TEMPOCommunications 521E Wire and Sprinkler Valve Locator Tool, Irrigation Underground Wire Locator, Buried Wire Locator (2025 Model)

I rarely write reviews. But after using this product, I feel obliged.TL;DR: Took me 5 minutes to locate a buried pipe, and that included installing the batteries!Now to the full review:I needed to locate a buried gas pipe on my backyard going to the pool heater. Local utilities provide free locator service for their own lines in front of the house only, so I decided to do it myself. After researching several brands, I decided to go with Tempo. Contacted their pre-sales support via email, and got a prompt reply comparing several products for the job.Got myself a Tempo 521E, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality. With the exception of the battery compartment of the receiver, the device is very well made. The bodies of receiver and transmitter are of high quality and feel sturdy.Searching with a null antenna is a breeze – it’s where the signal disappears, so you don’t have to guess if it’s a bit louder or not. My 10 yr old daughter wanted to help, so I gave her the receiver, and she easily located the buried pipe along the path in less than 10 seconds!So kudos to the guys and gals at Tempo for releasing such an excellent tool! Thank you!

Good product

I have only used this to locate some buried valves, and it is great! Took me a second to figure out the sounds and best methods, but I have been able to pinpoint valve locations to an accuracy of within 5" before digging my hole.For valves it is best to start the receiver wand at full frequency, sweep it over a known wire to see what the frequency sounds like, then don't worry about tracing wires if the zone is small. just sweep the yard until you get a very loud response. It will be louder than when you go over a wire.At full frequency you can narrow it down to about a 2 foot radius. Now slowly lower the setting on the wand and sweep the spot and it will narrow it down more based on the sounds.For the best accuracy it is easiest to use the meter needle for pin pointing a spot to dig within 5" of the valve, as the sounds gets too quite when the settings are low. You pin point it on low settings by holding the wand vertically above your hot spot. It will stay steady above 10 if you are directly over it, if you start going to far away it will bounce at 10 or drop. If it stays at 10 and you move it over 5 to 8", lower the wands setting some more.

So I had my doubts about getting this unit. I had always used a similar (albeit smaller) unit that was made by one of tempos competitors, and I always heard mixed things about tempo from other irrigation contractors that use them regularly.. but this particular issue I'm having is a deal breaker.So the terminals (+, -) in the battery compartment look like someone went in there and a single loop of stripped 26awg solid core wire and called it a day. I do a lot of electrical engineering work in my free time so I figured "hey, no huge issue.... I can see that's not the best way to do that, but I'll make due, all they have to do is contact right? so maybe just wiggle them around till it powers up..."Well after about 5 minutes I get an intermittent signal. Later that day I needed to use the unit again- same thing. Keep in mind this is a job that's often done soaking wet, water getting on everything during the most inopportune times. I don't have the time nor patience to bust out a Philips and roll D batteries around like slot machines hoping the thing will work.Look I hardly ever review anything, i don't know if I've ever had this bad of an experience and shared it though. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't such an integral part of the machine's function. Worst part about all of this is there's actually a notecard tempo includes with the instructions (printed separately in the box) that basically says to "try wiggling the batteries around"So this is a known problem and they still let me spend $700 on it. amazon wont let me do a return since I was a few days late. please help me tempo communications. I mean do you guys really want me to go in here fix it myself?

Get the 2025 upgraded version. This thing is amazing; there is a learning curve to interpret the beeping, but once you get it figured out, it’s a breeze to use. I found 15 missing valves in a couple hours (40 acre property). This saved me a ton of money and time; highly recommended!

I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it DID NOT come with the batteries promised in the description, and the D-cell battery compartment makes it difficult to properly install the batteries. Once the batteries are installed, it works great. I found two valves (one had a bad solenoid) within two minutes, one of which was buried 8 inches underground and I would have never found it by probing into the ground. The instructions are simple but accurate, the unit did exactly what it was supposed to do. It’s light weight, and the ground stake and case are sturdy.

It super. works very well

I tried to use this to trace sprinkler wires to find where one was broken. Unfortunately, I would lose the signal and despite a number of tries and different approaches I never was able to do a good trace. The machine itself is well built and very good, I just was not able to get it to work for me.A friend who installs sprinklers for a living also tried, with his rig, and could not trace the line. Who knows what the original installer did.I wound up simply running whole new wires rather than trying to dig up the line. Even though I returned teh device I do not fault the manufacturer for it not working for me.