Hand it to Milwaukee I have never seen another tool brand on a roll separating tradesmen from their money quite like Milwaukee today, but I would not buy it. No, I don't need to try it to decide, I understand what it does.

I agree that the feedback you get pushing or pulling by hand is important. You often will feel a sudden increase in tension and you can tell something happened, like there's a kink that caught the lip of the pipe at the feed end. This gives you the chance to stop and fix it, where the machine will pull past it and might create a huge headache with a skinned wire in the pipe that occasionally faults to ground.

I don't think there are many situations it would be worth it to lose the sensitivity. The time and energy spent pushing and pulling on a fish tape doesn't add up to much over the course of a day. It's nothing like the time and energy say a good bandsaw saves. So it's not likely to move the needle on how fast you get done or how beat you are at the end of the day.

I have a pretty nice assortment of fish tapes, I think it's important to have some variety. I have a few different steel tapes, all Ideal brand. I like the big handle and use a full sized case with a tape about 75' long left on it most of the time. It's light, long enough for most runs, and quick and easy to use. I have some others that are plastic and fiberglass. Most I keep a spring leader on.

I also keep a homebrewed vacuum kit that I can use with any shop vac. It's really important to be able to vacuum in strings. Actually if Milwaukee wanted to help me out, make an M18 vacuum that goes on top of a standard 5-gallon bucket.

I am sure the fanboys would tell me I'm missing out because I'm not using it with the Milwaukee red lightning $29.99 made in China five gallon bucket.

 

Hand it to Milwaukee I have never seen another tool brand on a roll separating tradesmen from their money quite like Milwaukee today, but I would not buy it. No, I don't need to try it to decide, I understand what it does.

But what if you found one at a yard sale/craigslist/pawnshop/North Jersey fell off the truck screaming deal for $25?

 

I'm a pull and wind guy. I like to keep a short leash so I can feel what I'm doing. Can't say I'd even want to try.

 

From your description it sounds like it has zero utility for me. I always reel up my tape as I pull. I’m a purist though so my fish tape is immaculate and only pulls in string.

 

I was on a crew that had one. Nobody used it because it was so heavy and bulky.

 

I'd take a duct rodder over that anyday.

Actually, we used them all the time, never fish tape sprawled all over the place ... well, unless the new guy at the rodder forgets to tighten the wing nut

 

No, Where's we , I dunno is who

 

Who's on first.

 

Hey you hosers, take off! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

 

We have one of the powered fish tapes. It works great but the greatest drawback is the weight. It is nice not having your tape looping all over the place.

 

I have not used the power tape, but i did buy the guys the braided tape from milwaukee and they absolutely love it. We almost exclusively used the ideal fiberglass fish tapes before that

 

I use the braided tape, too, and it is very nice. It doesn't have quit as much grunt to push through a bunch of turns, but 95% of the time it is way nicer to use.

 

 

I've used one pretty extensively on a large commercial job, and can safely say I don't recommend it. Big, bulky, jams up, also certainly not meant for pulling cable on it's own (has no "balls"). If you use it like a regular snake and only use the power function to roll up and roll out the snake, it could work well for you-- at least until it gets jammed and then you're f****d.

 

$370.00 bucks for a fish tape, not for me.