Used to swap compressor relays blind, now I always meter first

Honestly, for my first 5 years in this trade I would just swap the relay and hope it fixed the no-start issue on refrigerators. Got burned twice last summer where the relay was fine but the compressor was drawing locked rotor amps. Now I always throw my meter on the windings first. Takes 2 minutes and saves me a callback 90 percent of the time. Anyone else still skip this step out of habit?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_ross24d ago

That 90 percent rule applies to most things if you're being honest with yourself.

the_felix24d ago

Oh come on, if you can read a schematic and know the symptoms swapping a relay takes like 30 seconds and you're done. Metering everything is a waste of time when 9 times out of 10 it's just a bad relay anyway.