The major advantage of these insulators was the fact that they could be worked upon via special tools (socket wrenches upon insulated fiberglass sticks or poles grasping upon the line-wire clamps) while the line was hot and by skilled lineworkers trained to do so.

Not having to de-energize the line for such work provided savings for the utility and reducing the necessity for scheduled customer outages during line maintenance.

This procedure is very common today with modern distribution equipment and insulators and is known as "hot stick" maintenance throughout the electric industry.