We’re teaming up with IDEAL Electrical to share more about their 2025 Pro Tool Innovation Award-winning BlueView Fish Tapes. If you’ve been an electrician for long, you know the frustration of having to guess how far down the line your tape head is. I’ll show you what’s different about BlueView fish tapes, how it solves a couple of major pain points, and why our voting team selected it as the Winner in the Fish Rods and Tapes category.
IDEAL Electrical BlueView Fish Tapes Award-Winning Innovations
The big deal with IDEAL Electrical BlueView Fish Tapes is that it improves on the concept of basic models by adding measurements that show up on an easy-to-read display, so you always know how much tape you have out.
Even compared to models with measurement markings on the tape, it’s a significant upgrade. If you break one of those tapes, you’re stuck doing extra math until you can get a replacement. With a BlueView Fish Tape, a measurement wheel tracks the distance. It doesn’t matter if the tape breaks—you can put a new head on and re-zero from any point to continue getting accurate measurements.
This solves two frustrations electricians run into, especially on large commercial jobs.
First, it helps save money on materials. Running #12 or #14 wire isn’t terribly expensive considering you buy it on bulk spools. On the other hand, pulling feeder cable to a panel or car charger is a completely different story. It’s expensive, and even miscalculating how much you need by a couple of feet on every pull can add up to thousands in additional material costs on large jobs.
BlueView Fish Tapes are accurate to 1 foot over the length of the tape, and they always round up to ensure you don’t cut your cable short. By having such accurate measurements, BlueView technology helps you cut the right amount of cable for each pull and avoid costly waste.
BlueView Fish Tapes can also help you save a ton of time when you’re troubleshooting a conduit blockage. For example, take a scenario where another tradesman accidentally punches through your conduit with a stake or anchor, and it isn’t discovered until you go to do your cable pull. BlueView Fish Tapes give you the distance to the blockage, helping you easily identify where it is in the line.
Between quicker diagnosis and more precise locating, it will take you much less time to fix the problem and get back to the pull.
Considering how beneficial BlueView technology can be, you’d be forgiven if you thought these tapes were complicated to learn and expensive to acquire. You might be surprised, though. Running on just two AAA batteries that offer up to 40 hours of continuous runtime, they offer a short learning curve and won’t break your budget.
Additional Highlights
- Sleep and Shut-Off: Preserve battery life
- Onboard Spare Battery Storage: Ensures you can quickly get back up and running when your batteries run out
- Durable Build: Made with premium materials and tested to withstand the debris and extreme temperatures of real jobsites
Ready to Buy?
IDEAL Electrical Fish Tapes with BlueView displays are available in four different configurations. Pick yours up at your favorite IDEAL Electrical retailer.
- Blued-Steel 120-foot (31-656): $100
- Blued-Steel 240-foot (31-657): $140
- S-Class Fiberglass 100-foot w/ Gold-Fish Leader (31-661): $240
- S-Class Fiberglass 100-foot w/ Metal Eyelet (31-663): $240
