khariV Posted June 3, 2015 Report Share Posted June 3, 2015 After watching the TIA review of the Klein NCVT3 voltage tester and, since I could use a new voltage tester, I went ahead and picked one up at the depot. I'm not sure what the deal with this tester is but it was more or less useless. It would light up and start beeping when you got anywhere near a live outlet. You might say that's what it's supposed to do, but by near I mean 3'. That's feet. Point it at my battery chargers... BEEP. Point it at the overhead fluorescent light ... BEEP. Point it at my leg ... BEEP. Shake it ... BEEP. I can't imagine relying on it to tell me a live circuit if it thinks that my leg is. 110v line. So, back to the depot it went. The one I exchanged it for basically did the same thing. Back to the depot yet again. This time I checked 3 more hanging in the store. Guess what - every one basically acted in the same way. They'd beep when shaken, pointed at body parts, touched to be metal shelves and basically left me with zero confidence that they were working. The older NCVT2 in HD didn't have any of these problems. Is the NCVT3 just a bad design? I've looked at these in 2 separate stores and they all act the same so I don't think at it always just a bad shipment. I'd expect this from a cheap HF tool, not Klein. I guess I'll stick with my five year old tester until they iron out the kinks. Has anyone else had any experience with these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poisonfangs85 Posted June 3, 2015 Report Share Posted June 3, 2015 I bought a Gardner Bender SDT6 years ago. It's the screw driver with the voltage sensor. It did the same exact thing. Turn it on and if your within 4' from a live circuit or move to much and the thing would SING! Can't use this in a box to single out a hot. I didn't expect much from a gimmicky screw driver, but I expect more from Klein. Disappointing to hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NERemodeling Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 One word....... FLUKE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NERemodeling Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 Haha. Just realized that could be confusing.. I'm not saying that what you were experiencing was a fluke occurrence rather I was referring to the brand Flukethe 1AC-A1-II in particular is a very reliable excellent non contact tester... anything Fluke should be a great choice really. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fazzman Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Sucks to hear this as I thought the Klein would be nice. I have a Greenlee Non contact tester that has been awesome. I got it in one of my electronics classes a few years back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nalu Rash Posted June 14, 2015 Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 Maybe you could contact Klein. Tell them about your situation and maybe they will send you a new oneSent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Kuhn Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi KDV, This should not be happening with your NCVT-3, and this is the first time I have heard of any issue with the product. I would like to see this product, so it can be examined. Please contact me so I can arrange to swap out your NCVT-3, and test the one that is giving you issues. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n00b Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi KDV, This should not be happening with your NCVT-3, and this is the first time I have heard of any issue with the product. I would like to see this product, so it can be examined. Please contact me at bkuhn@kleintools.com, so I can arrange to swap out your NCVT-3, and test the one that is giving you issues. Bruce R. KuhnDirector of Product DevelopmentTest & Measurement Products Whoa. Wow. That's awesome. Actual, for really-real customer service! It's probably just a sign of the endtimes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hernandez Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 After watching the TIA review of the Klein NCVT3 voltage tester and, since I could use a new voltage tester, I went ahead and picked one up at the depot.I'm not sure what the deal with this tester is but it was more or less useless. It would light up and start beeping when you got anywhere near a live outlet. You might say that's what it's supposed to do, but by near I mean 3'. That's feet. Point it at my battery chargers... BEEP. Point it at the overhead fluorescent light ... BEEP. Point it at my leg ... BEEP. Shake it ... BEEP.I can't imagine relying on it to tell me a live circuit if it thinks that my leg is. 110v line. So, back to the depot it went. The one I exchanged it for basically did the same thing. Back to the depot yet again. This time I checked 3 more hanging in the store. Guess what - every one basically acted in the same way. They'd beep when shaken, pointed at body parts, touched to be metal shelves and basically left me with zero confidence that they were working.The older NCVT2 in HD didn't have any of these problems. Is the NCVT3 just a bad design? I've looked at these in 2 separate stores and they all act the same so I don't think at it always just a bad shipment. I'd expect this from a cheap HF tool, not Klein.I guess I'll stick with my five year old tester until they iron out the kinks. Has anyone else had any experience with these?When new products come out it really makes you want to run out and buy it, but I've learned to wait until any bugs get fix. I never had a problem with my Ncvt2 I really like the new design but I guess Klein still has some work to do. Its disappointing to here your experience I'm an electrician and Klein is my go to for tools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khariV Posted September 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 I apologize for not following up on this sooner. I got distracted looking for a job, watching the kids this summer and traveling to take care of my dad and fix up his house. Anyway, I finally had a chance to revisit my woes with the Klein voltage testers while ripping out the drywall in my kids bathroom. I even made a couple of quick videos to show the problems that I am having. The first video describes the general behavior of 3 different voltage testers. In a nutshell, the Southwire is the only one that can reliably beep ONLY when there is power in the line. The Klein NCVT-2 