Sperry Instruments VD6505 Adjustable Non-Contact Voltage Sensor, 12-1000 V AC

A rugged well made tool that works very well. Same hi vis yellow plastic and black rubber grips as Dewalt Tools. I really like the adjustability of it. At full sensitivity, I get it within a few feet of a circuit or fluorescent light and it starts buzzing. All the way down and it does not detect anything, so the range of adjustment is fantastic. I can dial it in so precisely that I can hold it on one side of an insulated wire and it will not go off, but when I move it to the other side of the wire (where the hot conductor is) it goes off. That's accuracy to a few millimeters. Best way to use it is to calibrate it ahead of time. Stick it in the hot side of an outlet, on a wire or conduit, hover it over a wall switch or outlet that you know is hot and adjust the knob until it buzzes, now it's ready to test the unknown circuit. I live in a 60+ year old house with plaster and chicken wire lathe wall construction. At a little more than 1/2 sensitivity it detects the wires inside the wall, inside of metal conduit. By moving it back and forth and seeing where the buzzing starts and stops, I can trace exactly where that wire is in the wall between the studs. Makes it easy to trace or detect wiring in the walls before I cut or drill through. If you will only use one of these to stick into outlets or against wires to see if they are hot then the adjustability feature may be overkill, but to get a lot of varied use, I'l glad I chose this one.

Excellent tool. Response is very good; just takes a little getting used to for approximating position of indicator on dial for a given job, along with a judicious bit of 'touch and go' tweaking. For example, sensitivity can be adjusted to facilitate reliable detection of an individual hot wire in a box with several wires in close proximity of each other – and will enable detection of hot and neutral slots of receptacles to verify correct/incorrect wiring. At max sensitivity setting, a signal can be detected at an approximate distance of 12" to 18" thereby permitting a rough idea of hot wiring behind drywall. The only potential drawback would be attempting to use while wearing gloves, the 'feel' of the dial will be very difficult. The switch near the front must be depressed while in use which may be a bit annoying to some, however, one can guarantee that one will definitely not forget to turn it off (is the glass half full or half empty? It all depends upon your point of view).

I have been using a VD6505 for several years, and have been very satisfied. Last week I finally decided to buy another, to replace the one that I. . .ugh. . . found yesterday. With several sensors (i.e. those with a twisty power switch / battery cover on the butt) I've often had the cap pop off, or the power not be on / off as it should have been. No such troubles with this sensor. Battery life is great. My first sensor is on its first battery. (I don't use it daily, but I do use it frequently - in the 3 or 5 years that I've had it, I've used it on at least hundred jobs.) The adjustable sensitivity is great, though it comes with some extra responsibility. Turned way up, one can find low voltage, wires in walls / conduit, even "live" neutrals. Turned down, one can discern which wires are live, even in a crowded box. Here's the catch: one needs some "known quantity" to set the sensitivity. I'll give an example of what I mean. Set too high, the sensor may read an outlet as live just because the neutral is connected. Too low, it will give a false negative. So to check an outlet, one must put the probe up to a live outlet, and turn up the sensitivity until it *just* reads. And here comes the one con I'd note for this sensor. The dial is not graduated, and its range is outstripped by the range of sensitivity. I.e. the difference between "too much" and "not enough" is small, and once "just right" is lost (i.e. the dial is moved) one cannot reliably return to it without re-checking the setting. Bottom line, this sensor is very reliable and flexible, if one is willing to fuss with the sensitivity. I definitely recommend this over any "twisty butt" models, which I've found to be unreliable, (from several manufacturers).

Whereas I agree if you are an untrained electrician that this tool could actually be misleading/confusing when "sniffing" voltage, but for a professional that is trying to differentiate which wire is the hot and which one is the neutral on ancient wiring- it is a godsend. I regularly come across knob and tube wiring, and I have successfully used this tool for almost 10 years. As a service electrician, I end up pulling it out of my bag about once a week. It is a very reliable tool and has it's place. In contrast, using a regular voltage sensor that doesn't have adjustable sensitivity, the magnetic field of the hot wire can induce a false reading on the unenergized wire. But for this tool to be used properly, you realistically just have to ensure it is calibrated each time you use it. Just stick it in an active receptacle. You can quickly find the "sweet spot" by adjusting the thumbwheel so that it beeps when you insert it in the right slot of a LIVE receptacle and it doesn't beep when you insert it in the left (neutral) slot of the receptacle. Then it is ready to differentiate which conductors are live and which ones are not.

