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My boss told me to always use a toner probe on the main line, even when the tap is marked
I mean, I used to think it was a waste of time, idk. He drilled it into me when I first started, saying 'the paint fades and the tags fall off, trust the tone.' I rolled my eyes for months, maybe it's just me but I figured if the pedestal said 'Jones' and the tap was tagged, I was good. Then last Tuesday in a newer part of town, I hooked up a house and killed service for a whole block. The markings on the tap were wrong, someone had moved them. Had to call for a line tech and it took over an hour to fix. Felt like a real idiot. So yeah, he was right. Do you guys always tone it out, or only in older areas?
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robin4895mo ago
Feel that pain, been there. Trusted a fresh looking tag on a green pedestal once, whole thing was a lie. Now I tone everything, even the brand new builds. Seen splicers use old tags, seen contractors move lines and not update a thing. That little bit of time with the probe beats an hour of explaining to a pissed off boss why the neighborhood's internet died.
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alicelopez5mo ago
Oh man, @robin489, that's the worst. I swear some of those tags are just for decoration. Found a shiny new one last week that led me straight to a dead end, just a cut line coiled up in the dirt. The probe doesn't lie, even when the tag looks like it just came from the factory.
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allen.cole4mo ago
Read a blog post the other day from a veteran tech who said he tones everything, even if the tag looks perfect. His logic was that he once found an active line running through the wrong port on a splice case, completely missing from any records. Said the probe saved him from doing the same exact thing you did, just with a different setup. Ever since I read that, I never skip the tone check, even on houses I worked on last year. It's cheap insurance against getting that phone call from dispatch.
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