Non-Contact Voltage Tester with Laser Distance Meter

I never thought these two devices would be put together similar to cell phones and cameras. I keep this in my honey-do tool bag. It is great to have for quick measurements when looking for furniture or placing pictures on walls. I am big into home automation and am always changing out my light and fan switches. The non-contact voltage tester works great and is sensitive enough to detect the exact hot wire. It is easily marked by changing the led light to red. You can also change the display from inches to feet, to fractions, to meters.

I found this laser distance meter to be reasonably, ,(but that is +/- 1/16th of an inch),accurate when compared to a known accurate tape measure. Be aware that the manufacturer cautions not to direct the laser beam at anyone or look at the beam because laser light can be harmful if looked at, but otherwise very safe in normal usage. The voltage tester allows the checking of voltage through wire or conductor insulation, but does not give voltage reading, only in 1 to 4 bars and an audible signal that increases with the number of bars when voltage is present. The audible signal and bars indicate the strength of the reading.

This is a great little tool from Klein. It's a little bit bigger than a NCV (non contact voltage tester) only because there is a laser distance meter built in. It will still fit in my pocket or tool pouch with no problem. And I really appreciate having a digital tape measure built in. An awesome feature of the LDM is you can set it to read from the front of the tool or the back. So you can put it against a wall and read from there. Nice visible display and a great voltage sensor. I recently used this when I was replacing a ceiling light. Great to know when the voltage was off by just a proximity test as there were multiple lines and switches. I also have used the LDM for measuring room dimensions and even openings for shades. I'm keeping this one. Caution you should always test the tester with a known live circuit before checking unknown lines. This is just common sense.

I like the non-contact (2 probes not needed) function to let me know I'm working on a potentially 'hot' conductor. And yes I VERIFY it. I "test the tester" on a known hot circuit for my safety before working on wires EVERY TIME! A little bigger than NCV, (Non-Contact Voltage) only tester because of the laser distance display. Small enough to keep in a safety vest pocket and it uses a pair of AAA cells (included). It blinks and beeps faster the closer it gets to a live conductor (specs indicate 10 VAC to 1 kVAC, 50-500 Hz). Full auto power off in 4-5 minutes of no activity. For distance measurement there is a 'reference mark bump' on the head, or you can change the 'reference to the back' of the unit. Surprisingly accurate, easily within 1/16" at 3' range. Fast and accurate to measure a room as long as you hold the laser beam perpendicular. Metric or English display. A given measurement will display e.g. as 2.835 ft, 2' 10", .864m, 34.02" as selected. Stated maximum range is 66'. I've not needed it beyond 30-40 feet measurements, but if you can see the laser dot, it does too. Works well.

The Klein Tools NCVT-6 is a Full-Range non-contact voltage tester (NCVT) with an integrated laser distance meter. There have been many times I would like to measure distance without having to use a tape measure. I really like this tool, it has come in handy a couple times for both measuring as well as detecting where the wires were behind a wall I was putting shelving in and I knew the breaker box was somewhere on the opposite side of the exterior wall and I wanted to make sure I didn’t put any nails in that area. This tool can measure from 2 inches to 65.6 feet and has an accuracy of about 1/16 inch for distances under 33 feet and about 1/8 inch for distances up to 65.6 feet. I took a few sample measurements and found this to be pretty accurate. There are 2 settings to choose from depending if you want to include the length of the tool in the measurement, or just from the tip of the tool to whatever your laser is pointing at. This tool has several choices of measurements such as meters, inches with decimals, inches with fractions, feet with decimals and feet with fractions. This tool can detect voltages ranging from 12 volts to 1000 volts. It is IP40 dust resistant and batteries are included.

The Klein Tools NCVT-6 combines AC voltage detection and laser distance measurement in a single compact tool. Non-contact voltage detection is a safe way to verify that an AC circuit is switched off before starting a wiring task. Detection is activated by pressing the NCV/On-Off button. The tester beeps and the transparent tip glows blue indicating ready to use. When the tip is positioned close to AC voltage, it blinks red and the tester beeps repeatedly. Higher voltage and moving closer to the AC source increases the blinking and beeping rate. The digital display shows one to five dots indicating signal strength. Silent operation is optional. Laser distance measurement avoids the inaccuracies caused by a twisted or sagging metal tape. it's easier to read the digital display than to count the closely spaced lines on a tape measure. Lasers can access high ceilings and other hard-to-reach places. Measurement is activated by pointing at the target and pressing the red button labeled with the triangular radiation symbol. A laser spot appears on the target and the unit gives a single beep. Distance to target appears on the digital display. Continuous distance measurement is also an option. User can select distance units in feet, inches, or meters. Maximum usable distance is 20 m (66 ft). Powered by two AAA batteries. Battery compartment is sealed with an O-ring. Ingress protection rating is IP40, meaning protected from intrusion of solid objects larger than 1 mm, no protection from liquids. Shock resistant up to a 2 meter (6.6 ft) drop. Very useful for measuring room dimensions. Manufactured in China.

I wish I had this tool when I was a young Field Service Engineer for Measurex / Honeywell. It is superb at finding faulty or non-existent grounding on electrical equipment. Some folks may complain it is too sensitive, detecting AC fields on UN-plugged equipment. I prefer this sensitivity over all other products since it can find stray fields where other testers fail. The Laser Distance Meter is very accurate and makes for an all-round versatile tool.

This is by far the easiest way to measure short distances. It's accurate and fast. The voltage detector works like any other client detector perfectly.