0:47 Klein ET40 Voltage Tester $15.00 1:29 Klein ET310 Circuit Breaker Finder $43.00 2:03 Klein TI 250 Thermal Imager $300.00 2:50 Klein CL390 Digital Clamp Meter $90.00 4:00 Klein ET20 Wifi Borescope $87.00 4:57 Klein ET600 Megohmmeter $154.00 6:02 EXTech 382252 Earth Resistance Tester $230.00 All prices are from Amazon as of 04/04/2022

I'm amazed we didn't see a rotation meter for doing 3 phase motor wiring. If you don't get the legs in the right place the motor won't turn in the correct direction. One thing I made up for testing is a break-out cord for measuring load amps on household stuff. It's basically a male and female cord cap, wired together with a service loops hanging out the side so you can grab the conductor with your amp-clamp. I can test hot, neutral, and ground. You may ask why you want more than just the hot leg available. The way I see it the hot and neutral would be equal, but if they are NOT then you have the option to see if something is leaking off to ground. I also find this useful for doing temporary power, such as fairs and music festivals. You have no idea what people are plugging in till you get issues with tripping breakers. (say, a line of trinket vendors) This way you can point a finger and tell them they need to run another cord to another outlet. The same goes for all that stuff on a stage. I had a guy tell me his lighting was 150 watts each. My meter told me the printing was worn off and they were 750 watts each. Big difference!

Love the videos but I have to disagree with electricians having the most tools, as an automotive technician I think we might take that trophy home lol

Everybody forgets the Elevator Trade, we need to have a lot of tools and equipment also

I have that ET310 tester with all the extra components: ungrounded plug, Edison screw in, wire clamps, and use it multiple times a week.

hey dustin, of course, thanks so much for the effort you put in and sharing your vast experience. i would say though, there are definitely circumstances where a a "tick tracer" or "sniffer" as i call it has distinct advantages. for instance, if you are replace an old K/T fixture, which has no ground conductor, and you are not sure if it's a switched neutral wiring senario, a voltage tester is useless for determing if there is a "hot" wire there. a sniffer will identify which wire may be energized. when one is in a crawl space or attic and one wants to determine if a cable or wire is energized, as in the case of a switched leg, and it is not possible to get to the junction box for the fixture, then a sniffer works in determing that. i use the Fluke 1AC11 and have used many others but always prefer this tool. also, when there are times that a sniffer indicates a hot wire, but isn't, this is often caused by capacitive induction by another current carrying wire, and if one touches the insulation of the suspected wire and the voltage reading is caused by capicitive coupling, then the sniffer will stop indicating a voltage reading. my main observation is that just trying to use a volt meter is not always practicable and sniffers are definitely a worthwhile tool in the electricians "arsenal" thank you again for doing what you do.

Journeyman here, we work on everything from 32.5 kva incoming to our substations rectified to 850DC fed through 5000amp breakers, low voltage train detection track circuits, and fiber optic vital communication systems. (Public Transit Train environment) I would like to see a video on a TDR if you have any tips and tricks aside from the basics. Great videos bro, informative with humor and fun splashed throughout. Nicely done.

I'm not an electrician but living in a house an electrician use to live in had me buying a handful of testers and tools i wouldn't have otherwise! I love the ET310 and the additional parts that go with it. We have a panel and a subpanel and some of the fixtures and outlets are hard to figure out what circuits they are on. The ET310 has really come in handy.... as well as your channel!

The UK has a company called Megger that makes electrical test equipment, including well, megaohm-meters. I know John Ward has done a review and shown off his Megger in doing various tests from high voltage insulation to earth resistance tests. So technically it's a brand name, just it's probably more well known in Europe than North America.

One minor observation ; I prefer Boroscopes with a built in screens ( I use a Milwaukee M12 iteration ) . My reasoning is as follows; a phone is a vital piece of equipment , I for sure don’t want to risk dropping mine off a ladder . Borescopes are used much less often ! I also carry a Flir Camera , good for documenting set of conditions !

SO I am not an electrician, however my father, grandfather, uncle and and brother, were all in the trades and IBEW members, so I am very failure with the tools you speak of here, and I have purchased a number of those tools so that I can work on own property. But I am never above calling in the pros when I have reached my limits, and I do know them. Of the tools you shared, and I have, not a fan of is the circuit tracer. It does not always provide me with a reliable trace to the correct circuit breaker. For the thermo, I use a FLIR device I can attach to my phone, like the bore scope, you can than save pictures or videos of what you are looking at. Great tool for the money, and so many uses. Aside for looking for hot spots, you can find cold spots. As thermo cameras work on the principal of the difference in temperature and not a set temperature. Fun fact, use it to locate damp and wet areas. As a water evaporates, it will leave the spot cooler than the surrounding area, thus showing up on the screen as cold spot compared to the surrounding area. Overall great content, I really enjoy your teaching methods. My father was an instructor back in the 70s and 80s for the trade, and though I did not become a certified electrician, I learned a lot from his teachings and helping out around the garage and house.

