PSA: That $80 capacitor tester I bought online is junk

I grabbed a cheap meter from a random seller on eBay to test start capacitors and it showed everything as good even when parts were clearly blown. It cost me 3 extra service calls last week before I figured out the tester was lying to me. Anyone else get burned by a bad tool that made you double your work?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbychen6d ago

Read a thread on here a few months back where a guy tested his cheap meter against a Fluke and it was off by like 20 percent on capacitance readings. That stuck with me because I almost bought the same junk from some random Amazon listing. Your story just confirms what I was afraid of, those cheap meters lie to you when it matters most. I bet the cheap components inside drift with temperature or something, so they look fine in the shop but fail in the field. At least you caught it now and didnt waste a whole season of service calls. Better to toss it and get a mid range unit that actually works than keep losing money on repeat trips.

coran636d ago

Bought one of those $50 multimeters once. Felt real smart until it told me a dead battery had full power. Learned my lesson the expensive way.

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