Anyone recommend a good voltage detector???

[MarkieSparkie]

My old mentor used to check fuses by running two fingers down the row of end caps. I would not recommend it, but it always worked for him, used to make his hair stand on end like Bunsen Honeydew's from the Muppets, when he found a blown one.

 

[wildgoose]

The only one I will use is the small fluke stick with a torch in-built. It has two led colours in the sensing head: red and blue.
This one is very sensitive and in my experience will almost always indicates a live feed present but will sometimes show a live when it's not there? - probably due to crosstalk from nearby live cables! So it can be quite useful for quick checks before the Martindale testlamp comes out.
I don't recommend the Fluke VoltAlert 1AC. These are unreliable rubbish and in my opinion a waste of money - not that we should ever totally trust these things in the first place!!

 

[grantr37]

if you need to check a voltpen is working, hold it next to the base of your laptop screen and the feed for the backlight from the screen inverter will make it beep....also works with tablets and some smartphones...



I have a couple of fluke ones, I also bought a load of cheap ones from ebay which are ok, think from the same factory just blue instead of yellow....as people always borrow and often don't give back.....especially fluke ones at £24 each...

 

[The Finch]

I have one of these

http://www.test4less.co.uk/details.asp?ProductID=297