Question re Neon Testers

[Knobhead]

While serving my apprenticeship one of the trades men got a belt off one. OK he had dropped it in a pool of s***ty water, fished it out and then used it.
They were banned from site! Anyone found with one would get a warning..

 

[mayfair]

So i wonder if someone drops a fluke 120 into a pool of water then uses it and gets a belt, that will be Fluke testers banned

While serving my apprenticeship one of the trades men got a belt off one. OK he had dropped it in a pool of ****ty water, fished it out and then used it.
They were banned from site! Anyone found with one would get a warning..

 

[telectrix]

mayfair, you beat me to it. i was going to say MFT.dropped in a bucket of sewer water

 

[sparkdog]

When I was an apprentice it was a neon or ordinary bayonet cap lamp and holder with a couple of leads on it,that was in the 1960s.The neons seemed better made back then,I think the modern ones are rubbish.Never any problems with them but wouldn't use one now as they don't give a reliable indication compared to a proper tester and proving unit.

 

[sparks1234]

Yep I did jump in as soon as I saw "neon testers", knee jerk reaction maybe but when you have had a wallop like I did many years ago I think it was understandable, but sorry I didn;'t read your question completely..........still ban them though

 

[Amp David]

Isn't most peoples concerns the fact that they dont give an accurate indication of if a circuit is live or dead?

 

[jar]

This takes me back to 1980 when I stated my time in black and white !. My Dad bought me an electricians toolkit it contained a neon tester. I was told by my journeyman to put this in the bin as they would light on a neutral and were not reliable or to be trusted. I removed the resistor and kept it as a terminal driver. As the site neared compleation and became live I was gifted a martindale tester which was brill!. My tool kit was aquired by an unsavery git comonley known as a theiving person. I replaced this with the same toolkit but hadent removed the resistor yet, my journeyman borowed this to swap pass wires as he Knew I had removed the resistor and would be safe to do it live as he wouldent be earthed I can still remember the scream and then the kick up the behind for not telling him it was new and still had all its gubbins inside. To this day wheniver I come across a neon tester in a tool kit I imeadiatly remove the gubbins from the inside and have never been brave enough to try one on a live terminal.

 

[rocker]

Message deleted as I was being an arse

 

[ecclescake]

Should be thrown away as soon as possible. Sparks1234 is right totally right, very unreliable one good earth and you'll produce better colours than the crap neon ever will.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Isn't most peoples concerns the fact that they dont give an accurate indication of if a circuit is live or dead?

That sums it up...they dont. Anyone who is going to stick their hands on the bits that bite based on the say so of a neon frankly deserves a handful of sparks.......try using one in sunlight and see if you can tell if it is lit or not.
I havent used one in twenty years.

 

[malcolmsanford]

I think like all sparks I'm totally against them. Most of us here understand what the limitations of these things are, but they are not aimed at our market they are aimed at the DIY end, and they are sold mainly as votalge testers, though the product name is voltage indicator.

The trouble with them is it encourages the not so savvy DIY'er to undo something and test to see if it is live, and if it is then you have the situation of someone poking about into something he doesn't understand, and using himself to make a circuit, they are horrendously unsafe in this type of situation, but there again so is a car if your not trained to drive.

There was a post on here a while back where someone was testing to see if his meter was live by using a Neon, it makes me shudder to think of someone poking about at a meter armed with just a neon screwdriver.

 

[ian.settle1]

Message deleted as I was being an arse

It's not unusal

 

[mayfair]

Someone from the wirral being an arse ......so whats fresh OUCH my mrs is from elesmere port and seen this lol

Message deleted as I was being an arse

 

[Spudnik]

i have one that i got with an expensive looking set and it declares everything live. Its ace.

Like it

 

[telectrix]

Someone from the wirral being an arse ......so whats fresh OUCH my mrs is from elesmere port and seen this lol

best thing ever came out of the wirral is the mersey tunnel