Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Friday, September 19, 2003

Now this is just too handy for words. Sometimes, you don't need to mess with a meter and test leads just to see whether or not voltage is present at a part of the circuit you're troubleshooting. You just need to know if there's voltage there or not. This non-contact voltage light stick gives a quick way of telling that. All's you do is touch it to the outside of the wire. If there's voltage there, it lights up! Quick, easy, and safe. You still need your meter, but this just makes it real fast and easy to trace out circuits.

Let's take a ezzample. Your gas dryer ain't firing up. You pull off the bottom access panel and notice that the ignitor isn't glowing. The question immediately pops into your steel trap-like mind: is the ignitor bad or is the ignitor, in fact, good but not getting voltage? Using your handy non-contact voltage light stick, you quickly confirm that the ignitor isn't getting its necessary operating voltage so the problem lies elsewhere in the circuit. Further investigation leads you to a bad thermal fuse. You just saved yourself a bundle of moola by not replacing a part that was good! Now go buy yourself a beer with all that money you saved.

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