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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Remember the American Tourister commercials where the gorilla tosses around a suitcase? It was a great testament to the product’s toughness. Fluke (manufacturer of digital electrical test equipment) uses a similar approach to test the mettle of its products, dropping them six feet onto concrete over and over again to make sure they can take a beating and continue to operate. Recently, one of their customers took the drop test to an extreme.

Ivar Zabaleta is an electronics technician and proud owner or two Fluke meters. He does a lot of electronic field maintenance for companies in Bolivia (South America).

A mining company called Ivar to troubleshoot a problem with its Scoop Tram, a piece of equipment used in its mine. Ivar spent two days repairing the equipment 450 feet below surface level, his DMM hanging from his belt to be ready when he needed it. When he’d finished his work, Ivar was taken back up to the surface in the mine’s aging elevator. Reaching ground level he bumped the side of the elevator as he walked out. Looking down in horror, he saw his bright yellow meter disappear through the narrow space between the elevator and the wall of the mine shaft. He followed its decent until it disappeared into the darkness. A technician from the mining company shook his head and told Ivar that the shaft was 600 feet deep, with about 10 feet of water at the bottom.

"With sorrow, I thought my Fluke was lost," recalls Ivar.

A short time later, as the mining company worked to enlarge the shaft, someone found Ivar’s soaked meter at the bottom of the pit, packaged it up and sent it to him.

"When I received the multitester it was wet and dirty," he said. "I disassembled it to clean and remove all of the humidity, then switched it on and it worked perfectly! Only one of the testing leads was damaged."

Ivar is still using the meter. There’s a lesson here, actually a couple –

1. Always make sure your test equipment is carried securely to prevent damage to it.
2. Never, ever operate a damp meter. If it gets wet, make sure all humidity is removed before using it again.
3. Buy quality equipment. Not only will it provide better measurements, it’s likely to save you replacement costs should you drop it 600 feet or so into water.