I just purchased a dead Sure Test 61-165 with afci and ELL features for about $30 total with no cord or case. the only cord I had was a 6' 18 AWG cord and I didn't calculate the relative error of a 14 AWG 1 ft cord and a 6', 18 AWG cord. I'll bet the approximate cord resistance is not subtracted from the readings and ther is probably no reason to do so if it's 14 AWG and 1 foot long. When turned on the display looked like static on a TV. I'm pleased that the accessory prices are reasonable. A one foot 14 AWG cord elsewhere would have to be had in packages of 4 without a significant difference in price. Repair costs are $150 flat fee by Ideal. Again, this seems resonable. On inspection everything looked well done including the inside EXCEPT the ribbon cable interconnects to the display and keyboard. there are at least three soldered in place automotive fuses in the unit labeled non-replaceable and they checked good. My Spidy sense said that a grey colored interconnect might be a obstacle course for electrons. The display came back by reseating the display connectors, one is on the diaplay itself, but the keyboard did not. It took some considerable scraping of the contacts to be able to see unoxidized metal on the keyboard ribbon cable. I reassembled and added some special expensive contact enhancing solution and we'll see what happens in the long term. repair time was 15 minutes, tops. The AFCI button has to be held down longer than the other's, but the reason for the unresponsiveness of the keys is explained in the manual. Conclusion: With a bad ground, some readings are nonsense. Two prong outlet should be able to be tested with a 2 to 3 prong adapter correctly grounded. I can see where the storage environment could contribute to reliability. I can see where some of the test connectors would be useful. Schematics of what they do, would make the instructions easier to understand. IMO, using nickel-gold plated sockets and selective nickel-gold on the interconnect cables would really be a plus for reliability. Not doing it contributes to Ideal's revenue stream. I got no response from Ideal.
