That $40 volt stick from Harbor Freight saved my panel swap after 2 failed attempts with a multimeter

I kept chasing a phantom short on a commercial zone until I tried the non-contact tester on every wire in the box and found the neutral carrying voltage from a bad splice, so now I check that before anything else, has anyone else ditched their meter for the cheap stick in tight spots?

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elizabeth_ramirez5d ago

Remember the stick only shows voltage presence, not how much is actually there. It can false-positive from induction next to live wires too, so a meter still has its place for the real troubleshooting.