I have half of those personally but as a locomotive electrician, I use a Megger brand megger often, 1kv - 5kv for finding grounded traction motors, main generators, blower motors and dynamic braking grids. Otherwise, DMM and Amp clamp is the extent of non specialty equipment.

The klein circuit locater is awesome . I used it at church to find the breaker for septic pump. It worked thru a metal building and about 100 yards

I totally agree with getting a false reading on a tic, but in some of the commercial work that I have done, even if you are using a voltage meter, you are required check the reading for what you are working on with something you know is hot, so that you know your meter is working, and it isn't just saying you have no power when your meter could be malfunctioning! I found the hot sticks or tics as some call them, that the ones with the flash lights are prone to giving false readings. I finally bought a Fluke, no other fancy function on it. You can do the same test with it by checking it with something you know is hot and testing what you are working on, and even test it against multiple circuits. All of them can give a false reading!

I have a few of these, including the ET310. One feature or tool which would be handy: the ability to test which circuit breaker is protecting a specific circuit when the breaker trips. The ET310 only works when there Is power in the circuit.

I'm an HVAC service tech and have a few meters. All my meters have amp clamps and can read mega-ohms and capacitance. After checking voltage, those are the three most common uses we have for our meters. Checking phases is less commonly needed, but I have a meter for that, too. I've been eyeing that Thermal imager, but for the price there are other tools I need to get first. I think HVAC would give you a run for your money on breadth and depth of tools we have since we do gas, light plumbing, sheet metal, electrical and electronic troubleshooting, air conditioning/refrigeration, and heating.

You are so correct in not liking the the tracers. First-time I used one was to turn off a 480 volt circuit that was in a large conduit then a 100' long through that had over 20 other live circuits from 120, 208 & 480 volt circuits. Keep receiving a power present signal but it was a false positive due to the wires indicating a voltage in circuits that I turned off. Is what you call a thermal scanner a cheap IR device or the better but expensive FLIR type camera. My FLIR gun cost over a grand 12 years ago but prices keep coming down. If you do commercial work spend the extra money on a circuit breaker tester that located and has axillary wire leads to handle up to 277 volts.Borescope appears to a great tool that I wished were around years ago. Think you are wrong with merger being a manufactures name. Started out using hand crank 500 volt meggers back in the 1960's. All were made by Huddle company. I have a 500 to 5,000 volt battery operated Wilson merger that works great. Never saw a sparky that owned an earth ground resistance meter. Ground resistance varies greatly especially between summer & winter. Old ma bell guys would wiz on grounded rods out in the boon docks to get system working instead of laying a circle of wet salt around ground rod to lower resistance. Thanks for another great vid. Caution you young just getting into this great trade: NEVER PURCHASE OR USE or tools, test or safety equipment from cheating lying scum bag lack of quality control communist china. Your life & safety of others not worth saving a few bucks on inferior cheating china garbage.

Wire locator and fault finder are important as well.

So the cool thing is i work with a megger as a dutch electrician, ours is a lot older though. An ABB metrawatt. We can test for regular voltage, earth to ground, isolation problems, and we test our RCBO's with it. It's cool to see how other countries do their electrics and measure back.

I have the circuit finder and my coworkers for some reason think it’s the most magical thing ever. I love it

We use the insulation tester, megohmmeter, megger, in my industry to test traffic induction loop sensors.

I work with lighting a majority of the time and I have to say that that bore scope comes in super handy

Could you list out the model name and numbers for each product you went through? Description seems to be missing some. As a small property manager, really appreciate the excellent videos, thanks!

I keep seeing you talk about how electricians have more tools than anyone. You've obviously never met a Millwright, lol. I'm both. I've got a lot of shit. Worked in the trades all my life. Still have my bullfloat, etc. I cut into the trades on (Cement Mason). All my carpentry stuff, power compound mitre boxes, etc., became a Millwright. Currently an Industrial Electrician. Millwright took the cake in sheer volume and price. Lots of pocket in tools in that trade. Love your videos. Keep up the good work.

