5 Electrical Tools Every Homeowner Should Have

with an electrical bag like this on my hip i feel like there's nothing i can't do around the house but there are five tools in this bag that every homeowner and diy-er should have i'm gonna open up the list with number five which is the non-contact voltage tester this is a super handy tool to have for all kinds of different circumstances if you've got to swap something out for example and you want to make sure the power is turned off to an outlet then this makes it really easy to do that you can turn this on and then by default it's going to be at the 70 to 1000 volts so anything within a normal 110 or 120 up to the 220 and 240 range it's going to read that just fine and you can put this next to a wire and it will detect if it's got power running through it or not you can also use the little end here to test the inside of outlets and then if you want to be extra sensitive and just make sure it's working as expected we can switch here to the 12 to 1000 volt option and with that it'll be even more sensitive to any electrical currents all the way down to 12 volts which can be really handy in certain instances as you can see this just takes a couple of aaa batteries so these are easy to replace and you can have this for years and years and always have that extra peace of mind knowing that what you're working on is definitely unpowered now while we're still on number five this is a really cool tool that you might want to check out and this one is called a digital circuit breaker finder by klein tools and with this you can basically take this end off and plug it directly into an outlet it also works with different things like bare wires or a light switch socket even comes with a little adapter set and with this you can use this little wand here and find out which circuit breaker you need to turn off in order to make sure that the power is off to that particular fixture so that is a really handy tool just to make sure that you're being extra safe and then in conjunction with the non-contact voltage tester you are doubly sure that everything is powered down and ready to work on number four on my list is a proper set of insulated screwdrivers like these so i've got three screwdrivers here from milwaukee they're all insulated so they're rated for up to a thousand volts and these really just make it that much safer when you're working on something in case something gets flipped back on you thought the power was off but it's not hopefully if you've done all your homework with tools number five then you're all set here but this is just a great set to make sure that you've got everything you need now this particular set comes with three different versions you've got your slotted screwdriver your phillips screwdriver and then this is called the ecx and i've highlighted this in other videos but it's kind of a combination between a robertson or a square drive i know they're different but a robertson drive and a slotted screwdriver and it is perfect for fitting directly inside of electrical work screws so very handy to have and again as an alternative to something like this there are also some great options out there that are all-in-one tools like this one from milwaukee i believe this is the seven and one if i'm not mistaken this one basically has a little bit of all of the bits that you need so it does include the reason i like this one in particular is it does include these ecx bits and everything that i need is included in here i don't have to go find it or fetch it and it's also ratcheting number three on my list is a good set of lineman's pliers now you've probably seen these before they have all different kinds of uses and basically they've got some serrated teeth on here on the end and they've got a nice big flat and very robust set of jaws on the end here and then they've also got a pair of wire clippers or wire cutters that are super strong and the whole thing is just thick and tough now these are kind of heavy tools they also have a little set of jaws in the back here for grabbing onto things but these come in handy for so many different circumstances you can use these to twist wires together before putting on a wire cap you can use these to push and pull things you can use them to knock out the knockouts on different electrical boxes and then you can also just use them to crimp things together these are super durable they're heavy and they're well built and it just is a great tool to have in your tool belt because you're watching this i'm guessing you're a diy-er yourself and why not show the world i've got cool shirts like this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one all kinds of shirts mugs hoodies you name it so be sure to check those out there's a link to my store in the description below and there's also a little merch shelf below this video where you can check those out so pick one up for you or the diy-er in your life number two on my list is a good set of wire strippers and i've talked recently about these universal wire strippers which i think do such a good job i've been using these for many years different variations of this and they work really well now there's this kind here that's a universal wire stripper you've got traditional wire strippers where each of the different gauges is marked on there and those can do a great job too i like these ones a lot because you can just put any wire gauge in there from 12 on up to about 22 or 24 gauge and it will just pull the sheathing off the outside and leave you the wire by itself the other thing i love about these kind in particular is that you can use them to pull off the sheathing on romex cables and larger cables like that and it does a great job with those thicker things that you typically can't get with a traditional pair of wire strippers now the other ones i've been using just recently are this pair by nip x and boy these are fun because these are even faster and they actually pull off the excess making it just a really simple and quick job so definitely a cool one to check out here this one cost a lot more these ones probably ran me about 60 and because i do a lot of electrical work around the house i thought it would be worthwhile but if you're just doing something occasionally sets like this start at about fifteen dollars and you can get the basic sets of stamped wire strippers then those ones usually start at like eight or ten bucks and sometimes even less at the hardware store so i think these are an essential tool for doing any electrical work around the house now before we get to number one i thought i had to mention all of these honorable mentions here these are things that didn't quite make the list but are awesome to have including a good collection of different connectors i've got my wago 221s here wire caps and different heat shrink tubings and other connectors those are always handy to have i love these guys here this is just an outlet tester it can test your gfcis and i especially love this one these ones cost about 5 or 10 bucks more than the cheaper ones and so i think these are about 29 bucks but it has the reading of how many volts are coming through your outlets i use this thing all the time just to make sure everything's live or not