NOYAFA NF-826 Underground Cable Locator Wire Tracker, for Dog Fence Cables Irrigation. Wall and Underground Pipeline Wire Detector. Test Short Circuit Breaker of Wall and Underground Cables.

FAR exceeded my expectations! I first tried one of the less expensive devices, and it was useless. This one worked right out of the box, and made it downright simple to trace the buried wiring for several circuits over a distance of hundreds of feet. I can locate the conduits to within about 6". I also used it to find a break in an underground wire, to trace a buried plastic sprinkler pipe (by passing a wire through the pipe), and to trace wiring for one specific circuit inside my house. It worked beautifully in all cases.

Indispensable for locating lines inside our house. I had multiple mystery switches in the garage leading somewhere. I hooked this up and toned the line through the wall to find the termination (outside lights). Made the job simple for electrical work. Also used it to identify ends on conduit lines I pulled after the line tags fell off. I haven't used it for chasing plumbing down but I read in the manual that is another function.

I bought this because of all the issues I had with the tethered device types. It's a bit more expensive but it does a much better job. I needed it soon after I bought it, but it will take some time to learn how to use it effectively. I didn't find the spot where a squirrel had mostly chewed through. The signal strength tapered so slowly that it wasn't until I replaced a few 100' long section that I discovered this. Looking back, I think it might have been telling me it but I missed it.

Worked as it should, and it got me to my problem. I will say it is not as easy as using a stud finder or something similar. In my case I had a buried 12/2 romex that was shorted between the ground and power. After figuring out how to use this locator and understanding it needed a closed circuit to generate a magnetic field it worked fine. I was able to track where the cable was and where the short was as that is where the signal stopped. This put me within 6 inches of the damage about 20 inches down. See pictures.

I could not control the loud alarm and the job was not done because moving my body 4 feet away from the other piece would make the unit quiet but I could trace the wire. Therefore, I have to purchase a different system.

Works pretty good, but won't show a short to ground unless the wire is completely broken. Will not show a short to ground that is tripping a GFI unless the wire is completely burned to open circuit

I am searching for the phone line that comes up my 500 foot driveway in a rural setting to put in a sewer line that will go right over / under the phone / DSL line. At first I connected the leads to the 2 active lines. The receiver registered 53 volts. First good sign since phone lines have voltage and I was worried I might burn out the unit, which it did not. It signal only went out about 5 feet. I then connected to one active line and the ground. That turned out to be the correct connection; don't forget to turn the transmitter to transmit since turning it on does not automatically start transmitting. The user manual has lots of examples but being new to this, I wasn't sure which connection to use. The receiver comes on in AUTO mode, the most sensitive setting. It was so powerful, I stood there with the receiver at waist height and could follow the line at a walking pace. When I got to the spot where the sewer line was going to cross, about 250 feet from the transmitter, I put the receiver in the least sensitive setting by putting the receiver in manual and pressing the down arrow several times. Even at the lowest setting it still picked up the signal loud and clear. I then got on my knees and swept back and forth until I found the line and started digging. As I dug down, I used the unit to pin point if I was getting close. I did not want to cut the line so I was very cautious while digging with the shovel, even though in my area, the phone line is in a metal conduit. Just for fun, I even used the unit to find where my sprinkler values were buried. Overall, this unit is very impressive. I read several reviews of cheaper units where there were complaints of poor user manuals and weak signal. This unit is powerful and the user manual is very extensive... almost too extensive, but I would rather it be very detailed when I use it for more complex projects. Also note that when I first connected the unit to the phone line, I disconnected the modem thinking the transmitter signal would damage the modem / router. It started raining so I disconnected the unit and put the modem back online and had to continue later. When I went back out to continue hunting, I forgot to disconnect the modem. I finished flagging the spot and remembered the modem. It didn’t do anything to it and my internet service is working normally. I don’t know enough of the technical details of the transmitter to know if it could damage a modem / router, but in my case, it did not.

Transmitter will not charge. No way to contact Seller directly. The Amazon assistant does not give an option for defective, only damaged which pushes it to Amazon support, who will not assist since they only did fulfillment.