Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,131  
Has anyone tried one of these Circuit Breaker Tracer Tools?

Circuit Breaker Detective

I'd like to start marking the breakers in our panels. Each building, at the ranch, has a sub-panel plus a panel in the house.
I bought that, then a similar one from Home Depot. They sort of work but you still have to verify by switching breakers to see if the circuit turns off that you expected. The tool wasn't really a timesaver since it wasn't sufficiently precise. I decided it was more effective to work with a helper or run back and forth between panel/load with only one breaker live.

Note these only work on live circuits, the sender is line-powered.

It's one of those HF items that's nearly a toy.
 
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   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,133  
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,134  
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck
  • Thread Starter
#7,135  
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,136  
Why can't they carry a predator engine that's a 3/4" vertical shaft.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,137  
Has anyone tried one of these Circuit Breaker Tracer Tools?

Circuit Breaker Detective

I'd like to start marking the breakers in our panels. Each building, at the ranch, has a sub-panel plus a panel in the house.

I would be a bit suspicious of those things. The ones that do work are a LOT more expensive than that.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,138  
Has anyone tried one of these Circuit Breaker Tracer Tools?



I bought that, then a similar one from Home Depot. They sort of work but you still have to verify by switching breakers to see if the circuit turns off that you expected. The tool wasn't really a timesaver since it wasn't sufficiently precise. I decided it was more effective to work with a helper or run back and forth between panel/load with only one breaker live.

I found they'll get you in the right ballpark. If you have no idea which breaker is which, you can reduce the number of breakers you need to try. They sure won't get you to the right one the first time, but in a panel of 20 or 40 breakers, if you only have to try, say 4 or 5 of them, that's a time saver. It'll get you in the right quadrant, anyway.

I wouldn't buy another one, though.


As for the lawsuit....

The suit is related to claims Harbor Freight falsely advertised items at "sale" or "compare at" prices when they were never actually sold at the higher price.

This is one for the many people in this country who scorn education. If you had paid attention in English class, you would never be fooled by, "Compare at $59.95!".

The ignorant assume that that expression is telling them that the item is sold elsewhere for $59.95. Those who understand English recognize that there is no statement there at all. Nothing was actually said. It is not a complete sentence. It carries no meaning at all. It's just a word salad that gives the uneducated an impression which they take as fact.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,139  
I used to use the high dollar ones yrs ago, it works well.
For a house I'd just turn breakers off and check.
 
   / Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck #7,140  
With HF, you need to check prices at least three times. Prices vary all over the place, even in the same flyer.
My point was that hfqpdb.com has had consistently the lowest price coupons so I only have to check ONE place.
 

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