Lost $150 on a bargain meter that lied to me all day Tuesday

Picked up a cheap multimeter from a flea market for $15 thinking it was a steal. Spent Tuesday troubleshooting a three-way switch issue at a house on Maple Street and swapped parts that weren't even bad. Turns out the meter was showing wrong voltage readings the whole time. Had to buy a proper Fluke after work for $150 to fix the job. Anybody else get burned by junk tools pretending to work?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey161mo ago

Sounds like you paid $165 for a lesson in electrical honesty.

graygonzalez1mo ago

$165 is closer to $175 after the permit fee and tax in my area, actually. I just had to call my local inspector for the same thing and the city charges $42 just to schedule the re-check. So if @casey16 paid what I did, that lesson in honesty cost more like $217 total with the headache included. The sparky who did my rough-in tried to tell me NM cable was fine for a detached garage, but the code here requires UF or conduit if there's any chance of moisture. Did your guy try to sell you on a "standard install" that conveniently skipped the ground rod too?

the_morgan1mo ago

Yeah but $217 for piece of mind that your garage won't burn down feels like a bargain honestly.