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Just had a customer question my 15 year repair method
Talked to a retired electrician last week who said I should stop using multimeters and just trust my nose for burnt components. I laughed it off at first but then he showed me how he caught a bad capacitor just from the smell alone on a fridge in Austin. Honestly made me wonder if I rely too much on tools over instinct, anyone else ever had a gut feeling save a call?
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nancyg141mo ago
Oh wow, that's a great point. I've actually heard older techs say the smell memory is tied to a different part of your brain than the logical problem-solving part, so maybe using both keeps your diagnostics more balanced.
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wyatt1351mo ago
Interesting... you know I used to be one of those guys who thought the old timers were just being stubborn with their "stick and string" methods. But after reading this and thinking about it, I gotta say it kinda changed my mind. I had a call last month where I spent twenty minutes with my meter chasing a ghost, and then I stopped, took a breath, and just felt the air around the breaker panel. Turned out it was a loose neutral buzzing real quiet, and yeah, I could barely hear it but my instinct said check that spot first. So now I'm trying to use my senses more before I even pull out the tools... saves time and batteries I guess. The smell thing especially makes sense because I've caught a few burnt wires before I even saw them, just from that sharp plastic smell.
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Smelling a bad cap saved me a three hour diagnostic once. Trust the nose.
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