Im in the uk and use the megger MFT1721 multifunction tester the megger voltage and continuity tester and a plug in tester. The multifunction tester does everything

I use a few of these, though not all Klein, I prefer Fluke and Amprobe as I think both are much better. I do like Klein’s AFCI/GFCI tester as well as their time-to-trip GFCI tester. There are a lot of decent borescopes that work with your phone, I keep a couple in the vehicle with different lengths. I do run a non-contact voltage tester (Fluke) and simple led volt meter (Amprobe) in my tool bag as both can help when you don’t want to pull the meter out, which is a Fluke clamp meter. The first thing you should get and every person should own is a non-contact voltage detector followed by a simple contact voltage detector, just keep in mind quality and accuracy can go hand in hand with price so don’t go too cheap. That said I keep a number of Harbor Freight cheep multimeters like $5 or free with a purchase which I keep just goes giving away when people ask to borrow a meter as I’m not loaning out the expensive meters I use for work.

I am not a professional electrician. I have earned my living by designing electronic controls. But for my home use I have pretty much the whole set of various meters listed. The two items I am missing are a borescope and a ground resistance meter. Actually I could use some of my bench meters to make the ground resistance measurement. The borescope has been on my wish list for a while, but so far I have not found one that would meet my specifications. Otherwise, most of my meters are from Fluke, HP, TEK and Keithley. And something I would add to preferred instruments list for certain electricians is an Ethernet cable termination tester. On the other hand, my personal collection also contains a WiFi scanner attachment for my iPad Mini. And last, but not least, a 2-channel oscilloscope attachment also for the iPad. However, there is a popular saying that you never have enough of some goodies, and measuring instruments for sure belong into that category!

Does someone make a tool to trip the circuit breaker from the outlet? Like something similar to the GFCI tester with the button that trips the GFCI, you would plug this in, push a button and it would trip the circuit breaker. Reason why- to test the breaker tripping but more important, to easily find the breaker to shut off that particular outlet. So many times the panel isn't labeled and I have to switch a bunch of CBs before I find the right one... also needing an assistant to say "hey the light went off" or whatever I have plugged in.

My Fave is an old Wiggy. I now use a Fluke T5 1000 and still use a Simpson 260.

I am a 6th year Journeyman and I have the first 4 of the testers you presented

I've been doing electrical work since 1984, used a lot of Klein tools. But that said, I bought Klein meters because there were more affordable, but some of the controls make no sense, some of them are glitchy, I think that they make better hand tools than they do meters. Not that I don't have a bag full of them though. But I've got meters then I'm constantly having to put the batteries back in and turn the knob the right way and change the default settings, so yes they're probably economical for people and they're better than the cheap stuff, but they are not in my opinion the very best at what they do when it comes to meters.

We're still waiting on part 2!!! Can't wait for it to come out @electrician u

What about the “wiggy” style testers? They have a small solenoid inside that will put a slight load on a circuit. Different style for different uses but sometimes electricians prefer them.

Love these videos, EXTREMELY helpful for me as an electrician as well. I wanted to ask you if you could make a video on why you should never buy a cheap tester. Not many seem to be aware of the dangers that are possible with those. Thanks for the videos.

I just opened up my new Klein circuit tracer - ET450 - today to un-fk the layers of crazy wiring in my old house. Worked great on finding the buried line to the garage. Not sure how deep it is. The ET310 works well if your house wasn't wired by crazy people over many years. There's an add-on kit for that, which allows one to adapt to an Edison light socket and find the breaker for that. As a note: many DMMs can measure current (amps); however, this means wiring your device in-line and can be pretty dangerous, whereas the CL390 (clamp meter) measures the electromagnetic field around a given wire(s) and is much safer.

I'd like to have a logging clamp meter that can be hung on a subpanel feeder wire to get a 24 hour view of actual power usage by a multiple circuits. I guess the flaw in that thinking is the way consumption may be seasonal, and when motors turn on and off you may get variance that might be hard to predict. But a quick view to see actual usage may be surprising.

i am a home owner who got frustrated that the panel was not labeled correctly. The Tester is great and it cost me less than what an electrician was going to charge to do it for me.

Meg-a-meter part was my favorite 🤩 great job 👏🏾

Great video Dustin I have a mini Klein too some people say it’s not practical but I like using it also have Klein plug in tripper and Klein tick tracer

When it comes to NCVT or Tic testers, etc - I trust it to tell me when SOMETHING IS LIVE...I DO NOT TRUST IT to tell me something is dead! - That is my motto with those! But, I LOVE that mini volt tester, Got it in a three-pack with a tic tester and an outlet plug tester!

