My $300 diagnostic tool sat in the drawer for 6 months before I finally used it

I bought one of those higher end multimeters with the graphing capability back in January. Cost me about $300 from a local electronics supplier. I thought I was being smart and future proofing my toolkit. But for the first 6 months it just sat there while I kept using my old $50 meter out of habit. Then last week I had a weird intermittent power issue on a Dell Optiplex that had me stumped for two hours. I finally pulled out the fancy meter and used the min/max recording function. Found the voltage drop in about 10 minutes flat. That thing paid for itself in that one job. Anyone else have a tool they bought and then ignored for way too long before realizing how good it actually is?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_vera1mo ago

You ever buy a tool that made you feel like a genius for about five minutes, then guilty for the next six months? Because I've got a thermal imager I picked up on a whim last year. Cost me almost $400, and it sat in its case for eight months. I kept telling myself I'd use it, but I just never did. Then a regular customer's breaker panel kept tripping and I couldn't find the hot spot with my old clamp meter. Finally broke out the thermal imager and spotted a bad connection behind a wall in under a minute. Felt pretty dumb for not using it sooner.

claireg811mo ago

My foam roller was the exact same. Spent like $50 on it, one of those fancy textured ones, and it sat in my closet for almost a year. I'd look at it every time I grabbed a towel and feel like an idiot. Then one day my hip was killing me after a run, nothing was helping, and I finally caved and used it on my IT band. Literally felt a knot release in like two minutes. Now I use it almost every night and can't believe I waited that long.