That $18 capacitor tester I doubted just saved my bacon in Omaha

I picked up a cheap component checker last month mostly to shut up a buddy who swore by his. Yesterday I had a whirlpool fridge with a compressor that wouldn't kick over, and I was ready to blame the start relay. Out of boredom I clipped the tester on the run capacitor and it read 8.4 uF instead of 45, textbook weak cap. Swapped it for a used one I had in the van, fridge fired right up. Anyone else had a budget tool earn its keep when you least expected it?

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ivanbell1mo ago

The "out of boredom" part got me because that's how it always seems to go. You buy a cheap tool for one thing and then it ends up paying for itself on some job you never saw coming. Same thing happened to me with a $12 test light years ago, figured it was junk and now it lives in my pocket. It makes you wonder how many times we've swapped parts on a guess when a few bucks of gear could've told us the truth in ten seconds.

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