PSA: Don't cheap out on a wire fish tape like I did

I bought a $12 fish tape from a hardware store last spring to run some romex through a finished wall. On my third pull, the tape snapped inside the wall and I spent 4 hours fishing it out with a magnet and a coat hanger. Ended up having to cut a hole in the drywall anyway, so I wasted $12 plus a whole Saturday afternoon. Has anyone else had a cheap tool cost them way more time than it was worth?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

gracecarr4mo ago

Buddy of mine bought a cheap drain snake from a dollar store. First clog it hit, the cable kinked up and broke off inside the pipe. Had to call a plumber to fish out the broken cable and clear the clog. Cost him $180. That $3 snake turned into a real expensive lesson.

4

perez.christopher4mo ago

Learned this lesson the hard way with a cheap stud finder that kept beeping at nothing. Missed an actual stud and drilled straight into a pipe. Ended up costing me a plumber and a patch job. It's funny how buying the cheapest option usually means paying twice, once for the tool and once for the fix. Kind of like how people buy cheap tires and end up replacing them way sooner than the good ones.

1