The electrical toner, also known as tone and probe tracing kit, makes the electrician’s life easy by helping him/her in detecting wires among a bundle of hundreds of wires.
Primarily it comes with two parts, the tone producer, and the tone detector. The tone generator produces a tone or a sound that travels along the length of the wire and the tone detector detects the sound at the other side. These kits also have an ability to check the voltage flowing through the wires.
Most of the electricians and technicians today cannot do without an electrical toner. Their functionality and feasibility make them a must-have for wiring specialists. These electrical toners help you trace and detect wires whether in the walls, above the ceiling or below the floor. They can even help with the wirings of the pre-installed alarm systems.
For your ease and convenience, some of the best electrical toners on the market are compared and reviewed in this article.
Our Favorite Electrical Toners:
| Product | Battery | Plug | Warranty | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluke Networks 262003AL Pro3000 | Two 9V (Alkaline) | RJ11 | 30 Days | $$ |
| Extech TG20 | Two 9V (Nonstandard) | RJ11 | 1 year | $ |
| Greenlee 701K-G Professional | Two 9V | RJ11/RJ45 | 1 year | $$$ |
| Klein Tools VDV500808 | Two 9V | RJ11/RJ12/RJ45 | 2 year | $$ |
1. Fluke Networks Circuit Toner
This electric toner by fluke is an analog tone producer that weighs approximately one pound. It comes with a set of angles bed of nail clips and also with an RJ11plug for plugging the inactive networks. These plugs and bed of nail clips help in tracing and locating wires.
This electric toner can send significant tones for up 16 kilometers and for smart tone signals it has a range of 3.3 kilometers. There is not a single type of wire that cannot be checked and judged with this electric toner. These include alarm wires, telephone wires, de-energized wires etc.
This tone and probe tracing kit is one of the electrical wire toners on the market. It has Smart-Tone technology that can make four to five different sounds to detect exact pairs. It also has loudspeakers so that you can clearly hear the tone while detecting wires.
The frequency that it produces for constant tones is 1000 Hz and for alternating tones, it uses a mixture of 1000 Hz and 1500 Hz. This product also comes with an overvoltage protection feature that has 60 VDC in both toners as well as the polarity mode.
The batteries used by this product are alkaline batteries of 9 volts, one for the toner and one for the probe. It also comes with 30 days full refund warranty so that you can check and return the product if it has any defect or if you don’t like it.
Pros:
- It has five loud distinct tones.
- It comes with a nylon pouch.
- Adaptors are not needed.
- Works on all kinds of cables.
Cons:
- Relatively expensive.
Verdict:
This product is ideal for professional use where electricians have to deal with multiple kinds of wires. Even though it is expensive as compared to other electrical toners, its features are so on point that they make all the money worth it.
2. Extech Electrical Toner
This product is known for its quick identification abilities within a bunch of wires. Its abundant features also include detection, identification, and testing of phone lines which is why it is mostly used for that purpose. This product is considered an essential tool for installation of the phone line. The best part is, it is very reasonable and cost-efficient.
It has a non-contact amplifier which makes tracing the wire even easier. The output cables from the transmitter end in the plug which is an RJ11 phone connector. It has ideal features for phone line testing.
After it injects a traceable signal into the phone line and not only checks the polarity of the phone line but also works on the breaks and continuity checks of the phone line. Moreover, its sensitivity can be adjusted which eliminates the risk of any kind of false detection and also improves the accuracy of wire detection.
This product does not require the connection of the probe to different wires for detection rather it audibly detects the wire using its non-contact amplifier. The batteries require this electrical line finder are non-standard 9 volts batteries, one for the transmitter and the other one for the probe.
A complete kit comes with these batteries, a transmitter with RJ11 plug-in jack, a probe and some alligator clips for establishing a connection. Moreover, this product comes with a one year warranty which is great at this price. The product is known to work exactly as advertised once the manual is correctly followed.
Pros:
- Pocket-friendly.
- Has adjustable sensitivity which improves accuracy.
- Checks continuity of phone lines.
- Wires can be easily traced from the source to the termination.
Cons:
- Batteries are not long lasting.
Verdict:
This electrical wire tracer tool is ideal for electricians and technicians who have more work related to phone wiring and installation. It is very pocket-friendly and is also extremely reliable. The features included, especially the adjustable sensitivity feature makes it extremely accurate for all kinds of work.
3. Greenlee Electrical Toner
This professional wire tracer tool is a highly upgraded version of standard wire toners. It has all the essentials for the internal wiring and makes technicians and electricians work very easy. This product is known for its accuracy and precision with low voltage applications that include phone line installation, data lines and security alarm wires and installation.
This 701K-G professional electrical line tracer can also check the voltage of the wire pairs apart from producing a tagging sound for tracing it.
The tone probe added to this kit is 200EP-G which is an advanced version that does not require any kind of metallic contact for identifying the wire pairs and cables. This tone probe amplifier also has a good quality speaker so that the electrician or the technician can do their work accurately in noisy environments.