live and they're super handy i also have a multimeter here i love this particular one because this one actually works well with any sort of voltage it's got a universal voltage setting here which is really nice so you don't have to figure out millivolts or volts or you know 100 to 1000 volts and any anything like that just set it to volts and it does its thing so this is really handy to have another thing that's always important to have on hand is a good blade now if you want to go the super cheap and easy route these little blades here cost about 69 cents at harbor freight and they're quick they're easy i like that they're brightly colored so they're easy to find and then the cool thing about these is you can use them and then if something gets dull at the end they have these little snap points so i can take this break it off and now i've got a new fresh blade now if you want something a little more permanent that you can have literally for a lifetime these are both lifetime guaranteed these milwaukees are awesome these are called the fastback series and they're called that because of this you can just flip it open and then flip it closed and it works just that easy now there's a couple of variations this one particular here is just the smallest most compact one it's just the blade that's all there is to it and then there's this one that's a little bit bigger and this one's got a little opening right here that you can use as a seat belt cutter a card box cutter for opening packages and then the other thing that this one has it's also fastback and then you can pull this out and then it's got blade storage so i've got five extra razor blades this is magnetic so it holds those in place right there which is really cool and so it's got those in place and close that up close it these also have a nice little belt loop here so you can just slide that into your pocket like that and it's out of sight but ready for you whenever you need it a little bonus feature that these have when it comes to doing electrical work is if you need to you could actually just use the little open blade right in here so i can push this against like that circle it around and now i've separated my sheathing from my copper wire and then i should be able to just pull that off like that and then just another way to strip some wire if you do need to use it for that purpose another one is a stubby screwdriver here this is great because it's a two in one a phillips and a slotted and it works great for those tight spots where a regular screwdriver can't quite reach and this last one may seem like a duh kind of thing but i love having this thing around i just keep a sharpie in my bag at all times now to top all that off i definitely recommend having a bag like this you can pick one of these up starting in about 15 bucks i think this one costs about 28 this is the magno grip one and this one does a great job for putting different screws and stuff like that right there on your hip it's got a little holder for your tape and different things and lots of pockets this is specifically an electrician bag and it's got a little bit of everything in there which is great so i just keep this bag with me and anything i need to do around the house i've got it covered within the pockets here now the number one electrical tool i recommend for diyers and homeowners is one that replaces all of these and puts them into one tool i don't really know the name for this because every brand calls it something different but it's a six in one or an electrical multi-tool or a seven in one it's one of these guys here so here in front of me i've got a set of crimpers some lineman's pliers some wire cutters some needle nose pliers and some wire strippers and actually almost all of that functionality is contained in one set of these so this is a six in one and these come in different brands and different levels of functionality essentially but this set right here for example is the least expensive one i could find at just 15 bucks and this is quality stuff this isn't a cheapo little tool here this is got a spring loaded blade and mechanism here and it can be locked down for storage which is really nice you can get this for 15 bucks i think only if you order it directly from a store like home depot that's where i found it and a little bonus on these just fyi you can typically add these to your cart and get these shipped to you and delivered without paying any shipping so you're just gonna pay the regular sales tax that you would pay anyways you never leave the house and they show up in a few days so these are pretty cool again 15 bucks is by far the cheapest that i found the next price up from that was 25 dollars but in here these ones have needle nose pliers and there's another variety here that were the kind of like alignments pliers so these are the milwaukee seven and ones and these are the six and ones and then you've got your pliers you've got your wire strippers you've got your wire cutters you've got your bolt cutters over here for 8 32 and 632 so those are used to cut your electrical screws shorter if you need to and then on the back side depending on which ones you get these ones have the little crimpers right here so you can actually make a loop really easy with these to do a shepherd's hook for wiring up your outlets and light switches so all of that all in one tool instead of carrying around a bunch of these different ones just slide this one in your bag and it can do most of what you need so i still like having these tools dedicated i will keep these around and i'll use them often but it's really nice to have the option to have a seven one for most of these things now i promise i swear to you this is not sponsored by milwaukee i'm not trying to push their stuff necessarily but they've got some great tools that are all in one thing so you've got your six in one here you've got your screwdriver that has your ecx bits and everything else that you need which is awesome you've got your blades that we mentioned here that are fastbacks and easy open here and then with those three things you can do most electrical work that's really what it comes down to so again i'll put links to all of these things in the description below if you want to check those out and again keep in mind that sometimes the best prices that you're going to get are going to be by going to your local hardware store so check out the links in the description a lot of these things you can get either from amazon or from home depot for example delivered to you for free and just within a few days which is really convenient and i definitely recommend checking these things out these are kind of a life changer for me a big thanks again to my friend scott over at everyday home repairs for introducing me to these and if you want to see some other things that will hopefully open your eyes a little bit when it comes to home electrical work i've got a video that you can check out right here on six common mistakes that we as diyers make when wiring our outlets my name is nils with learn to diy thanks for watching we'll see you on the next one

Channel: LRN2DIY

Views: 219,771

Keywords: diy, how-to, lrn2diy

Id: 5zLXrG3PffE

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 02 2022