Blew $400 on a fancy cable toner that barely works in old houses

Picked up one of those high end Fluke toner kits because I was tired of cheap ones dying on me. First job with it was a 1970s ranch house with aluminum wiring and it was useless. Couldn't get a clean signal through the old coax no matter what I tried. Ended up using my old $30 no name probe and it worked fine. Anyone else run into toner issues with older wiring?

2 comments

2 Comments

bettyhunt15d ago

Fancy stuff hates old wiring, same as fancy tools hate old jobs.

bell.taylor15d ago

Fancy stuff hates old wiring" is a good line, but it’s not always the wiring causing trouble. Sometimes the problem is that the fancy stuff just has too many sensitive electronics that older grounding setups can’t handle. A good electrician can usually fix it by adding a dedicated ground or upgrading the breaker panel.