Went from 8 callbacks a week to 1 after swapping my multimeter

Picked up a Fluke 117 last month after using a $15 no-name for 3 years. The resistance readings were off by a few ohms the whole time, missed a bad defrost sensor twice on the same freezer unit. Has anyone else had a cheap meter burn them on a warranty call? What did you switch to?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

mason7984d ago

Did you ever test the cheap meter against a known good resistor? I ran a $20 one for a couple years and it read fine on my bench but would drift once it got cold in a walk-in. Cost me a compressor diagnosis on a reach-in one winter, told the guy his unit was fine when the start relay was going. Switched to a used 116 I got off a retiring tech and the readings hold steady now, even at 20 below. What I do different is check the meter against a fresh battery and a known load before I trust a weird reading. Not saying the cheap ones can't work, just that mine lied to me at the worst time.

8