Spent $150 on a fancy multimeter that couldn't handle a basic fridge compressor

I bought a high-end clamp meter from an online deal last spring because I wanted to be fancy. Took it out on a call for a fridge that wouldn't cool, hooked it up to the compressor start relay, and the thing just blinked errors at me. Turns out it wasn't rated for the inrush current on older compressors, which is basic stuff I should have checked. I wasted a whole afternoon driving back to my truck for my old $40 meter that worked fine. So that $150 is sitting in my toolbox as a lesson learned. Anyone else bought a tool that looked great on paper but failed on the first real job?

2 comments

2 Comments

willowr9620d ago

Saw a review from an HVAC guy who said the same thing about those fancy clamp meters, so it's definitely a known issue with high inrush motors. Sometimes the cheap reliable stuff wins every time.

wren23020d ago

The "cheap reliable stuff wins every time" part really got me thinking. I had an old Fluke meter that was solid, but I dropped it one too many times and it started giving readings that were all over the place. So I grabbed a $30 one from the hardware store as a backup, and honestly it's been working just fine for years now. It almost makes you wonder if there's a point where you're just paying for a brand name and not actual performance. But then again, I'm not an electrician so maybe for pros the expensive ones are worth it. I guess it depends on how often you're trusting your life to the readings.