My $140 Klein meter took a bath in a wet crawlspace last Tuesday

I dropped my Klein CL800 into about 3 inches of standing water while pulling wire under a house in Cleveland. Took it apart, dried it out with rice for two days, and it's still reading voltage fine. Has anyone else had luck reviving a wet meter or should I just replace it before it dies on a job?

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2 Comments

johnson.adam4mo ago

Have you checked the internal fuse and the input jacks for corrosion yet? Even if the display works now, that water might have started eating away at the metal connections inside the jacks, which could give you a bad reading on resistance or capacitance next week without you knowing it. I'd spray some contact cleaner in there and blow it out with compressed air before trusting it on a live panel. The meter might pass a simple voltage test but fail when you really need it for a low-ohm check or a continuity beep. Better to catch that now than have it crap out halfway through troubleshooting a 3-way switch.

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richard_mason4mo ago

Used to think rice was the cure for everything, but now I see I was wrong after reading this.

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