That time I doubted a $20 cable tester from Amazon

I spent 8 years at a shop in Tulsa using the same old Fluke meter for everything, so when my buddy swore by this cheap generic tester for checking harness continuity I laughed at him. After two weeks of chasing a ghost fault on a King Air, I grabbed it on a whim and the thing found a corroded pin inside ten minutes flat. Has anyone else had a cheap tool humiliate their expensive setup like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

betty_perry2415h ago

My Fluke sat in the box for a month after a $15 tester found a bad splice in ten minutes.

julia_carter619h ago

Ugh that's the worst feeling for real.

jenny_lee8h ago

$2000 Fluke meter sitting in my bag like a trophy wife while a $20 plastic POS does all the actual work. That's just EMBARRASSING. My coworker still won't admit his $300 Klein multimeter got beat by a Harbor Freight special on a Cessna 310 last month. I swear cheap testers are like that one friend who shows up to the party in pajamas and somehow ends up being the most useful person there. The real joke is on us for spending all that money on overpriced gadgets when the cheap stuff works just as good most of the time. At least my wallet learned a lesson even if my pride didn't.