How To Find Hidden Wires

If you own an RV, or even live in a house, at some point you will have to locate a wire to do an electrical repair. It might be to repair a socket or a switch or maybe to troubleshoot a power issue. The device that we use is called a Wire Tracker or Toner. The unit can be used for a variety of testing including finding or tracing an electrical wire. Let’s say you have an outlet that is not working. This would indicate potentially a damaged wire or a wire that has come loose. If you manually try to find the culprit, it would likely take you days to figure it out. With this handy tool, you can easily trace the wiring until you hear the tone. Once you hear the tone, you know you have the correct wire. From here, you know exactly where to troubleshoot.

Another possible scenario would have to do with networking in your RV. Let’s say you have a network device that has stopped functioning and you have a huge array of devices connected. If you are like most people, you likely will not have them labeled. You can either go by trial and error and try to find the right cable to replace or you can use the toner to locate the damaged cable in minutes and get it replaced fast. Plus, many wire toners also have the ability to test the actual cable once you have located it. This option can confirm if the cable is damaged or if there is another issue. The possibilities are endless!This is just one of the many cool tools (toys) that we use when repairing and troubleshooting electrical issues in RV’s. Keep checking back as we update our V Blog frequently!