That moment I shorted out a board on a Samsung fridge because I forgot to unplug it

I was at a house in Austin last Tuesday working on a Samsung RF28 that wasn't cooling on the fridge side. I pulled the control board cover and while I was poking around with my multimeter, I accidentally dropped a metal probe across two terminals and saw a flash. Fried the main board instantly, had to eat $180 for a replacement before I even made a dime on the call. Has anyone else done something dumb like that on a simple diagnostic check?

2 comments

2 Comments

veraramirez10d ago

That little flash is brutal. Happened to me on a GE washer a few years back. Did you have a meter with good leads or was it the standard cheap ones? The stock probes are too long and have no guard ring. Switched to Fluke TL75s after that. Barely any exposed metal on the tip. Zero accidental shorts since then.

webb.xena10d ago

Honestly I used to think probe tips didn't matter that much... but that story about the guard ring makes a lot of sense now.

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