The speaker comes with adjustable volume control so that the user can adjust it according to preference.
Like the Extech TG20, it also specializes in analyzing the polarity and continuity of phone line as well as other wires. It has a nominal altering frequency with a range of 890 to 960 Hz. The rugged nylon case that is added to the kit keeps it from getting damaged.
The tone generator is a high power tone generator so that the user can easily detect any wire among a bundle of wires. The probe can be used on any kind of wire whether it is twisted, de-energized or coaxial. The accuracy remains same at all times and gives you the best and precise results. It one year warranty is a cherry on the top.
Pros:
- It is user-friendly and reliable.
- Comes with a speaker for noisy areas.
- The adjustable volume control gives the user a better working environment.
- Can work accurately with a large bundle of wires.
Cons:
- Sometimes the probe picks up interference.
Verdict:
Even though the product is a little hard on the pocket it is definitely worth it. If you have to deal with heavy duty work, this is the one for you. It is a high-grade professional product specifically made to make the technician’s an electrician’s life easy.
4. Klein Tools Circuit Toner
This sophisticated and professional grade electrical toner tester can be the electrician’s new best friend. It is extremely user-friendly and the sophisticated design helps in carrying it as well as in using it. The complete kit consists of two parts and no extra-long wires which can cause inconvenience.
This Klein wiring toner can test and detect all kinds of common wires which include coaxial wires, twisted wired, de-energized AC wires etc. The Klein tool’s typical TONEcube and PROBEplus technology with advanced features is used to make the product more accurate.
The professional level tone generator and toner along with the LED that detects any kind of power overload and misreads not only improves accuracy and precision but also keeps the user safe from any kind of hazard.
It comes with two 9 volts batteries for the probe and the toner. These batteries can last up to 5000 hours, which is why this product comes under the heavy-duty category.
It comes with an auto power off feature which saves the battery life by turning itself off in case the user forgets to turn it off. This also improves the battery and product life. The low battery indicator LED helps you determine when you are going to face low battery problems so that you can plan ahead.
For improving the accuracy, the tone generator can produce five distinct sounds with which you can simultaneously detect five different wires in a bundle. This comes in handy especially when there are too many wires to work on. The padded zipper bag added to the package keep the device safe from damages. It comes with a two-year warranty so that the user can replace any damaged or broken part.
Pros:
- Comes with a padded pouch.
- Can produce five distinct sounds.
- Has auto power off feature.
- The batteries are long lasting.
Cons:
- Batteries that are used in this toner are hard to find.
Verdict:
This product has all the high end and high-quality features added to it. The Klein wire toner can be a good addition to an electrician’s or technician’s toolbox, especially if he/she needs a longer battery life for the nature of work they do.
Buying guide
There are multiple electrical toners on the market, each one feature different technologies and different level of accuracy and precision. Therefore, customers should consider a few things before investing in a certain electrical wire toner, so that they can find the best one for their job. These features are:
· Cadence:
This is a professional name for the tone produced by the toner. Different toners have different kinds of tones; some have a single tone while others have a number of distinct tones with different levels. The maximum number of distinct cadence provided by an electrical toner is 5. You can also get the ones that provide a lesser number of cadences.
· Speaker:
Some kits come with speakers that help you in tracing and identification of wires. The best of the toners provide their users with speakers that have adjustable volumes. These speakers can be used to detect wires in normal environments as well as in noisy environments. These speakers play an important role in the amplification of tone for accurate detection of wires.
There are multiple toners on the market that come with an earphone jacket for plugging earphones. These are mostly needed for noisy environments like construction sites.
· LED display:
The LEDs is one of the most important features in an electrical toner. It tells you when something is wrong, or when you have detected the right wire or when you have to identify a different number of wires. For user’s convenience, some companies also add LEDs to notify of low battery power as well as to notify the overloading of the probe. These LEDs improve the accuracy especially when the user is working on a large bundle of wires.
· Cablemap ability:
Most of the wiring mistakes and short-circuiting in the wiring are due to wrong wiring or mixing of wires. This can be detected when an electrical toner has cable map ability included. It can easily identify the wrongly placed wires especially when the wires are twisted. This feature makes the user’s work easy by eliminating the need of consulting a wire map. The common electrical faults can be greatly decreased by using an electrical toner with these features.
Apart from these features, the features that play an important role are the cost, the type of brand you are buying from and its reputations, the safety measures taken during production, the warranty and the battery life. A smaller battery life can make your life difficult rather than helping you with work.
Conclusion:
For technicians and electricians, an electrical toner is a must have. Every product and company have their own rules of production and give a certain level of quality with the price range it offers. Keeping the products mentioned above in mind the fluke pro 3000 can be declared the best of the lot.
The price range it offers and the number of features included cannot be met by others. It can be used for any kind of wiring and can also deal with any kind of heavy duty work. Unlike other toners, it is not specifically accurate in a single kind of wiring rather it is master of all wirings.