Detector Truvo 2nd gen. (Easy one-Button handling, Simple Detection of Live Cables & Metal Wall Scanner up to 70mm, in Cardboard Box)

Good; reasonable price and works well if you use it properly (you should read the instructions about grounding). It finds pipes and cables where I know there are pipes and cables, so I feel much more confident drilling in areas where it does not find pipes and cables.

Very impressed so far. It found the live feed to a socket in a plastered brick wall where I wanted to fix a TV wall mount, also found the studwork to hang a coat rack. BUT it didn't work accurately unless I placed the palm of my free hand on the wall. The instructions do say that you should be properly earthed and I guess that was why. Doing that and taking several passes across the detected object narrowed it down pretty accurately. Very easy to operate, the controls are very obvious, and I liked the straight edges which make marking up straightforward.

Picked this up for a couple of DIY jobs and it’s been genuinely useful. Not as feature-packed as some more expensive models, but for basic stud/metal/live wire sensing it’s reliable and straightforward. . ✅ Detects studs, metal and live wires reasonably well . ✅ Compact, easy to hold and simple to operate . ✅ Clears up where things are behind a wall before drilling . ❌ Not the deepest or most precise detection compared with higher-end units . ❌ Sometimes needs a couple of passes to confirm what it’s picked up If you just want a no-nonsense tool to check walls before you drill or cut, this does the basics without fuss. It won’t replace pro gear, but for home DIY it’s worth having in the toolkit.

Fantastic bit of kit a must for the trade or DIY enthusiastic simple and precise 👍👍👍

I like the simplicty but the meter doest perform very well. Stud and or elecs/metal found where there is none. Instructions say to hold it in a particular way and with other hand on the wall. (Standing on one foot while wearing a funny hat too for all the difference it makes) Back face has plastic studs and will leave marks on the wall if you run it over the wall. My old beat up meter is still better than this one.

I was a bit worried when ordering this detector as I've tried a few before in the same price range that were unreliable, but I was pleasantly surprised! The Bosh detector is incredibly easy to use, and gives accurate readings. I like that the flashing light colours and the beeping noise change to tell you how close you are from cables or studs, making it useful and accurate. The beeping sounds is not too loud and the detector is very compact, easy to move around with one hand.

It works, it detects metalwork hidden in walls accurately enough and live cables too. But, here's the caveat, only if used correctly. That means it is vital that you're properly grounded when using it. The manual covers this but the importance is not, perhaps, stressed enough. The fact is that if you're not grounded (GB = earthed) the readings it gives are unreliable. I had this project to screw mount an ethernet distributor to an internal household plaster/brick wall. There was a light switch on the other side of the wall to the right of the proposed mounting area. To the left there was, somewhere, the cable from the ring circuit down to a wall socket. It was therefore essential to be sure that the 60mm mounting screws were well clear of any 'eccentric' cable duct routing that could be hidden within the wall. The Bosch detector kept on giving inconsistent results. If you moved it over the wall area, roughly 25cm x 25cm, which you'd expect to be free of any cables, pipework or other metal objects, it would display continuously red on one pass. Next pass it would display green then suddenly switch to flashing red indicating a powered electrical cable had been detected. Long story cut short: the problem was that I was not properly grounding myself and that could be proved just by lifting my free hand off the object I was using to ground myself - a nearby metal filing cabinet. When I did this the LED would switch from solid green to either yellow, red or flashing red, randomly. Pressing my hand firmly back against the cabinet and the detector would go back to green in repeated passes over the area concerned. Beyond that it correctly detected the electrical cable routes running, as you'd expect, pretty much perpendicularly down the wall to the left and right. The problem I have with this is how do you know you're not properly grounded unless you test for that each time you're using the device and what do you do if there is nothing nearby that is grounded? There's that element of uncertainty I don't like with a device that you're relying on to avoid what could be an expensive or even life threatening mistake. I should point out that from my online searches it is obvious this is not a particular Bosch detector issue but a general one.

Bought this to replace a 10-year old cheap unit. The old unit works much better even though it's rather over-sensitive. I followed the instruction manual carefully and practised with it on walls where I know exactly where the pipes and mains cables are. I paid particular attention to earthing as advised in the instructions (apparently you need to operate it in your bare feet for optimal results!). I made several passes over areas of wall where I know pipes and cables are. The unit just beeps at everything initially and then settles down and detects only a limited range of targets. It detects areas of metal fairly well, but is hopeless at detecting mains wiring. One minute it's beeping everywhere and the next it's silent, even though I know there is live cable just the other side of the plasterboard (not foil-backed). I can't trust this unit at all and will be returning it. It may be a defective unit and not representative of the product overall but I was certainly not impressed. I have a neighbour who is a professional builder and he says almost all of these devices (not just the Truvo) are a waste of money and can't be trusted. He uses the time-honoured method of using a very small diameter flat-blade screwdriver to gently probe a hole in the plasterboard before drilling to see if he feels an obstacle or not. He has a very expensive professional wall scanning unit but still prefers the 'make a little hole and probe' method. This works better and is much cheaper.