PSA: That $40 multimeter from Amazon nearly cost me a repair ticket

Last month I bought a cheap autoranging multimeter off Amazon for about 40 bucks. I figured for basic continuity checks and voltage readings it would be fine for my bench work. First time I used it to trace a bad pin on a Garmin G5000 harness, it gave me a false reading that sent me down a 2 hour rabbit hole. Turned out the meter was reading 0.5 volts high on DC. That little mistake could have gotten me flagged for a bad repair if I hadn't double checked with my Fluke. I ended up giving the cheap one to my buddy for his home garage projects. Has anyone else had a cheap tool bite them in the ass on a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

leobrown25d ago

Oh man, that SUCKS. Cheap meters are a gamble for sure.

lucas_grant8325d ago

The Fluke T6-1000 I bought three years ago (after my second cheap meter died on me) is still going strong even though I dropped it off a ladder last spring. That $30 meter I started with gave me readings all over the place on a simple outlet test, and then it just stopped turning on one day. I figured I was saving money, but really I just wasted $30 on a paperweight. Now I tell everyone the same thing - spend the extra cash once and be done with it. You definitely get what you pay for with these things.