Sperry Instruments VT611 Heavy Duty Voltage Tester with Solenoid Indication, Black & Yellow

I really like this tester. It is the most compact solenoid type tester I have ever seen. It seems to be very well made and should last a long time with a lot of abuse. When probes are snapped to body they are at the spacing to test 15 and 20 amp 120v receptacles for one hand testing. Also this is the cheapest one I could find, so this is a winner!<my blog about solenoid testers in general> Electronic testers are cheaper, but sometimes show ghost neutrals as good, or a dead wire as live (picking up voltage by induction from a live wire). A solenoid type tester puts enough of a load to show if you really have a good circuit. A solenoid type tester can also check properly functioning GFCI receptacles and breakers. GFCIs must trip with a ground fault of more than 5 milliamps, and solenoid type testers like this one use more than 5 milliamps. Connect this tester between load side hot and ground, or load side hot and line neutral. This will simulate a ground fault that will trip a properly functioning GFCI.

So this meter works, it's decent quality and I would give it five stars except for one tiny issue: There is a spot on the bottom of the probe handle that can leak current! Yea, I know, shocking right! It appears there is a small oval-ish shaped plastic plug near the bottom of the probe handle. It's the same color as the rest of the handle so it is very hard to spot at first. The opening is probably used as a solder point during manufacture, then covered over. The problem is, apparently, this spot is a weak point in the insulation. I found this out while testing a 240V outlet. Didn't hurt me but definitely got my attention!

Works great best bang for your buck. I use this everyday. I would recommend this to anyone!

Good voltage tester