Have to say the only reason I brought a voltstick is to give a quick indication if live as I was fed up with turning a breaker off which was labelled down sockets to find that the down socket I was working on was fed from another circuit. Wouldn't rely on it in or around a mix of cables.
Have to say the only reason I brought a voltstick is to give a quick indication if live as I was fed up with turning a breaker off which was labelled down sockets to find that the down socket I was working on was fed from another circuit. Wouldn't rely on it in or around a mix of cables.
As stated before, I never use JUST my neon screwdriver to test for dead any more than I would expect you to just use your volt stick.
If you have isolated a socket to work on it, use a volt meter with a pair or probes to make sure it's dead. NEVER trust the DB to be labelled properly, often you are lucky to find it labelled at all,
As for neon screwdrivers failing. I await someone posting an actual report of someone getting a serious shock from one. For that to happen both the resistor AND the neon would both have to fail short circuit. Both are much more likely to fail open circuit.
Do however beware if buying a neon screwdriver that it really IS a NEON screwdriver. I bought one advertised as such once, only to find the "neon" was an LED, it contained a battery, and it illuminated on anything above 12V. It was bloody useless for it's job and only ever got used as a screwdriver.
