Thought a $50 cable tester was junk, now it's my go-to sanity check

Picked up one of those cheap handheld testers off Amazon back in March just to verify a bundle of Ethernet runs at a small hangar in Tulsa. I figured it would give false positives or just plain lie to me, but the first time it caught a split pair on a line I'd already certified by hand I actually laughed out loud. The thing pays for itself every time it saves me from chasing a gremlin that only shows up under load, and now I use it before I even break out the proper certifier. Has anyone else found a tool they were ashamed to buy that turned out to be the most reliable thing in their bag?

2 comments

2 Comments

murray.spencer24d ago

That cheap tester has saved my bacon more times than I care to admit, especially after I swore up and down my terminations were flawless. My pride took a hit the first time it flagged a bad pair on a cable I'd just bragged about, but now I keep it in my front pocket like a security blanket. Funny how the tool you're embarrassed to pull out ends up being the one you can't live without.

ben_nguyen24d ago

Hell yeah. I did the exact same thing with a patch cable at a client site once, swore it was perfect, then watched that little red light blink at pair 4. Turned out I'd nicked the jacket on a staple and the wire was barely hanging on. Now I test everything before I even walk out of the room, saved me a whole callback the next week. That thing is ugly as sin but it's basically my third hand now.