I've used it for several jobs and haven't even started my major wiring projects. Wanted to install a strong, reliable grab bar in my tub/shower exactly where I wanted it. Didn't want to be limited by the location of the wall studs. Before cutting out the sheetrock in the next room so I could add bracing between the studs I had to 1) locate the wiring precisely so I didn't cut it and 2) make sure it was dead while I was cutting. The sensitivity dial helped me pinpoint the location and route of the wiring. To start, I set it sensitive enough so that I could detect live wiring behind the sheetrock from about a foot away. I continued to dial the sensitivity back so that I had to be within an inch or two of the wiring for the sensor to respond (with a red blinking light and loud chirping sound). Then by moving the sensor along the wall, I could very precisely trace the run of the wiring, marking it with blue painter's tape. Before cutting into the sheetrock I flipped off what I was fairly sure was the correct breaker. To make sure, I dialed up the sensitivity of the sensor and swept it all over the wall where my painter's tape was. No response from the sensor indicated that I did flip the correct breaker, so it was safe to cut into the sheetrock. (In this situation you can hold the sensor near a lamp to make certain it will respond to current.) Silliest use I've made of the sensor was to make sure my crockpot was on. I'm going to upgrade my kitchen circuits. In the meantime the few kitchen receptacles are on one circuit, the electric range is on it's own. The range has a standard "convenience" outlet for temporarily plugging in an appliance, but it's old and "iffy". I started the crockpot on the regular kitchen circuit but had to move it and plug it into the range's convenience outlet. The crockpot doesn't have a power light, so I wasn't sure it was getting electricity. Maybe the plug needed a jiggle? Got my Sperry adjustable volt sensor out and sure enough, there was power in the crockpot power cord. Dinner was saved. The adjustability is what makes this so versatile. I've fiddled with the sensitivity dial and gotten it so that I could tell the hot from the neutral side of the power cord on a table fan. Touch the sensor to one side of the cord, no response. Touch it to the other side, flashing and chirping. Take a close look at the cord, and the no-response side has the telltale "neutral" ridge. It's a well-made and useful tool. Could save your life, could save your wiring. Could save your dinner.

I only use it occasionally as I do not do electric work for a living. The battery has lasted a long time and the device is sensitive enough to indicate the hot wire. I recommend!

I bought this tester as a backup to have in my toolbox. I tried to give this thing a shot even after i realized that this tester wasn't very good. The last straw was when i tested 2 cables & it sensed voltage on 1 of the 2 cables. This is how I knew which cable to cut. After cutting the cable I rechecked again only to see that the tester misread the voltage. Don't waste your time with this thing. I've seen other reviews with the same problem with this thing. The problems with this are that it is way too sensitive even after adjusting the sensitivity dial. If i put this tester in a wall to check voltage on wires, before I even put it in the wall cavity it will sense voltage. If I reduce the sensitivity enough so it doesnt alarm then when you touch the wire or cable that has voltage, it may not alarm. Just because of this problem, I cannot trust it. With my other tester I do not have this problem. The little tiny dial that is used to adjust sensitivity is just that, its too tiny. Now imagine wearing gloves & trying to move the dial, it's a pain. Just some background about me, I've used testers for years & I do engineering. Unfortunately I can't recommend this tester & mine will be going in the garbage.

I've used this for finding wiring in a room that's being re-done after some water damage. The sensitivity dial is SO sensitive and "iffy" that it's hard to know sometimes whether or not there's wiring behind the wall and, if so, where it is. For example, the meter might be "going crazy" on a section of the wall so I feel sure there's wiring there but I want to know exactly where. So I adjust the wheel JUST A HAIR, and then the meter doesn't read anything at all. So I have to settle for knowing that somewhere in the wall there's wiring and I have to find it some other way. The lack of a manual does NOT help, and if you go through the trouble of looking it up online, you still find nothing worth the time it took to look for it. Another thing that definitely does NOT help: Indicating current in a dead outlet. I turned off the breaker to an outlet I wanted to change out. The lamp that was working in the outlet before I turned the breaker off no longer worked. (So far so good.) I checked the outlet with a volt-ohm meter. No voltage. (So far so good.) When I held this sensor in the general vicinity of the outlet it was silent BUT when I placed it right next to the outlet it just beeped like crazy and it didn't stop until I moved it away. Not so good!

I use this at work as an electrician and have found the sensitivity adjustment very useful - it will react at quite a distance with new batteries, which are lasting well, and can be set to pick up lower voltages/closer to cable to identify live conductors I generally don't trust cheap electrical testers but this one has so far proved to be very good. It has limitations in regard to clarity of the voltage it picks up, it won't tell you what the voltage is - just that there is voltage present. Otherwise - I was so impressed I bought another for a work mate ....

This is a must have tool for any DIY guy doing electrical work around the home. Works great and save time tracing live wires. You can regulate it to check from 14 volts DC to 600 Volts AC. The seller was fast in shipping the product and was received the same way as advertise by the seller. I have no hesitation in recommending this seller to anyone who may be thinking of purchasing this item.

Nice product.

This thing works really great. If you have any question if the circuit is on or off this will tell. Anywhere a electrical current is moving, this will alert the person. Worked wonderful when I rebuilt my garage.

Very good price for a non contact voltage tester with adjustable control for sensitivity.