Blue Spot 60008 10x1.1m Cable Access Kit

I have used the expensive cable rods and found that it is a bit hard to justify the cost especially when they break in the middle of a main cable pull in, so I decided to purchase a set of these low cost rods and I am very pleased with the quality especially considering the price difference. Only long term use will tell if they are up to the mark, but considering the price they are easily replaced. I am updating my review as I have used these rods several times over the last two months and I am pleased to report that there has been no mishaps and they performed very well without any breakages, on three occasions there was an enormous amount of strain put on the rods but I am glad to say that the kit so far has performed without a hitch.

I was a bit wary as some of the reviews noted the tops came off easily but I'm not an electrician and need them only occasionally for DIY jobs. So far so go. No issue with any of the rods, one even got stuck and I had to pull really hard to free it & the tip didn't come off. The storage sleeve is pretty rubbish. The lid was cracked from day one but I just taped it up. Overall very happy!

The rods are good, and do the job quite well for each of the times I've used them so far (I've only needed two rods tied together for the cable runs I've been working with) - but have saved me a lot of time and stress getting the cables from A to B. The only criticism is the fragile case they are supplied in. It was cracked on arrival, and continued to break up over my first couple of weeks use. So as long as you don't expect to keep on using the case - the rods themselves seem fairly decent.

Could not have done the job without them , great value , agreat buy.

This is a very useful piece of equipment. I have the smaller (shorter version) which proved very effective for smaller jobs but when wanting to use an endoscope on the drains of my new property this proved invaluable. I used it on same day to help install cables under the floorboards - saved me many hours of lifting floorboards and aimlessly fishing for flexible cables. The small attachments proved useful for hooking the wires through small gaps in walls to read inaccessible voids. Paid for itself already as far as I am concerned. I realise that it needs to be treated with respect as it is not as robust as my full drain rods but great for jobs that require a lighter touch.

I'm pleased with these, but they're not perfect. For a start, the hook didn't screw onto the end of any of the poles (the thread was too small). I taped it on, then lost it somewhere in a ceiling space - but no matter, I replaced it with a simple cup hook, this time securely duct-taped into position! The poles are very stiff. It takes a lot of pressure to bend them more than slightly out of shape. So if you reach into a ceiling space, the poles are likely to be scraping against the floor above. That said, this means they tend to go in a straight line, so you know roughly were the end is, rather than just bending and coiling all over the place when you push. The other aspect is getting them out of the next hole in the ceiling. This can be a challenge, and a bright torch can help you to see when it's lined up correctly (the blue colour helps here). But the pole will probably be out of reach, as it's pressed up against the floor above. This is where the hook comes in handy. I kept one section of pole back with the hook attached, didn't use it in the ceiling space, instead I used it to grab the pole and pull it down to me so I could grab it and pull it through the hole.

These do exactly what you would expect. They are quite stiff, but then again if they were not you would not be able to direct them. Pull a piece of string first, then thicker string if necessary, before pulling the cable Be aware that when pulling through stud walls there is something nasty called a "fire stop" to contend with. If you have both insulation and firestops in your stud-wall then cable pulling is a total misery. As you can see from the photo I had to cut an intermediate hole by the firestop. The lower cutout was covered by a blanking plate so it looked like a simple job. There was even a hole cut in the firestop (but you couldn't know that without cutting a hole in the plaster board or using an endoscope camera). As you can see I had to drill yet another hole directly above the hole in the firestop to get a good angle into the firestop hole. A magnetic cable puller would not help as the firestop hole is in the middle of the firestop thickness, ie not right next to the plaster-board.

Just purchased two sets of these rods as my older much more expensive ones had started to delaminate and giving out fibre glass spliters -painful! Quick delivery and came in a plastic tube with end caps on, unfortunately one brass end came off a rod on its first use, as we were using it to pull cables through a duct and it snapped half way through we had fun getting it out. The rods are flexible so good around bends but the crimped brass ends are not great on some and are out of line. I would like to ask the seller for a replacement rod but cant see anywhere to ask that?