Klein Tools NCVT-3 Voltage Tester, Non-Contact Dual Range Voltage Tester Pen for AC Testing, with Integrated Flashlight

First, I am not an electrician -- so I don't use this every day. But mine has seen regular use on 120 and 240V wiring, and earned its place in my electrical hip pouch. The non-contact tester has been sensitive and reliable, and that is the key function. Higher voltages light more LEDs, and there is a blue LED to indicate power/sensing on. Like all NCVT devices, make sure to check it on a known live wire before each use -- and check the instructions. The built in flashlight is good enough for close up work (see the pic) but I carry brighter flashlight too. Battery life has been very good -- still on the original set after about a year. It has survived a couple of drops onto concrete, and getting seriously wet once. If mine dies, I will order a new one ASAP. Thanks for reading the review, and I hope it was helpful.

DISCLAIMER: Electricity can KILL you. I am the furthest thing from a licensed electrician. Please do not apply anything posted below to your expertise as I am not a professional. If you have questions about a project consult your local licensed electrician.I am a weekend handy man, and not a very good one at that. I don’t know much about electricity. I do know that there are things around the house that I could fix myself if I was comfortable with absolutely knowing that the power was off and I would NOT wake up in the emergency room. Ceiling fans for example, I’ve held off of new ceiling fans because I’m paranoid want to be SURE that there is no juice coming into the area I’m working on. Enter the Klein Tools NCVT-3 Non-Contact Voltage Tester with Flashlight. It was made for paranoid newbies like myself. Point to the desired area, if you get no beeps, you turned off the right breaker. While I’ll still turn everything off at the main, it’s comforting to be able to test the exact area that you are about to work on. There is no ambiguity here, the circuit is hot or not. And the Klein will let you know which that is. The build quality on this thing is fantastic. Being a Klein product I shouldn’t be surprised but this thing is well built. Has a little heft to it. It’s freaking waterproof and dust proof. It’s something that will be in your toolkit and working for a long time. An absolute steal price wise for a top of the line product. Shipping: for the first time ever a product I ordered from Amazon was lost in delivery. But once again Amazon steps in and overnights me a replacement and we’re all happy. For any retailers in the audience, that is how you retain loyal customers.

Pros: light/compact, cheap, fairly accurate once you know how best to use it.Cons: Flashlight is almost worthless(but who really is buying this for the flashlight?)Use at work to trace wires, spot check for voltage(yes i double check with a meter), and to differentiate quickly between different voltages in large runs of wire all ran together. This tool can be very effective at "sniffing out" different voltages if you learn how to use it correctly. It is very sensitive so sometimes covering the end with your finger will help you get more accurate results. Also isolating the wires your testing best you can helps a lot. I use this to troubleshoot lighting/ballast problems at work and it saves me quite a bit of time. The wire terminations for the ballasts and the lights are very hard to get to in some cases and being able to locate/differentiate voltages in wires going from the ballast to the light cuts a lot of troubleshooting time out.When i say differentiate between voltages i mean in a general sense. For instance 1bar= 24v-48v, 2bars= 120v, 3-4bars= 220v-277v, 5bars= anything above 300v. This is scale is an average indication based on how i use the tool and is not indicative of what you should expect. You should always verify with a multi meter and isolate power before performing work.

My Greenlee with the sensitivity adjustment wheel was beginning to act up after a few years of use, and I really didn't like that the on/off and sensitivity were on the same easy-turning wheel.This NCVT isn't perfect, but it's very good. My main complaint is I'll often get a low voltage reading (two of five LEDs illuminated on the bar graph display) when I'm touching directly to a hot, but there's no question it's hot, and most of the time the bar graph works correctly. I've yet to get a false positive (other than a quick beep at initial contact that immediately ceases).The touch on / off is perfect. Particularly the double beep the unit emits when it's being powered off, so there's no mistake that it's no longer functioning. The flashlight is a nice touch, and really doesn't add much to the overall girth.While I understand the reasoning behind not having an insertion tip, I don't see the harm in including one, but it hasn't really affected the way I use it. Old habits die hard, though.