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Bought a $700 'military grade' multimeter that can't handle a drop of coffee

Spent 6 months saving for a Fluke 289 only to have it die from a splash of cold brew on the bench last Tuesday, has anyone else had their fancy gear fail from something stupid like that?
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3 Comments
umar49
umar491mo ago
Yeah, my Fluke 87V survived a full soda can once (somehow).
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viola_lopez30
Military grade" just means lowest bidder, not tough.
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the_brian
the_brian1mo ago
Doesn't it go deeper than just the price though? I've handled a lot of surplus gear and the real issue is the spec sheet. The military writes requirements for things like operating temperature range, shock resistance, or corrosion protection that make stuff heavy and expensive. But then the bidding process forces companies to cut corners everywhere else to hit that low price. So you end up with a radio that can survive being dropped out of a helicopter but has buttons that feel like crap and a screen from 2003. That's the trade-off nobody talks about. Have you ever had to actually use any of that stuff for real?
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