What do you think is a good fault finder? A device that gives you length to fault. They are pretty handy in heat up, the only problem I find with them is if you didnt wire the house then you have to make good guess where the fault might be to minimize cutting into drywall to find it. They are expensive and are becoming more difficult to find.

The Klein circuit finder is like all the rest you’ve probably tried and thrown away: less than 75% success rate, solid false positive rings all the time. Spend money on the Zircon kit if you do service. I’ve only seen it on Amazon and ebay. I trust that thing more than I trust anyone in my family. I love Klein tools, especially that little thermal camera but that circuit finder is crap.

I dont call it a tester.....i have always called it a clamp meter.

Cool video, but in my experience here in the bay area of California, electricians use and trust Fluke meters and testers.

Can you teach how to use the mega

Will get some Klein to try out. Thanks for the update on the range.

Thanks enjoy watching have alot of these meters too I enjoy finding out got things work

when I started I could barely afford gas to get to work let alone anything beyond the wiggy, matter of fact the company I started with gave you the basic tools under a weekly payroll deduction plan, I worked for two companies at the same time ( one part time at night running conduit ) just to pay basic bills. its alot different now, I see apprentices driving new trucks, with an impressive set of tools, which hopefully means the pay has increased to match the skills of the new electricians finally.

I beg to differ, HVAC has everybody's tools! Electrical, plumbing, metal fabrication, carpentry, masonry and IT tools.

Love Klein testers have several of them they are great

Can you Make a video on using the megger? How to test the insulation on wires and motor windings and what values to look for? Thank you

dustin - can you do a video on splicing larger conductor? like #10 and bigger

The Megger would be what you use to check the windings in a motor to see if the motor is still serviceable or needs to be replaced!

As an apartment maintenance technician, I can definitely see myself using that borescope. Tired of trying to shove my phone in tight spaces just to take a picture of a potential water leak.

The Klein et 450 at cheaper then the competition don’t know how good compared to ideal but man what a difference in price. When my ideal tracer broke I got so mad.

Thanks Dustin good job

Does anyone know of a good Canadian style Electrician U? I watched probably every Electrician U video now and wish there was a Canadian version when it comes to talking about code and practice tests in such. Great video.

As always: good video. Thanks

I have the Klein ti-250 thermal imager, I can attest to how awesome it is. I'm publishing an article on how I discovered an electrical fault in an industrial setting using that camera.

I don't know man, HVAC might have you beat with the most amount of tools. We are the jack of all trades, we carry plumbing and electrical tools, as well as sheet metal and hvac specific tools. :P

Megger is still a brand, it is an insulation resistance meter.

The meg-er was very go for detecting winding of compressors. If the oil is failing it will detect it. HOWEVER, some newer model compressors maybe damaged by a meg-er. If it is a selonoid activated speed control (a low voltage seperate set of terminals) may be damaged with a meg-er's 600v ac test voltage.

It sounds like you actually need a truck to carry all of these testers around. Does it make for endless trips back to the truck? It'd be fun if they made a tool that connects to your phone and the probes (or whatever) change function on voice command. Or even one that tests "all things at the same time" and gives a readout and "verbalizes" whatever is remarkable. I always learn from your videos. Thanks!

But the tic tester lets you know if there's a live wire nearby, which is great for demo work, it sucks to be tearing a wall down and you hit a live wire.

I wonder how many views you would get if the video title was "Electricians have more tools than anyone else" ;) btw, I do enjoy your videos. Another vote here for a Megger demonstration video.

Went on a service call by myself for the very first time last week I wish I would of had a circuit tracer with me. The panels were not labeled and it was a business so I didn’t want to just start shutting stuff off. I was forced to work live to get it done. I just got one and I will never ever not have it with me again

I have a Fluke 376FC and 117, both I love, but I’ve been wanting a megameter and thermal sensor. I’m getting these Klein instruments next!!! Really appreciate the video. BTW I own Klein plug in GFCI trip speed tester with blue LCD screen and AFCI tester also. I’ve found them very valuable. Very helpful video!!

You’re gonna save a lot of people on the field with this video. I hate tick tracers and have been on the receiving end of a shared neutral after testing all the wires w those damn widow makers.

I am a third gen sparky, My Father before me was in electrical testing for over 32 years of his 42 total in the trade...I grew up KNOWING how IMPORTANT testing is in this field...I wish it was done more, Unfortunately, It's not....Out of our local's contractors, I believe we only have maybe 5% are testing companies (with Testing techs sprinkled in some contractors along with Lineman, Ground wiremen, Outside traffic signals, etc) Great vid dude!

