It’s fair to say that no two days are ever quite the same for an electrician, as these qualified individuals may be required to carry out a wide range of tasks from one job to another. This means that preparedness is key for electricians, who must be equipped to tackle a diverse range of tools and ensure that they have the right equipment to carry out any particular job.
This can be more challenging for self-employed plumbers, who are required to invest in their tools and can’t rely on an employer to equip them with the necessary tools. So, here are the best tools that a skilled plumber cannot do without!
The Essential Tools That Every Professional Electrician Needs
1. Screwdrivers and Nut Drivers
We’ll start with the most basic of hand tools, with screwdrivers and nut drivers designed to work with a vast array of fasteners and applications. Often, electricians will invest in multipurpose tools that can adapt to various uses, with suppliers such as Graybar selling Klein’s 10-in-1 screwdriver to provide optimal functionality and enable professionals to save some much-needed space in their tool bags.
With these types of tools, you can get various-sized fittings and fit these into a single shaft or cushion-gripped handle, with each of these capable of clicking seamlessly into place and optimizing both comfort (during extended periods of use) and convenience. Even diagnostic processes can require the use of screwdrivers and nut drivers, so this is an essential part of any tool bag!
2. Multimeter and Testers
A multimeter is widely used by electricians, to provide access to key measurement features such as 10A, resistance, continuity, frequency, and capacitance. Multimeters can also measure less common metrics such as integrated non-contact voltage detection, along with auto volts and LoZ functions.
There are also various types of tester used by electricians, including an insulation tester. This can be used to identify potential insulation problems and read and save results on your meter, providing a crucial diagnostic process that all electricians will have to follow at one point or another. Test connectors may also be used to determine whether or not a particular line is live or not, and this is crucial from a safety perspective.
3. Wire Strippers and Wire Crimpers
Wire strippers are widely underestimated by a wide range of tradesmen, but electricians often swear by these tools and similar pieces of equipment such as wire crimpers. Historically, of course, there was a time when every electrician carried a standard-issue manual wire stripper with a number of slots for different wire gauges. Things are different nowadays, of course, as automatic wire strippers are widely used to fulfill the same tasks. However, these entities can automatically adapt to whatever gauge you feed into it, so it’s a great candidate for any electrician’s tool bag.