6 Steps To Detect Electrical Faults Using A Multi-Meter

Steps To Detect Electrical Faults Using A Multi-Meter

Some electrical faults can be very annoying and may even seem difficult to ratify especially when the victim involved has little or no idea about electrical faults and how to ratify some of them.

Every electrical appliance is prone to have a fault at one time or the other during its service life, the question is; how do we fix the faults when they come up?

When an electrical appliance like the blender, cooking stove, radio or television got damaged or starts malfunctioning, it could be a sign of discontinuity created in the motherboard. or along the wire lines leading to the shortage of voltage supply to some or one of the units whose function deficiency will be manifested in the outer malfunctioning of the device.

Even such problem can cause the appliance to shut down completely and unable to function again. yes; that can be possible if the path the discontinuity occurred is the main line supplying the electric power to the entire units of the appliance.

4 COMMON CAUSES OF ELECTRICAL FAULTS

So its disconnection will definitely make the appliance unable to function again until when it is dictated and fixed.

What are the factors that can create a discontinuity in the electric wires or motherboard of any of the appliances? The answers to the above questions are simple and can be highlighted below:

1. Overheating: an excess temperature can melt a wire insulator and cause it to make a direct contact with another wire that has opposite electric charge which can lead to sparks and instant cut of either the two wires or one of them thereby creating a discontinuity of voltage flow into the appliance.
2. High voltage: using a small wire like the popular 1mm wire to run a voltage of 300 to 400 volts will cause the wire to cut immediately or a few minutes later because such voltage will create instant temperature rise in the wires and cause them to melt and meet each other directly.
3. Low voltage: just as high voltage can create heat, low voltage can damage capacitors and resistors if the voltage flow through them for a long time. The reason is that such situation will try to activate some key units in the motherboard that requires a certain voltage to function and such units were built in such a way that their voltage come directly from the capacitors, so dragging or forcing the capacitor to release a certain voltage which has not actually been supplied to it will make the capacitor to get burnt causing total breakdown of the appliance. A good example of the appliance that usually shows this fault is the televisions.
4. overloading or over usage: overloading or overusing of an electrical appliance can lead to its untimely damage. For an instant, leaving a television on for over 48 hours will not only cause overheating in the motherboard but can weaken the resistors and the capacitors. So discontinuity in that condition is inevitable.

Besides the above factors, a discontinuity would be rare, however, there are other numerous factors which were not highlighted.

6 STEPS TO DETECT ELECTRICAL FAULTS USING A MULTI-METER

To carry out repair on any electrical appliance means to detect the fault such as the locations that discontinuity occurred. And the procedures for doing that are specified below:

1. Turn the circular meter knob either clockwise or anti-clockwise to the location specified “OHM” or “Ω” which is meant to measure resistance.
2. Used the two wire testers of the multimeter to check if the meter is in good working condition by touching the two wires together and taking note of the deflections or the movement of the pointer at the calibrated glass for the analog type. If it is a digital meter check the LED screen to note the readings of the resistance.
3. Take out the two wires (live wire & neutral wire) in the appliance which are mostly live wire and the neutral wire.
4. Test for the first discontinuity by touching the two wires of the meter to the two wires of the appliance making sure they are separated from each other, that is red wires go together while black wires go together without coming in contact. If the meter pointer makes any movement of deflections then the appliance is in good condition and has no discontinuity inside it, rather the fault may be from other sources. But if not, then skip that area and move to the next junction of wires to run the same test.
5. Repeat the process used in the number 4 for every single wire, resistors, and capacitors, etc. until the unit or wire having the fault has been found.
6. After discovering the problem, the next step is to fix it by replacing or reconnecting the damaged resistor, capacitor, etc. or disconnected wire.

With the above little ideas, I believe that working on the electrical appliances can become easier to you than before.

Conclusion

Please drop a feedback to us through the comment section if you are encountering any challenge from the steps listed above.