Electricians use fish sticks (not the deep-fried kind) or glow rods when they’re looking to pull wire from a crawlspace or from one open cavity to another. It’s a wonderful solution for easily identifying whether or not you’ve struck the right location when drilling a new entry point for 12/2 or other electrical wire, or when needing something a bit stiffer than Jet Line that can be sent “upwards” from below. It’s also tons easier to manipulate than Klein steel fish tape over shorter distances. If you’ve ever done electrical work, it’s likely that you’ve used a threaded rod system, but the 15′ Klein Glow Rods are particularly nice in that it has the added advantage of drawing attention to themselves in the wall cavity through the use of luminescent rods.
Testing Out Klein Glow Rods in the Field
What we liked about the Klein Glow Rods was how easily it was to attach them together to get up to 15 feet of reach into a wall cavity. As we were going from a second story to the first floor in a 1920’s home electrical remodel project, this was of utmost importance. While a fish tape would have worked, we preferred the ability to work the stiffer and less curl-prone glow rods.
From below, in the crawl space, we were able to send one rod up the wall and then, when it was inserted, attach a second glow rod to the first, allowing us to extend a full 10′ into the wall cavity and thus pull cable and multi-line to our light switch locations. Activating the rods was as simple as leaving them out for a while before putting them to use. The natural light got them glowing in no time. We also used them when rewiring electrical for a house.
Using Tips and Accessories
We did note that the Klein Tools Glow Rods use a machined thread that is rather dense in pitch (TPI). This caused us to have to be a bit more careful when threading the rods together, but it also made it hard for the rods to come apart once we hand-tightened them sufficiently. The connection points tended to be a tad wobbly until the last bit where they tightened up nice and locked together securely. Over time this felt like it might lead to cross-threading, though this never once occurred in our use of the glow rods.The kit also included a bull nose attachment and hook attachment which can come in handy (and we used the bull nose attachment nearly all the time).
You typically don’t want to rotate a fish stick or glow rod while it’s in the wall, but the threading of these rods makes it a lot harder to accidentally unscrew them during use. They tend to stay together once joined.
Overall, our use of the Klein 15′ Glow Rod Set was a very productive experience. The rods helped us to locate and pull wire more quickly, were easier to spot in crawl spaces and dim drop ceiling areas, and really allowed us a way to quickly and efficiently pull both wire and pull string through our newly-created electrical box cut-outs.
Final Thoughts
The rods were a welcome addition to just using fish tape and multi-line. They work well and are an above-average solution for pulling and pushing wire and have some features that we found absolutely critical and helpful. For Value, these glow rods are priced right in line with the competition, if not a tiny bit under offerings from other well-known brands. If you need fish rods/sticks/glow rods – check these out, they will certainly do the trick.
