I finally gave up on my old multimeter after a weird fridge call in Tacoma

For a decade, I used the same analog meter my boss gave me when I started. It was fine for basic stuff, but last Tuesday I was chasing a ghost voltage on a Samsung fridge board. The needle just bounced around. I grabbed my coworker's cheap digital one, and it showed a steady 3.2 volts where mine said nothing. That was the whole problem. Now I keep a $50 Klein digital meter in my main bag. Anyone else have a tool they held onto way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

oscarthompson3mo ago

Oh, the quiet shame of a loyal tool letting you down. My old tape measure had a hook so bent it was basically guessing. Held onto it for years because it had "character." Turns out "character" means being off by a quarter inch on every cut.

evanh273mo ago

Man, @oscarthompson, that's so true about holding onto broken stuff! See it all the time with people keeping phones with shattered screens or dull kitchen knives. We get weirdly loyal to things that just don't work right anymore.

corad841mo ago

Feel that fridge call story in my bones. Kept a worn-out Fluke 77 for years after the display started flickering. Told myself I knew the readings by heart anyway. Finally had it die on me during a no-cool call in Kent. Customer was watching, tapping their foot. Had to borrow their kid's school project meter just to finish the diagnosis. Felt like a total hack. Sometimes being loyal to a tool just means you're afraid of change.