Today I’m going to show you the hands down the #1 most common call I get as a certified RV Repair tech and I'm revealing how anyone can solve this pesky problem in under 3 minutes with a simple multimeter.

This post is actually part 3 of a 5 part series where I am showing RV owners how to save $5000 in their RV by walking you through 10 of the post common calls I get as a tech.

This is RV Repair Woman.

Continuity

Okay Imagine for a second with me that you have a bridge over a river. That bridge can open up to stop cars from going across the river.

Or it can close and let cars across.

Now imagine we had some test that could tell us if the bridge was open or closed.

That test is the continuity test.

The last two posts we talked about voltage. While voltage tells you about the electricity itself (in our metaphor here that would be the cars), Continuity tells you about the material the electricity is going through (the bridge).

Continuity tells us if the bridge is open or closed. Can electricity move through this circuit or not?

If the bridge is closed and cars can move through we HAVE continuity.

If the bridge has opened up and cars can’t pass then we DON’T HAVE continuity.

Oh and by the way if you’re madly taking notes. I see you I love you. You can also just head over to RVRepairWoman.com/5000 and I have a workbook that will show you how to set up your meter for each test and walk you through all of the 10 calls in this series and how to solve them yourself.

You Got This.

Continuity is great for testing all kinds of things like switches, broken wires, and the big one today - Fuses.

But let’s get your meter set up first.

Meter

On my fancier Klein CL800 I just turn this dial to the setting with the audio symbol. (and people with less fancy meters don’t worry I’m getting to you in a second.)

The audio symbol is there because this meter is going to beep whenever you HAVE continuity between the two probes.

If you have the cheapest multimeter known to man - this $7 one from harbor freight you don’t have a continuity setting. But I have a work around.

Look for the section with the Ω symbol and set your dial to the 200 setting.

This is the resistance setting we’ll talk more about it in the next video (you're getting a sneak peak) and its very similar to the continuity setting.

Instead of listening for a beep you need to keep an eye out for what number is on the screen.

If the number is above 50 you DO NOT have continuity.

If the number is below 50 you DO have continuity.

It's that simple.

The last big thing you need to know before we start playing around with continuity is that this is one of the few tests we do with the power OFF to the circuit we’re testing.

The way your multimeter tests for continuity is it sends a car out of one probe and sees if it comes back on the other.

If there are already cars in the way it can mess with our reading.

So when we test for continuity we always either disconnect the thing we are testing from the circuit entirely, or we disconnect power from the circuit.

You got this.

Call 1

ring ring

Me: Hello?

Customer: Help! Help! Something in my RV won’t turn on!

Me: I Got This.

Whenever someone calls me and says that any appliance in their RV won’t turn on at all, it doesn't matter if its the fridge or the water heater or anything in-between the first thing I check is their fuses.

And like 80% of the time, it's just a bad fuse.

What’s a fuse you ask?

Well for the most part they look like this or like this. These do the same thing they are just different shapes.

Inside there is a small filament.

That tiny filament is meant to get hot and break when too much power goes through the system.

Think of it as the knight in shining armor standing in front of your air conditioner and your fridge, protecting it from big power surges.

But, unfortunately, this knight only has one life.

Once that filament breaks, the fuse has done its job and it needs to be replaced before the appliance will ever work again.

You can find most of your fuses at the fuse panel which should be close to your breaker box panel.

So set your meter to continuity and throw your batter disconnect in the OFF position so power isn't going to your panel.

Then look closely at your fuses. there's usually a small opening at the top with a little bit of metal poking through just to help with testing.

So you can take one probe and put it on one side of the fuse, and take your other probe and put it on the other side of the fuse.If you hear a beep, then the fuse is good, if you don't hear a beep, then the fuse is probably bad.

You can always pull a fuse out and test it separately if you’re not sure.

Okay so you found a dead fuse, now what?

All you need to do is take it to your local AutoZone, O'Reilly's, auto parts store, slam it down on the counter and they should be able to help you.

If you're shy, like me, and don't like talking to customer service, just look at the top of the fuse and you should see a number. Just replace it with a fuse that's the same size and has the same number on top and you should be good to go.

So a 10 is going to be replaced with a 10.

And that's it.

It's that easy.

You'd be surprised how many calls I get where these little guys are the only problem. Just replacing a fuse is only going to cost you a couple cents, whereas calling a tech is going to cost you a couple hundred bucks.

Call 2

ring ring

Me: Hello

Customer: Help! Help! Specifically my fridge won’t turn on this time!

Me: Okay.

Okay now that you have fuses down you get to know about the secret fuses. That’s right while most of your fuses are at your fuse panel and that’s the best first place to check, a lot of your appliances have fuses at the appliance as well for added protection.

Your fridges fuses are the sneakiest.

If your fridge won’t turn on at all - You know your batteries are good and you’ve checked all the fuses at the fuse panel then head to the back of the fridge.

Pop the case off the circuit board.

You may have to disconnect some wires to get the case off just take a picture so you can reattach them later. Unplug your fridge from the outlet and throw the battery disconnect OFF so there is no DC power going to it.

And then take a look over your fridge board. Depending on the brand of fridge you have the board may have 1 2 or 3 fuses on it. Set your meter to continuity and test any fuses you see.

If you ever want to double check your work just carefully remove the fuse and test it separately.

If you find a bad fuse, swap it out and you should be good to go.

With those two more calls I believe we are up to $3500 saved. Woohoo. Check out this video when it comes out to learn how to save the next $1000 in your RV.