beeps continuously on a powered off circuit. The Klein NCVT-3 beeps a bit whenever you touch something -wire, drywall, wood, hand. On a side note, both of the Kleins beep more when touched to a live circuit, but the low level beeping leads me to believe that they think that there is in fact power in the line when the breaker is cut off. The second video focuses on the NCVT-3. Now, to preface this, because I believe in Klein, I actually went out and bought another NCVT-3 after all the problems I had this summer. I just unboxed it prior to shooting the first video. In this second video, you can see that not only does the NCVT-3 beep randomly, it shuts itself off pretty much whenever it feels like it. To me this is incredibly dangerous as you think that you've got it turned on and detecting, only to have it shut itself off because it bumped something. I can easily see thinking that circuit was dead only to find out the hard way that it was in fact live and your detector had just shut down. I'll forward this on to the Klein rep that posted above. Like I said, I believe in the company and I'm slowly switching all of my electrical gear over so I'd love to get this resolved and have two functioning tools again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Kuhn Posted September 24, 2015 Report Share Posted September 24, 2015 KDV, Please contact send your phone number to the email address below, and a good time to contact you. I have reviewed your videos, and would like to discuss what you are seeing. But, that is much easier to discuss over the phone, instead of through email. Your NCVT-2 and NCVT-3 are detecting low voltage, which is very common the way you are using them. But, I would like to go through this with you in detail. The unit that is shutting off when bumped should not be happening, and I will be happy to send you a replacement. I will also send you a pre-paid package to send that unit back so I can test it to see why it is sensitive to being bumped. When Klein Tools launches new products, we evaluate the early returns very carefully, in order to see if there are areas we can improve on the design. But, the return rate on these are so low, I do not have enough units to do that testing on. Getting a unit like this would really help. Please email me your contact info so we can get this resolved, and help both of us out. Thank You, Bruce R. Kuhn Director of Product Development Test & Measurement Products 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kruton Posted September 24, 2015 Report Share Posted September 24, 2015 ^^^^^ now that is pretty awesome!Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiltiWpg Posted September 24, 2015 Report Share Posted September 24, 2015 Indeed, now how about explaining why my diagonal cutters are so poorly made that the cutting edges don't line up? Can't return them, they won't warranty them. Can't cut stranded wire because the cutters are more like scissors with a gap!Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hernandez Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 KDV, Please contact send your phone number to the email address below, and a good time to contact you. I have reviewed your videos, and would like to discuss what you are seeing. But, that is much easier to discuss over the phone, instead of through email. Your NCVT-2 and NCVT-3 are detecting low voltage, which is very common the way you are using them. But, I would like to go through this with you in detail. The unit that is shutting off when bumped should not be happening, and I will be happy to send you a replacement. I will also send you a pre-paid package to send that unit back so I can test it to see why it is sensitive to being bumped. When Klein Tools launches new products, we evaluate the early returns very carefully, in order to see if there are areas we can improve on the design. But, the return rate on these are so low, I do not have enough units to do that testing on. Getting a unit like this would really help. Please email me your contact info so we can get this resolved, and help both of us out. My email address is bkuhn@kleintools.com Thank You, Bruce R. KuhnDirector of Product DevelopmentTest & Measurement ProductsI agree he is using the NCVT-2 in the low voltage mode indicated by the blue led light. I own the NCVT-2 and sometimes the tester can sense low voltage from the neutral, the Southwire model he is using is not rated for low voltage that is why no voltage was detected. I do not have the NCVT-3 so I cannot comment on it but a lot of these non contact testers act funny when you bump something but it should not have shut off. As an electrician who gets shocked sometimes daily these non contact testers should be used to prove the power is on and should not be used to test if power is off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Argyropoulos Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 The name "non contact voltage tester" is a bit misleading for these tools. They are actually something more of an indicator and that's how you should use them. Some are real junk, useless and/or outright dangerous, but even the best should never be used as the sole means of confirming a dead circuit. Even the best NCVT will, under certain conditions, show a hot wire as dead. For true confirmation, you need a low impedance voltage tester, like a solenoid tester or one of the electronic versions of a solenoid tester. A voltage tester ONLY tests voltage so there's no chance you have it set to the wrong range or test setting, works with or without batteries so you can ALWAYS test with it and needs to be used on a known live circuit before and after you test the circuit you need to check. That being said, I'm glad to see Bruce clarify that bumping it shouldn't cause it to beep. I've seen others from Greenlee and Ideal that are sensitive to that as well, and also very often I see NCVTs that react to rubbing them on your clothes. Totally a waste of time. Others, like the FLIR are so damn sensitive that you can't tell a hot from a neutral or ground which is a total waste of time, plastic, packaging and batteries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmaurer Posted March 15, 2022 Report Share Posted March 15, 2022 I have a klein ncvt-3p. When I tested it the tester both lit up and beeped. Now that I'm trying to use the tester it will not beep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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