On Wed, 20 Jan 2016 18:12:28 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


wrote in message
news

The first lesson a person should learn about using an electrical meter
is to get a reliable meter. It does NOT need to be costly, but it MUST
NOT be from Harbor Fright. Those meters from HF, which you can get for
free or pay about $7 for, should be thrown in the trash BEFORE they are
ever connected to electricity. If they do work at all, they are
inaccurate, and they will suddenly stop working just from sitting on a
shelf.

Part of my job when working was the calibration of instruments. I have 2
Fluke meters that were checked by even more percision instruments and they
met the spec. Out of 4 of the free HF meters I have, they are accurate
enough for the average home owner. They seem to meet the spec of the paper
that comes with them. The oldest one is only about 5 months old, so I will
have to give them a while to see if they do go bad.

I will agree if a tool is to be used very much or needs to be a good quality
HF is not the place to go to, but for a tool that is seldom used the HF may
be good enough.


I dont get their free meters because I never shopped there much and I
refused to get on their mailing list. (which I do everywhere). But I
bought one of these meters for $7, intended to be used for auto repair,
because I hate using a quality meter when my hands are greasy. The first
time I got that meter out to a car, I put it to a wire and was reaching
with the black lead to get a ground, and the test lead tip pulled right
off. (Molded and unrepairable). I had to go borrow the leads off one of
my good meters, but I ordered some decent test leads from ebay a week
later. which cost around the same price as the HF meter.

I took care of this meter like I would with any of them, kept it indoors
and didnt drop or abuse it. I used it about 2 more times in a car, and
used it in the house about 3 or 4 times to check the resistance on some
LED christmas lights and tested some flashlight batteries.

It sat on a shelf most of the time. About 1 1/2 or 2 years later I
grabbed it to test another set of christmas lights, and I could not get
any reading. I put in new batteries, it still did not work. I switched
it to DC and put the leads across a 12VDC power supply. No reading. I
switched to AC, stuck the leads in a 120V outlet. No reading, or just a
slight reading (I cant quite remember anymore). I might have this
confused with another meter, but I think there's a fuse inside. I
checked that, and it was fine.

This meter just died from sitting on a shelf and turned OFF.
I dont think I even got $7 worth of use from it, and that dont include
the replacment test leads (which I can use elsewhere).

I bought a solar charger from HF. That worked at first, then just quit
working for no reason. HF refused to return it or exchange it, but told
me I should have gotten their extended warranty (which is almost the
same price as the device itself). I raised hell, asked to speak ot the
manager, who gave me the same robotic speech. I told him to shove it up
his ass, and left the store. That was the last time I have ever gone to
HF and the last time I ever will.

I also bought some hand tools from HF and all of them were cheap junk. A
channel locks that broke in half, vice grips that bent, plyers would not
grip, wrenches that stripped or cracked, and so on.

I should have just taken that money and burned it. -OR- spent about 20%
more and bought some OTHER BRAND of low-end tools, and I'd probably
still have the stuff. Instead all I did was add to the landfill.

There are quality tools, and there are cheap tools, and then there's HF
garbage, which does not qualify to even be called a "tool". I will never
step foot in their stores again!