lumber and pretty much undrywall friendly…I’m guessing the reason for the paneling in the first place. Not only that but exposed the fact that the floor joist were woefully undersized to boot.
So basically I ended up taking everything down to the studs, rebuilding new interior walls, installed Steel “I” beams in several places to reinforce the floor, rather than completely removing the upper floor and installing new joists and in the mean time transfered the radiant base board heat into a radiant underfloor heating. All of that because of some moron that ran an electrical wire on the outside of the frame. So, I’m a bit leery about just “Replacing” anything.
I’ll looking into testing it though, that’s a good idea. Will probably save me some headaches down the line.
~Matt
I completely forgot about Harbour Freight. We have one in town I’ll have to go check it out.
~Matt
Sounds like you got a good mess. I didn’t own a barn, but a 62 year old on my last one was enough, i know the frustration.
I was just at Lowes. They have a wire tracer $50.
See the attached link.
See - Products;Catalog; Testers — then scroll down to wire tracker. It’s only for unenergized wire, but it should work.
Although i stand by the recommendation to megger the wires. If they’re old, and have had a siding nail incident, I’d do it. You don’t want to gut em’ out, understandable. But test the hell out of them.
e-mail or Pm me if you need any help.
Scott
Are even 25 year old wires up to it?
A couple of years ago we renovated a house built in 1973 and the plastic wire sheaths were so brittle that the slightest movement cracked them, we just ripped it all out in the end and found many bare wires. This was in a crappily built French house so maybe US standards were better ( I hope!)…
Have you thought about asking around to borrow the meter?
In the house we’re doing now I had to measure the earth resistance to single digits and the guy who installed our solar panels knew someone who had the right meter (saving 500 euros to buy one or 200 euros to pay an electrician to do it…)
Just picked up one “At Menards”. Was pretty cheap 40 or so. I’ll see how it works out. I may PM you on the testing part once I get there. Right now I just need to try and figure what line is going where.
~Matt