What is an item below 100 bucks that everyone should own?

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An OBD scanner
A decent flashlight
A mini screwdriver set
A multimeter
An outlet polarity tester
These immediately come to mind.
- If you are not comfortable working with electricity, you shouldn't be working with electricity. Following, a multimeter and an outlet polarity tester are not really things normal people should have.
  Ok for the rest.
  
  A multimeter is absolutely a good thing to have. Even for small electronics, you can do simple diagnosis like if a wire is broken, if an audio jack fucked, or even if a battery has any charge left.
  
  I am a normal person and use a multimeter all the time to check batteries and fuses.
  
  I hired an electrician to rewire an outlet under my sink so that the switch above the sink can control only one of the two plugs. When he was done, I used the outlet tester and found that he hadn't properly connected the ground wire. I wasn't planning on connecting an appliance that needed grounding, but I think every outlet in the house should be grounded anyways as a matter of course. Got him to fix it before he left. That $9 I spent 7 years ago paid off as far as I'm concerned.
- The OBD scanner is a big one. That mystery check light is often something simple that an obd code and a quick Google search will often solve.
- Im a mechanic and own all ofnthese apart from the obd scanner, but my personal land cruiser produces flash codes along with my motorbikes.
  But this is certainly a great list
  
  You are a mechanic and don't own an obd scanner.
  
  Yeah heavy diesel plant mechanic though, think excavators haul trucks cranes and machinery. My personal car can give flash codes so no need for an obd acanner and i dont work on other people's car because fuck cars haha small painful shit
  
  $100 dollars worth of paperclips to jump pins on my OBD port
- If you're going to have a multimeter or do anything around electricity I'd say a non contact voltage sensor otherwise known as a "death" or "idiot" stick.

968 comments