emery_young13•23d agoMost Upvoted

Old-timer in Tucson pointed out my voltmeter habit and it bugged me all week

I was checking a dead microwave for the third time, testing continuity the same way I always do. This retired guy, 30 years in the trade, watched me for a minute and said 'you trust the beep too much, you never test the leads themselves.' He showed me how a bad set of leads can give you a false reading, costs you a return trip and half a day. I swapped in his $8 test leads and suddenly a capacitor I thought was fine showed open. Has anyone else gotten burned by cheap leads or am I the only one who skipped that basic habit?

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1 Comment

holly_walker7623d ago

You got the right lesson but the wrong fix. The old guy is dead on about testing your leads, but the problem ain't the price tag. I have a $20 pair that gave me a ghost reading last month because the internal wire broke right at the strain relief, looked perfect from outside. Cheap leads fail, sure, but expensive ones can too. What matters is doing that quick continuity check on the leads themselves every time you set up, touch the tips together before you trust anything. Cap you thought was fine could just as easily be a cracked solder joint on the board doing the same trick.