Anyone know good voltage & continuity tester?

[baza890]

Need to get a voltage and continuity tester I do like the fluke one from screwfix but it's a little out of my price range for now. anyone know any good budget alternatives?

 

[Avo Mk8]

I was going to suggest the Martindale VT12, but the Fluke from Amazon (if this one below is what you were thinking of) is 'only' £16 more and would be a better buy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluke-Voltage-Continuity-Tester-Yellow/dp/B00CSRYG8A?th=1

 

[baza890]

I was going to suggest the Martindale VT12, but the Fluke from Amazon (if this one below is what you were thinking of) is 'only' £16 more and would be a better buy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluke-Voltage-Continuity-Tester-Yellow/dp/B00CSRYG8A?th=1

Nice one mate yeah it was the one above this fluke t110 I think it’s called but that’s £81. I assume the one you linked would be good in the long run for electrics?

 

[mainline]

Nice one mate yeah it was the one above this fluke t110 I think it’s called but that’s £81. I assume the one you linked would be good in the long run for electrics?

You could go for a used t150

Pardon our interruption...

There are a few t110 etc that are on bids.

Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester for sale online | eBay UK

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester at the best online prices at eBay UK! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[baza890]

You could go for a used t150

Pardon our interruption...

There are a few t110 etc that are on bids.

Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester for sale online | eBay UK

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester at the best online prices at eBay UK! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

Is the t90 no good then? I’ll have a look at the others u mentioned

 

[baza890]

You could go for a used t150

Pardon our interruption...

There are a few t110 etc that are on bids.

Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester for sale online | eBay UK

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester at the best online prices at eBay UK! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

Where did u

You could go for a used t150

Pardon our interruption...

There are a few t110 etc that are on bids.

Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester for sale online | eBay UK

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fluke T150 Voltage and Continuity Tester at the best online prices at eBay UK! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

the first link u posted to that t150 how legit and safe are they unless it’s knocked off or fake testers? They look too good to be true?

 

[Fazz711]

Beware getting stuff on eBay originating abroad as VAT and duty can bump the price a lot higher

 

[baza890]

Beware getting stuff on eBay originating abroad as VAT and duty can bump the price a lot higher

think ill just get the t90 for now

 

[Brother Blue]

Try here, they have plenty of options at better prices than Screwfix.

Personally I prefer DiLog but their cheapest offering, the Martindale, is absolutely fine.

Safe Isolation and Voltage detection kits from Master Lock and Martindale

Safely isolate electrical circuits with our safe isolation and voltage detector kits from Master Lock and Martindale. Be safe, use our safe isolation kits and voltage detector kit to lock off the RCD and MCB.

www.test-meter.co.uk

 

[baza890]

Try here, they have plenty of options at better prices than Screwfix.

Personally I prefer DiLog but their cheapest offering, the Martindale, is absolutely fine.

Safe Isolation and Voltage detection kits from Master Lock and Martindale

Safely isolate electrical circuits with our safe isolation and voltage detector kits from Master Lock and Martindale. Be safe, use our safe isolation kits and voltage detector kit to lock off the RCD and MCB.

www.test-meter.co.uk

good shout thank u mate

 

[baza890]

Try here, they have plenty of options at better prices than Screwfix.

Personally I prefer DiLog but their cheapest offering, the Martindale, is absolutely fine.

Safe Isolation and Voltage detection kits from Master Lock and Martindale

Safely isolate electrical circuits with our safe isolation and voltage detector kits from Master Lock and Martindale. Be safe, use our safe isolation kits and voltage detector kit to lock off the RCD and MCB.

www.test-meter.co.uk

Fluke T90 Voltage/Continuity Tester

Dilog Combivolt 1 - DL6780 Voltage and Continuity Tester

Martindale VT25 Voltage & Continuity Tester

Which one do I get or is there any better ones for similar price?

