Published on November 8th, 2018 | by Sunit Nandi

6 Reasons Every Homeowner Should Own A Multimeter

Owning a house comes with many responsibilities. Not only do you have to pay the mortgage, taxes, and keep your appearances up, you’re also responsible for everything that could break or needs fixing. Even if you could call someone to come fix your broken equipment, it’s still your responsibility in the end. That’s why most homeowners plan to fix a lot of small around-the-house projects themselves. It empowers you as a homeowner, it saves you money, and you don’t have to stay home for hours at certain times so someone can fix a minor problem.

One of the tools every homeowner should have is a digital multimeter from TRS. While it may not be the first thing you might think of in a beginner’s toolbox, it’s one of those tools you’ll find yourself using again and again. One of the hidden super strengths of the digital multimeter is that it can help you diagnose a wide range of problems, making sure you’re better equipped to fix small problems or ask for the right help – both of which will help save you time and money. Below, we have listed six different reasons every homeowner should own a multimeter.

1. Diagnose small electrical problems

For people who are completely unfamiliar with a digital multimeter, you use this neat tool in all sorts of electrical problems. Now, this doesn’t make you an electrician, but it can help you diagnose small electrical problems around the house. Have a light that won’t turn on? A digital multimeter will help you figure out if the problem is with the light bulb, the light fixture or the switch. You can test wires, outlets, switches, small appliances, slightly larger appliances and everything else that works with electricity. Once you have a digital multimeter, you’ll get much better with knowing what’s wrong, and as a result, be much better at tackling small fixing projects.

2. Get a better idea of the electricity around the house

Now, again we want to stress that owning a digital multimeter would make you an electrician in the same way owning a hammer makes you a carpenter – it doesn’t. But at the same time, a digital multimeter can help you establish a lot about the electricity that flows through the house. You can see if a wire is live, if an outlet is on, if the light fixture you’re about to temper with is really shut off… A digital multimeter helps you establish a basic knowledge of all the electricity in and around the house, which can be helpful when things don’t work the way they’re supposed to, or when you don’t want to be shocked.

3. Use it on your car

Chances are that if you own a house, you own a car as well. That means that everything that applies to the house when it comes to electricity also applies to your car. Small technical problem? Use the multimeter to see what needs fixing. Now, you’re still not an electrician for having a multimeter, but all the current going around your car comes from the 12V battery that’s under the hood. You’ll feel it when it’s bolting through you, but it’s nowhere near the shock that your outlets can give you. If you need any practice testing live wires, the car is the right place to do it. And when a problem comes up, you essentially have the same tool the guy at the car shop will use to diagnose the electrical problems.

4. Get handier

Things break around the house. You’ll try to fix them. Sometimes, a job is too hard to fix yourself. Sometimes, you’ll have to call someone to clean up the mess you made trying to fix something yourself. But as you do more, you get better. With a digital multimeter, for the reasons we discussed above, it will be easier to do things yourself. You can find tutorials on the internet that help you fix basically anything. The part where a multimeter comes in is that by having a tool that diagnoses most electrical problems for you, you’ll have a much better idea of what you need help with.

5. Check light bulbs, batteries, extension cords

Raise your hand if you have a drawer with batteries. Imagine that drawer. Which batteries actually work and which don’t? You probably have no idea of knowing. Next, think of the place where you keep your light bulbs. Same problem. Most people have this problem where they aren’t sure what’s working and what’s not. Or if the problem in a toy or piece of equipment is the battery or the object itself. With a digital multimeter, you can test anything that you use around the house and that uses (or provides) electricity and make sure it works properly, if it you need to dispose of it.

6. You’ll find new uses all the time

Digital multimeters are precisely that: meters that measure a lot of things. As such, you can do a lot of different things with them. As you get more familiar with the multimeter and its functions, and more familiar with electricity and all the DIY projects that are literally everywhere around your house, you’ll find that the multimeter will be a part of your toolbox more and more often. You’ll consider buying a digital multimeter for one purpose but end up using the entire range of options on it.

Conclusion

There are a few things every homeowner should have, and a digital multimeter is one of them. Although it doesn’t do anything by itself, it opens up a whole new level of DIY possibilities that wasn’t there before. Even if you have the means to let someone else do your projects for you, it’s still worth knowing exactly what the problem is and what needs fixing. When it comes to DIY, knowledge really is still power, and there’s no faster way to buy knowledge than to buy a great digital multimeter.

Tags: homeowner, multimeter, own, reasons

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.