Blimey Some Good Advice From The Not So Nutter

[c4757p]

Do you have a link to that channel?

IAintAvinit. A few of the videos make him seem like a normal, knowledgeable (if not too eloquent) guy just putting on a show. A few others make him seem like a completely deranged lunatic. And the rest are just kind of boring.

[gxti]

he is far off too far. the spike you are talking about is nowhere near at cutting Kielbasa into half. let me correct myself... when few KV at nonnegligible amount of energy reach into a household, a cheap pen tester is out of the equation. tv, refrigerator, human, pc et al will be is.

The kV are for show, but even at nominal voltage that thing is unsafe. It's one fault away from electrocuting the operator.

[vk6zgo]

Yeah,back in the day,we used to sell well made ones at my first job-----I never liked them much,myself,but they were properly designed,with correct high voltage construction of the resistor,etc.

Ours were made in Germany,& had the maximum voltage rating clearly written on them.(380V)

They are meant to be used by people with some idea of what they are doing---not morons!

The proper tool to check mains voltages is a DUSPOL (http://de.benning.de/en/corporate/products-services/testing-measuring-and-safety-instruments/testequipment/duspol-facts.html). Fluke got a similar tool.

When we sold them,circa 1960,such high tech stuff was a distant dream.

Electricians used them mainly as a quick check that Active & Neutral were present,& on the right pins in sockets,(although it was only a "suggested" orientation in Western Australia till the '70s).

For serious work,they used an analog multimeter.

Why I said I didn't much like them,is the possibility of the neon failing due to dropping the tool,where the next test would show a false "safe".

It shouldn't happen with Electricians ,as they are taught to test their tester each time in a known active point (for multimeters,too!),but they can get a bit lax with this-----& the rest of us will probably just assume our test equipment is OK.

[madires]

Why I said I didn't much like them,is the possibility of the neon failing due to dropping the tool,where the next test would show a false "safe".

Good point! And Mr. DIY would keep the broken one because it's still usable as screwdriver. After a while he'll have some broken ones and a single working one in his toolbox. Nominated for the Darvin Award :-)

It shouldn't happen with Electricians ,as they are taught to test their tester each time in a known active point (for multimeters,too!),but they can get a bit lax with this-----& the rest of us will probably just assume our test equipment is OK.

Yeah, it worked for the last 10 years. Why should it fail right now? :-)

[c4757p]

Yep, the majority of DIY types tend to assume that if something hasn't presently killed anyone, it's not going to. I tried for a month to convince my father to fix his wiring, after discovering that the outlets he installed in the garage weren't grounded properly. But since he'd been using it for months already without issue, he didn't do anything. (I finally just did it myself...)

Should have just waited for him to plug in something with mains filter capacitors and a "grounded" chassis and waited for him to discover the capacitors... 

[madires]

Yep, the majority of DIY types tend to assume that if something hasn't presently killed anyone, it's not going to. I tried for a month to convince my father to fix his wiring, after discovering that the outlets he installed in the garage weren't grounded properly. But since he'd been using it for months already without issue, he didn't do anything. (I finally just did it myself...)

Hmm, are you sure that we don't got the same father?  Most times my father asks if he could do something in such and such a way now. But it took some time.

Should have just waited for him to plug in something with mains filter capacitors and a "grounded" chassis and waited for him to discover the capacitors... 

Recommended for educational purposes :-)