 

[mainline]

Fluke T90 Voltage/Continuity Tester

Dilog Combivolt 1 - DL6780 Voltage and Continuity Tester

Martindale VT25 Voltage & Continuity Tester

Which one do I get or is there any better ones for similar price?

If you can get a fluke t150 for a decent price then you won’t need to upgrade at a later date.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Fluke T90 Voltage/Continuity Tester

Dilog Combivolt 1 - DL6780 Voltage and Continuity Tester

Martindale VT25 Voltage & Continuity Tester

Which one do I get or is there any better ones for similar price?

Hi baza
When you first asked the question last week, I had in mind (prob incorrectly) that you were asking about a two pole tester for checking circuits are dead before working on them. The martindale I suggested is really mainly for that, and for very basic continuity. In addition I use a multimeter for fault finding etc.
If you want a safety tester that will also double up to do measurements (ie instead of having a multimeter as well), then you need something more advanced than the Martindale.
Personally I think the advice to go for the Fluke T150 is good, but I appreciate it's expensive.
If you check 'sold' prices on eBay, you can find a few that sold for £60 to £80 fairly recently. There is a risk in buying such (I wouldn't recommend the Chinese source) but at that sort of price you could probably sell it on if there turned out to be a problem! You might be able to afford to get it calibrated too!
I've bought literally thousands of items from eBay, and very rarely had a problem, even with electronics (eg TV circuit boards, appliance spares) although these days eBay prices can be higher than online retail.
Ebay bargain Computers, tablets, phones I keep away from!

 

[baza890]

Hi baza
When you first asked the question last week, I had in mind (prob incorrectly) that you were asking about a two pole tester for checking circuits are dead before working on them. The martindale I suggested is really mainly for that, and for very basic continuity. In addition I use a multimeter for fault finding etc.
If you want a safety tester that will also double up to do measurements (ie instead of having a multimeter as well), then you need something more advanced than the Martindale.
Personally I think the advice to go for the Fluke T150 is good, but I appreciate it's expensive.
If you check 'sold' prices on eBay, you can find a few that sold for £60 to £80 fairly recently. There is a risk in buying such (I wouldn't recommend the Chinese source) but at that sort of price you could probably sell it on if there turned out to be a problem! You might be able to afford to get it calibrated too!
I've bought literally thousands of items from eBay, and very rarely had a problem, even with electronics (eg TV circuit boards, appliance spares) although these days eBay prices can be higher than online retail.
Ebay bargain Computers, tablets, phones I keep away from!

Ok so If I buy a t150 I wouldn't need to buy a multi meter + a two pole voltage&continuity tester?
I'm not too fussed on buying a two pole tester atm, I'd rather just buy a budget friendly multi meter for £10 and under lol prob won't get one for that much and test what I need to for now, I can buy the latter in the future. If it comes down to the mm being like £20 then i might aswell just throw another 60 on that and buy the t150

 

[Brother Blue]

Ok so If I buy a t150 I wouldn't need to buy a multi meter + a two pole voltage&continuity tester?
I'm not too fussed on buying a two pole tester atm, I'd rather just buy a budget friendly multi meter for £10 and under lol prob won't get one for that much and test what I need to for now, I can buy the latter in the future. If it comes down to the mm being like £20 then i might aswell just throw another 60 on that and buy the t150

What exactly do you want/need the tester for?

A £10 multimeter will almost certainly not meet the safety requirements for use on LV, but would likely be ok for ELV.

 

[baza890]

What exactly do you want/need the tester for?

A £10 multimeter will almost certainly not meet the safety requirements for use on LV, but would likely be ok for ELV.

need to test socket readings to figure out if a circuit is on a ring or radial

 

[Avo Mk8]

need to test socket readings to figure out if a circuit is on a ring or radial

If you mean by doing resistance tests, you would need a MFT or low resistance ohmmeter for that, which typically give readings to 2 decimal places.
I believe the Fluke T150 only has a resolution of 1 ohm, so your reading would be either 0, 1, or 2, not giving the accuracy you would need.
A cheap multimeter wouldn't really be suitable either.

