Instant Live Circuit Detection

It arrived in an attractive full-color box.

The components nestle in a handsome fitted case. always does a great job of protecting their equipment.

I was impressed by the inclusion of bulb, non-grounded socket, and wire-pigtail (bare wire) adapters.

The detector pen feeds on a pair of included AAA batteries. You’ll need a small screwdriver to access the compartment.

The receiver pen has two buttons: power and Reset/NCV. Perform a reset before every scan (I’ll explain this later). Holding the power button toggles the LED light in the tip. A backlit LCD shows power, battery, and NCV status, scan mode (magnifying glass icon), and signal strength. If left unused for 5 minutes, the wand turns off.



NCV (non-contact voltage) detection activates a sensor at the tip that detects power presence, flashes a red light, and beeps. The detection distance is an inch or so, but in some cases, it’s sensitive enough to detect live wires inside a wall.   NCV works independently of the transmitter.

Speaking of the transmitter, it runs on two AAA batteries, too. I hope you led onto that small screwdriver. By the way, the screws aren’t captive, so be sure they don’t try to escape onto the floor or under the counter.

Two buttons turn the transmitter on/off and initiate a GFCI test. A GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) equipped circuit monitors the current between the hot and neutral wires and opens the circuit if they differ. The GCFI test button does nothing on circuits without GFCIs, but if equipped, it will trip the GFCI device.

The transmitter’s backlit display indicates power, hold, phase, battery, voltage, signal, wiring conditions (neutral, live wire, and earth ground), and wiring status (open circuit, correct, and reversed neutral and hot). If the wiring to the socket is correct, the “transmitting” icon flashes, the voltage displays, and the wiring condition is “correct.”

To use the circuit breaker-finding capabilities, turn on the transmitter and receiver, then plug the transmitter into a socket. It’s worth noting that if the outlet you’re testing is “ground up,” the display will face down. was wise to implement a “hold” function that retains data on the display after unplugging.

The receiver’s “scan” (magnifying glass) icon should be on. If it’s not (or if you’ve already scanned), press the reset button. Next, with the receiver sensing tip perpendicular to the breakers, scan the tip across all the breakers once. The first pass “learns” the signal environment and may beep a few times. When scanning finishes, the magnifying glass should turn off.

Scan the breakers in the same direction again. The receiver will beep when it finds the right one. If more than one is detected, keep scanning, and the receiver will figure out which one is the right one. It takes a bit of practice, but on multiple tests, the KT301P found the correct circuit every time. Bravo !

Final thoughts

The KT301P is a handy-dandy voltmeter and circuit tester that emits a signal detected by a handheld wand, making tracing outlets and lamp circuits easy. If you’ve ever spent time trying to figure out which circuit breaker is which, the KT301P is for you. It’s reliable, ruggedly built, a pleasure to use, and reasonably priced. Thank you and great job, !

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