After starting this thread I thought maybe my prospective is narrower than I presumed. I'm happy to see that I'm not alone in thinking a basic multimeter is as handy as a yard stick around the home. You don't have to be IEEE certified or a NEC electrician to need or use one. It simply measures a couple features (properties) of something we can't see (electricity) but is part of every aspect of our daily life.

To check if a battery is good, or an outlet has power, or is this fancy-smancy, expensive light bulb really burned out, are just common situations we run into daily without being (or wanting to be) technicians. After watching my granddaughter grab a meter to check an outdoor outlet for something she was trying to plug in last summer, (and after an inner smug pride that I had started passing something down through my kids ) I thought of just how basic it is today.

Because this tool is as handy and versatile as a hammer that can hang a picture or chisel out a David in the right hands, how can a society so involved with electric energy not have one? Good old Wikipedia states the basics in the first couple paragraphs and they are available in almost throwaway form today. I happen to have 4 of them laying around from a junkie in the kitchen drawer to a good recording unit I use in my work. We must have a dozen of varying quality in the 3 households of my family.

Knowing Cobalt a little bit, I bet he has one of some sort, Cheyanne. The diagnostic code reader for the modern car is different than a standard multimeter, but that is a good reason to have to buy another tool.

The sheet that comes with EVERY meter is enough to let you use it to check the most basic things a home owner (or occupier) may run into. There are a ton of sites ranging from in-depth specialty applications to the 'wall nut cracking hammer' use, available on the web.

If you think your car and computer are essential parts of your life, your tire iron and multimeter are too.





PS
I hope you get fluked good for your 45.5 birthday, GG.

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