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Tried a Harbor Freight multimeter on a tricky fridge compressor and learned my lesson
Had a fridge that kept tripping the breaker in a house near Austin. Used a cheap $15 multimeter from Harbor Freight to check the compressor windings and got readings that looked fine. Swapped in my Fluke 117 and found a short to ground that the cheap meter totally missed. Anyone else had a cheap tool cost them more time than it was worth?
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davidwright24d agoMost Upvoted
Brookethomas brings up a good point about CAT ratings - did you ever check what CAT rating that cheap meter actually had printed on it?
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brookethomas24d ago
Man, that's the thing that gets me. It's not just about missing a short, it's about the meter utterly failing at the most basic job it has - telling you if there's a dangerous path to ground. I've seen those cheap meters give you a false sense of security on a live wire too. They'll read 120V but actually the circuit inside is so crappy it can't handle the load to trip a breaker. You think you're safe, touch the wire, and bam. That Fluke likely has a proper CAT rating and a fuse that'll blow before you do. Harbor Freight stuff? Probably not. It's not about the cost of the meter, it's about what your life is worth.
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hall.charles24d ago
You know what really gets me is that cheap meter didnt even catch a dead short to ground. That is a huge safety issue too, not just a time waste. I have seen those Harbor Freight meters miss a few ohms here and there but a direct short is like the one thing they absolutely should catch. Makes me wonder what else they miss when you are trying to trace a simple wire or check a car battery. Did you ever open up that old meter to see if the leads had bad insulation or something?
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