The Klein Borescope is a good tool for sure when your having to go through conduits or concrete walls. But I still prefer my Ferret inspection cam when I'm working in a home or having to fish wires in a completed basement. It's pulled me out of a ton of jams. I'm definitely looking into the Thermal camera. You're doing great content by the way. Keep it going.

I have the breaker sniffer wand, it can be really helpful, but some percentage of the time it identifies the wrong circuit.

Is that a Fluke behind you off to your left on the bench? Sure looks like it. Fluke is the brand that I always use... I'm an electronic tech, so my tools are a bit different some of the same... like the oscilloscope etc... I also have a vintage Simpson multi meter, old analog kind of neat...

Very informative thank you very much

great vids. just bought that same Megohmmeter last week .

All I had was a Simpson multimeter in a big black heavy case with a rollup door. There was no such thing as a digital meter. Damn that was a long time ago. I’ll take that back I did have a wiggy voltage tester but it was almost 50 years ago.

When taking junction box cover off how do you find which breaker a particular wire (blk/hot) in that box is feed from? Is there a tool/meter for this?

Have you used a tilt meter?

Amprobe AT-8030 you can do reverse engineering for a industrial plant running with it.

Looks like the circuit breaker finder only works on energized lines. It won't help you find a severed wire

Great video… thanks!

What tool would you use to safely trip a breaker

I would love to see more detailed videos on how to use some of that equipment especially the mega and the fall test one.

What's the best manufacturer? I see you use all Klein... or are sponsored by them. I use all Kaiweets and I know alot of electricians use Fluke. Honestly I didn't buy Fluke because they had all bright neon colors which looks like Tanca Toy colors.. KAIWEETS and Klein use black and subtle colors and have nice big screens. Kaiweets is sold all over Amazon and is the most popular on there. So anyone NOT sponsored here want to say their opinion on those brands? I get different readings on my clamp meter depending which direction the wire goes in my clamp, not sure if that is normal or not so was wondering how accurate these 3 top brands are.

Excellent video.

The mini voltage tester looks like a good alternative to the pen tester. I have hated those things.

Which Clamp Meter Brand do you like ? Klein, IDEAL, Fieldpiece or Fluke? I know in prior videos you suggested Klein "stay in their lane" but curios if your opinion has changed on their testers? They seem like a good value for the cost/performance. I like Fluke but sometimes paying that fluke Tax does not seem worth it in all situations. I have always been a fan of IDEAL. Thanks!

Thank you

Idk man. I used to be an electrician. I have done hvac for the past 8 years now. I feel like we may have sparkles beat for how many tools we have to utilize to do the job.

Please show the fastest way to make J-hooks on 12g or 14g wire for screw attachment. I find it challenging sometimes on R+R because there just isn't much length of wire available after cutting out the faulty instrument.

You should go over how to use them!

I will have to get out my grandfathers old electrical tools he used in the 1940s

I notice you favor Klein over Fluke products? I use to be a die-hard Fluke user until I had an issue with one of my meters and I needed to replace the prone/test probes. It was a simple matter of unscrewing two screws and replacing the probe assembly. I could not find the replacement part so I contacted the Fluke services department. I was instructed to send them the tool, which I had to pay for and it would take six weeks to repair, and it would cost me $225. The meter itself cost me $180! I was told by customer service that's a minimal charge for repairs. Keep in mind it was NOT easy getting ahold of custom service. I will never buy another Fluke product again!

Hey Dustin Thanks for all your very informative videos. I had a question concerning changing over from 3 wire to 4 wire on a stove or dryer. Why can't you run a seperate neutral wire to use as the 4th wire instead of having to pull all new 4 conductor cable! Is article 300.20 the reason why you can't, or are there other reasons also? I am interested in what you have to say, code specific, about this topic!! Thank you for your response. Scott

Hey, you should have included the accessory kit for the circuit breaker finder. It comes with attachments that allows you to clamp onto bare wires, ungrounded receptacles, and light sockets.

looking forward to the next one!!!

lol try being an hvac tech , its like being an electrician , fluid dynamics expert , thermal dynamics expert , fuel systems tech and a systems mechanic, plumber, and sheet metal worker all in one plus the test equipment to go with it , as a former aircraft and industrial electronics tech I personally think hvac/r techs have more tools and equipment now that I am one

To be honest...I have few other resources for knowledge other than the books that are stacked high. This trade is broken in communication. Thanks for your knowledge!

The borescope looks like it has made some improvements

Klein just dropped a new advanced wire tracer hopefully you can get your hands on one and can make a video

The thermal images was new to me