Is it possible

[40sTheme]

My friends stepdad somehow nearly torched a surge protector with a multimeter.
I don't know how... I wasn't there.
So, SSIA I guess.

 

[Howard]

Yes, in the same way that you can damage something with a piece of wire.

 

[40sTheme]

You can't damage something if it's not on, though, right?

 

[CallMeJoe]

An ammeter presents a very low impedance, not much above a short-circuit; if you try to check voltage with your leads connected in the "amps" configuration, you could conceivably cook the surge protector and your multimeter.

 

[slpaulson]

The surge protector wasn't on?

I suppose you could have discharged a capacitance.

Otherwise if you were measuring current, that's pretty much a short. That path has a fuse, but you could certainly still damage something.

 

[40sTheme]

My friend says the surge protector was probably on; so I guess that was the problem.
I was just skeptical as to causing damage with a multimeter; they seemed so harmless when using them in Physics..

 

[CallMeJoe]

Originally posted by: slpaulson
The surge protector wasn't on?
I suppose you could have discharged a capacitance.
Otherwise if you were measuring current, that's pretty much a short. That path has a fuse, but you could certainly still damage something.

Some multimeters have an unfused high-current ammeter connection; IIRC, my old Fluke 77 is fused on the 200mA circuit, unfused on the 20A circuit.

 

[Eli]

Yes, you can.

I've fried quite a few things by accidentally crossing the leads.

As far as killing something that isn't on, you shouldn't be able to, but it's still possible as capacitors will retain a charge.

You could also kill extremely sensitive components with the DMM's "test" voltage, for measuring resistance for example, but this is usually very low.

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: slpaulson
The surge protector wasn't on?
I suppose you could have discharged a capacitance.
Otherwise if you were measuring current, that's pretty much a short. That path has a fuse, but you could certainly still damage something.

Some multimeters have an unfused high-current ammeter connection; IIRC, my old Fluke 77 is fused on the 200mA circuit, unfused on the 20A circuit.

Both circuits will be fused.