Took me 5 years to realize I was using the wrong multimeter setting for capacitor discharge

Had a capacitor pop in my face last Tuesday at a job in Portland because I was testing for voltage instead of checking if it was actually drained first. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way or am I just slow?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_cooper16d ago

Damn dude, that's gnarly. I literally flinched reading that part about the pop in your face. I've had a few close calls but nothing that actually blew up on me yet. Testing for voltage instead of making sure it's fully drained is a rookie mistake I almost made myself on a big HVAC unit last summer. Honestly, I'm still paranoid about big caps, I usually short them with a screwdriver through a resistor just to be extra careful. Hope you're alright, that could have been way worse.

perry.lee16d ago

Always thought the resistor trick was overkill tbh, but yeah @jesse_cooper you got me rethinking that now. Just glad it was a cap and not something bigger.