Multimeter recommendation

Fluke 73 (?) series -- batteries lasted for years, I had one in mid 80s, dunno about more recent stuff (retired in '93).

Grant.

I recently got sick of cheapo multimeters failing regularly and needing replacing (and thus not actually being cheap) and so bought a Fluke 17B+ from a seller on AliExpress. It was around US$110 (previously I'd spend ~$30 buying throwaway things every year or two) and it has been a joy to use. It seems to auto-turn off just fine and anyway I'm running mine on 2 x Eneloop AA cells. They last for ages between recharges, even with the display lit up.

They are genuine Fluke meters designed and built for the Chinese and Indian markets and as such aren't available from Fluke dealers in more developed countries (where they expect you to spend several hundred on a completely different model meter).

There are a few reviews on youtube etc. I'm quite poor and can't afford to waste that sort of money so did my due diligence before buying mine. As I said it's been great to use - there's nothing worse than being unsure that a cheap multimeter is reading correctly. If you're testing something it's because you want to know a value, not second-guess a cheap meter. (IMO.)

Hope that helps. Of course if you don't have the similar financial constraints to me you could buy a Fluke locally from RS or wherever for around $300 to $1,200 or so.

I find these are OK;

I have a 20 year old version of the Appa 25, the automotive multimeter and it has been an excellent value product. They are as close as you can get to the real Flukes but at affordable prices.

That said, I don't forget to turn mine off very often but the battery seems to last a very long time. That reminds me, must go and check its voltage level, don't want a leaky battery rotting out the insides of my Appa25. ;-)

I was given a Tenma one with the same problem. I guess the designers were given a list of features as bullet points, and did the bare mininum that would get the customer to tick off that feature as "done". If the screen looks like it is "off" that's all they wanted for their marketing, even if battery consumption is not reduced. It is really annoying for me because if the screen were still on then I would see that and remember to turn it off, but the blank screen caused me to overlook this and flaten the battery.

Some (but not all) cheap digital vernier calipers have a similar problem, though for those, even the off button does not reduce the power consumption much. I think in the case of the digital vernier calipers, it was done so that it keeps track of the position even when moved with the screen off, because Mitutoyo ones have absolute encoders and (some of) the cheap ones wanted to pretend to also, at the expense of terrible battery life. Actually the terrible battery life of some of the cheap calipers might be making some people avoid even the good cheap calipers and buy real Mitutoyo ones. The better cheap ones can be recognised because they fail to track movements that occur when they are turned off, because they actually are off.

From time to time I forget to release the power button on my Altai DMM - so far; the battery has lasted a few years.

Some years back one of the magazines did a power shutdown unit for test instruments, Might've been Elektor - if it was EPE; they probably scrounged it from SC in the first place.

Maybe look at one of Dave Jones' EEVBlog branded Brymen BM235 meters.

I've got one, works fine for general work. Feels solid, robust switch action, silicon leads etc. About $130

My Aldi calipers have now been using the same battery for over a year, thats good enough for most uses.