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The $30 'industrial grade' cable tester I saw on TikTok that literally just blinks red

Honestly, I was scrolling last week and this ad kept popping up for a cable tester that promised to fix any ethernet issue in 10 seconds. The video showed it lighting up green for good and red for bad, but the comments were full of guys saying it only ever blinked red no matter what cable you plugged in. Took me 5 minutes to find the same unit on AliExpress for $8. Made me wonder if these dropshippers just count on people never actually testing a working cable first. Has anyone else fallen for a tool that clearly had no actual testing done on it?
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3 Comments
richard_young80
Bought a cheap voltage detector from Amazon once that just beeped NONSTOP no matter what I held it near. Turned out the thing was detecting phantom voltage from the air itself. I ended up grabbing a Klein tester from Home Depot for like $25 and it actually works every time. Sometimes you just gotta spend a little more to get something that was built by people who actually tested it themselves.
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alice_allen5
alice_allen51d agoTop Commenter
$8 on AliExpress for the exact same thing... that's wild. I bet the TikTok version didn't even have a proper circuit inside, just a flashing red LED glued to a board. Honestly I'm surprised it blinked red at all, probably just a random pattern they set. Makes you wonder how many people bought it, tested one cable, and just assumed their whole house was wired wrong. I'd be furious if I spent $30 on that, especially when a basic continuity tester from a hardware store costs less and actually works.
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young.thomas
Is it really that deep though? A $30 gadget isn't gonna ruin your life.
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