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Many electrical appliances have warnings on their outside case to tell you of potential dangers to safety.
Some electrical devices have labels telling you of potential danger due to high voltage inside. Heed them.
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Fortunately, there's a device that can help you test most electrical things. It's called a voltmeter, a volt-ohmmeter, a VOM, or a multimeter (because it takes more than one electrical measurement); they're all the same thing. A multimeter measures the amount of power (voltage) being applied, electricity (current) being used, and how much resistance it needs to overcome to do the job. Power is measured in volts (V), current is counted in amperes or amps (A), and resistance is calculated in ohms.
There's one more electrical term you've probably heard. Defining it will come in handy as you fix electrical devices. A watt is the amount of power consumed by an electrical device when it is running. A 750-watt toaster, for example, uses 750W (watts) of power when toasting your wheat, rye, sourdough, or other bread in the morning.
If you don't know the wattage rating of an electrical appliance but you do know the amperage (current), multiply it by the voltage. The formula is: V X A = W. Since all plug-in appliances in your home are either 240V (electric stove or clothes dryer) or 120V (everything else) it's easy to figure wattage. A toaster that is rated at 7.75A (indicated by a label or plate on the toaster's bottom) uses 930W of electrical power (120 X 7.75 = 930).
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