Worked great to trace location of buried rain gutter drain pipes and Sewer Line, before "new power cable trenching".After I located rain gutter pipe exits in yard, I back-fed 50 feet of ferrous metal fish-tape into the pipe.I then attached the RED cable on the signal transmiter ("emitter") to the fish tape wire, and the Black cable to the metal spike that I pushed into the ground.I turned on the transmitter and the receiver.I left the transmitter at the default "output signal level" and Code A "identifier".The Receiver did not seem to be detecting any signal.I finally re-ck'd the manual and realized I missed an important seemingly separate step in the instructions.I then FINALLY simply pressed the Transmitter "start" button (top right blue one showing "two vertical lines and a triangle pointing to the right".) THEN then receiver picked up a signal.I did notice that the signal strength varies on the receiver depending on if you position the receiver in-line with the cable, or at right angles to the cable. In-line with cable seemed to show stronger signal, and was better able (by moving the receiver side to side) to center it over the strongest signal. Touching the "menu" button which changes it to "Manual" mode seemed to help. Manual mode worked better to narrow down the path of the pipe below. I put flags in as I went, and when done, all the flags pretty well lined up. (Dig-Rite had already come out to trace the buried power company line, and the internet Fiber company had come and traced their fiber internet line.)I did same thing on a 2nd rain gutter drain line, and then again on the sewer line coming out of the house (probably about 3 foot depth at that point.) (I'd fed the 50 foot metal fish-tape into each pipe. (100 foot length would have been better.)The only issue I had was in an area of the lawn above the sewer pipe that was totally saturated with water.I was getting a strong signal in a broad area. (it was good and a linear path up to that wet area) . I changed the receiver senstivity (press the down-triangle button) and also reduced the output power of the transmitter using the Level Set button and down arrow button. Still hard to determine but I really was at the end of my 50 foot tracer fish-tape wire.The only issue I ran into was when putting it back in case. It was all zipped up and I had pressed on top of the case while moving it when I heard a beep. ??I unzipped the case and found one of the devices turned ON. I'd accidentally pressed the power button long enough through the soft case. I turned it back off and then as a solution I found a plastic lid from a grocery store container (it had rolls or something in it originally). It almost exactly fit the inside of the case over top of both the Xmitter and Receiver. It will prevent any future accidental turn-on during handling, and will prevent the rechargeable batteries from running down accidentally.So far, it's working and performing perfectly.

Had a short in the line running to my electric gate. 120V at the breaker box but only 6V at the receptacle. Very easy to find the wires ‘run’ but took a little finesse to find the short. Nothing super complicated. Just changing the sensitivity and a little patience. Directions are a little small for my old eyes but a little ‘YouTube college’ goes a long way.

Good setup instructions

This wire tracer worked great for tracing a wire in a wall to a tripped GFI that was in a very unusual place!

slid up a pvc pipe underground, and detected a signal when only under dirt, lost it immediately as it went under slab

Picked up for one of my crews that do dig and fix on copper lines. Doesn’t work. Bit the bullet for a better $700 option. Obviously neither are an excellent choice but at least the $700 replacement for this one works properly.

I installed an underground cable for our sons dog a couple years ago. We have a little under 3000’ of buried fence and we experienced a break in the wire. Try locating a break over 3000’ by guessing?? I read a few reviews and thought that the less than $150 price tag would be worth my investment over the daunting task of trial and error. A couple days later the locator arrived, I charged the batteries and within 30 minutes, my wife and I literally walked to the exact break in the wire (from both directions mind you) and found a faulty splice. It works exactly as it says for this application and was worth every penny for the amount of time it saved us! I would recommend this to anyone needing to locate a break in a single wire less than 3000’ in length.

Used this tool to find 10/3 wire 2ft deep and 150ft of run for a out door led light. Also used to find 30ft run 10/2 at 4ft depth Worked as advertised. Was small lite weight and fast set up. I feel it worked just fine. Ground for 1st wire run was clay sand mix. 2nd run that was deeper was in sand. It did rain the day before on both of the job sites. I did not read the paperwork that came with the unit until I was done using it. Was straight forward operation. The paperwork stated wet ground may have a negative effect. I did not note such a problem.

Very useful gadget. Especially, to trace underground and/or embedded cables.