A bit of (out of date) discussion here a few years ago: Cheapest Multimeter (low ohm - in - Electrical Tools and Products - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/cheapest-multimeter-low-ohm.190178/

 

[baza890]

If you mean by doing resistance tests, you would need a MFT or low resistance ohmmeter for that, which typically give readings to 2 decimal places.
I believe the Fluke T150 only has a resolution of 1 ohm, so your reading would be either 0, 1, or 2, not giving the accuracy you would need.
A cheap multimeter wouldn't really be suitable either.

A bit of (out of date) discussion here a few years ago: Cheapest Multimeter (low ohm - in - Electrical Tools and Products - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/cheapest-multimeter-low-ohm.190178/

can't i just use a dbl pole volt tester to see if the circuit is a ring or radial, it's a b32 mcb with 2 wires going into the Cb but, there's 3 sockets with single wires (1 socket use to have a switch spur for a floodlight but a electrician removed that recently since we didn't need it anymore) and then one socket with 2 wires entering it.

one of the sockets was a single gang which was just removed it's the only one wire that's going into a junction box which is above the floorboards i think it was just used to extend the cable to put the socket higher, I was thinking if i trace that wire back to where it's going and just get a longer length 4mm cable and install the socket on that on the opposite wall which is where we need it.

 

[mainline]

Ok so If I buy a t150 I wouldn't need to buy a multi meter + a two pole voltage&continuity tester?
I'm not too fussed on buying a two pole tester atm, I'd rather just buy a budget friendly multi meter for £10 and under lol prob won't get one for that much and test what I need to for now, I can buy the latter in the future. If it comes down to the mm being like £20 then i might aswell just throw another 60 on that and buy the t150

You may as well find a cheap MFT for now, and it will also give you the experience of using one.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Avo Mk8]

can't i just use a dbl pole volt tester to see if the circuit is a ring or radial,

I was overthinking what you might be wanting to do in the longer term.
If you just want to do continuity tests, say with a wander lead connected (eg to an isolated wire) at the CU, and checking at your socket or JB which wire goes to that, any of the two pole testers will do that, even the Martindale.
And the advantage of having a 2 pole tester over a multimeter is that you can properly check a circuit is dead before working on it, whereas a multimeter is not the tool for that.

 

[baza890]

I was overthinking what you might be wanting to do in the longer term.
If you just want to do continuity tests, say with a wander lead connected (eg to an isolated wire) at the CU, and checking at your socket or JB which wire goes to that, any of the two pole testers will do that, even the Martindale.
And the advantage of having a 2 pole tester over a multimeter is that you can properly check a circuit is dead before working on it, whereas a multimeter is not the tool for that.

ok I don't think I'll be going for the multimeter atm, ideally a two pole tester, don't really want to spend 100 on a t150, the ebay ones I can't seem to find a legit seller or trusted source, maybe i'm just being cautious. Would the t90 serve the same purpose as the martindale or in what way is it better

 

[Avo Mk8]

ok I don't think I'll be going for the multimeter atm, ideally a two pole tester, don't really want to spend 100 on a t150, the ebay ones I can't seem to find a legit seller or trusted source, maybe i'm just being cautious. Would the t90 serve the same purpose as the martindale or in what way is it better

The Martindale does a couple of things:
If you probe a 'dangerous' over 50V it buzzes and lights up LEDs indicating the voltage in steps.
It beeps when you touch the probes together, ie continuity. Eg typically does that when you probe between N and E.

The Fluke T150 does all those things, plus it has a LCD display that shows the voltage, and it can also show resistance on that display - low ohms with 1 ohm accuracy. It also has a switch to give a greater load on the circuit being measured to reduce ghost voltages. There are probably other features I've forgotten. Its all in the details online

 

[Brother Blue]

Would the t90 serve the same purpose as the martindale or in what way is it better

The T90 has a much cooler Fluke badge on it than the Martindale so it makes you look way cooler with it hanging out of your pocket at the trade counter of your local wholesalers.