Dropped $180 on a signal level meter and it paid for itself in two jobs

I do mostly internet and TV installs around Toledo, and for years I was guessing at bad lines with just a cheap toner. About four months back I finally bought a real signal level meter for around $180. Two jobs later it caught a splitter that was killing the downstream in a way I never would have found by swapping parts. That one call back would have cost me a full afternoon and a mad customer, and the next one was a bad drop that the meter flagged in about 30 seconds. Now I'm wondering if I should have spent more and gotten one that does DOCSIS checks too. What meters are you all running, and did you go cheap or pay up?

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holly_garcia6d ago

Dang, $180 is nothing compared to losing a repeat customer. I run a cheapo one too and it's caught way more bad splitters and water in the lines than I ever found swapping parts. I'd say skip the fancy DOCSIS stuff unless you're doing a ton of modem calls, the basic meter does 90 percent of the work.

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