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That $150 cable toner that barely works in old homes
Picked up a budget toner last month and it couldn't trace a single line through plaster walls, kept giving false tones on the ground wire. Anyone else find the cheap brands useless on pre-1980s builds or did I just get a dud unit?
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wadeyoung24d ago
Tbh that sounds more like a settings issue than a bad toner. Cheap units still put out a signal, so if you're getting false tones on ground it's usually because you're running the wand too hot and it's picking up everything nearby. Try turning the gain way down and sweeping slow. Plaster with metal lath is basically a faraday cage, so no toner at any price is gonna shoot through that clean. I've traced lines in knob and tube houses with a $40 Amazon special just fine once I learned to work around the lath. Blaming the tool is easy, but half the time it's how you're using it.
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