Thought those $20 toner probes were junk but now I swear by them

Been doing this gig for 12 years. Always used the expensive Fluke stuff for toning. Last year my truck got broken into and they took my good probe. Had a job in Albuquerque the next day and no time to replace it. Grabbed a cheap probe from the hardware store for $20. Figured it would be garbage but it worked fine. Even found a line through a wall that my old Fluke couldn't pick up. Now I keep one in my bag as a backup. Anybody else find a cheap tool that outperformed the expensive one?

3 comments

3 Comments

craig.mila11d ago

@hannah_perry stock leads are hit or miss like everything else cheap. I've had some last a year and some die in a week depends on QC that day. The real trick nobody talks about is keeping the probes away from your truck's electrical system or they'll pick up phantom noise.

hannah_perry11d ago

Did you have to swap the leads right away or did the stock ones actually hold up?

the_xena11d ago

My set came with those cheap plastic stock leads that looked like they'd break if you sneezed on them... I swapped them out after maybe the third session when one of the clips just snapped off while I was trying to adjust my setup. Definitely don't wait until something fails mid-session because it's a nightmare trying to fix it with shaking hands and cold wires. I went with some basic silicone coated ones from Amazon for like fifteen bucks and they've held up way better than I expected. The stock ones might work okay if you're just using them once in a while but if you plan to actually use them regularly they're just not worth the headache in my experience.