That $40 fishtape I bought off Amazon snapped on the second pull

I figured I could cheap out on a basic fishtape for a residential run in a ranch house outside Nashville. First pull through some conduit went fine, but on the second one it just snapped in half about 8 feet in. I spent the next hour digging it out with a magnet and some coat hanger wire. Anyone else have a cheap tool fail at the worst possible moment?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_price19d ago

Have you ever considered that maybe the problem wasn't the cheap tape, but the way you were pulling it? I've used those $20 steel tapes from Home Depot for years on all sorts of jobs, and I've only had one break when I got it kinked up in a tight bend. Those fiberglass ones are nice and all, but they can fray and get stuck on rough edges inside old conduit a lot easier than steel. Plus, a steel tape doubles as a decent fish stick and ground rod if you're in a pinch. Your wallet might be thanking you more if you just learn how to work with the cheap ones and keep a spare handy.

evan_morgan8119d ago

Read a blog post from an actual electrician a while back saying the cheap steel fishtapes are junk because they're just coated with a thin layer of something to prevent rust, but the steel itself is brittle. He recommended spending the extra ten bucks for a fiberglass one with a nice plastic tip. I grabbed a Klein fiberglass tape after my Harbor Freight special let me down on a hot attic job, and it's been through a dozen pulls without a single kink. Might be worth biting the bullet on a better one before you end up magnet fishing again.