December 26, 2014—When doing electrical work and troubleshooting, or renovation and remodeling, it is essential to locate circuit breakers, detect “hot” wires, and identify outlet wiring faults, reminds General Tools & Instruments, provider of precision specialty hand tools. The company’s new Circuit Breaker Finder with NCV Detector and GFCI Outlet Checker (BF20) is engineered to make all of these tasks safe, easy, and fast.
Comprising a transmitter and receiver, General’s BF20 is designed to allow users to accurately perform the following tasks in a fraction of the time of other methods:
- Determine the circuit breaker or fuse associated with any 110V outlet without interrupting power
- Detect energized lines, cables, and outlets
- Test for and identify five common outlet wiring faults
- Verify the operation of Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) circuits
The BF20’s fully automatic operation reportedly turns two-man jobs into one-man jobs. When the transmitter is plugged into any 110V outlet, it sends a signal to the circuit breaker panel. At the panel, the receiver tip can be used to “scan” all of the breakers, or fuses, to identify the associated breaker.
The tip of the receiver houses a non-contact voltage (NCV) detector. A beeper sounds and an LED (light-emitting diode) flashes to signal “hot” or energized outlets, lines, and cables. According to General, a patented circuit in the BF20 also eliminates the false positives that weaker technologies like inductive coupling often produce. In addition, the receiver is equipped with a built-in white LED work light to help in dark locations.
The plug-in transmitter doubles as an outlet wiring tester. By measuring leakage currents, it can identify five common wiring faults in GFCI and conventional outlets: open ground, open neutral, open hot wire, hot wire and ground reversed, and hot wire and neutral reversed. The type of fault is indicated by a unique pattern of colored LEDs. The transmitter also can verify that a GFCI outlet is correctly wired.
Designed to comply with safety standard IEC 61010-1, the BF20 has a three-year limited warranty.
Headquartered in New York City since 1922, General Tools & Instruments remains a market leader in precision specialty hand tools. Recent product advancements and corporate acquisitions have expanded General’s line to include over 1,500 precision tools and hand-held instruments. This vast array of products is widely used by contractors, professionals, technicians, do-it-yourselfers and hobbyists in a broad range of industries.
