Just realized my old multimeter was lying to me for months after a job in Austin

Was troubleshooting a fridge compressor last Tuesday in an old house off South Congress. Kept getting weird readings and swapped out parts that weren't even broken. Turned out my trusty Fluke was off by like 2 volts on the low end. Now I always cross-check with a second meter before I condemn anything.

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.simon1mo ago

Man that is a nightmare! Had nearly the same thing happen with my old Craftsman meter back when I was doing some wiring at a rental property near Zilker Park. The AC voltage was reading fine but the DC side was completely whacked out. Spent two whole days chasing a phantom ground fault that didn't even exist. Ended up replacing a perfectly good GFCI outlet and a whole run of Romex for nothing. That's when I learned to keep my old analog meter around just for sanity checks. Now I have three meters in the truck and I never trust just one reading.

grace_hunt841mo ago

Oh man, that's brutal! Two days of chasing a ghost is enough to make anyone want to throw their meter in the creek.