Good Digital Multi-Meter in $50 Range

A good quality autoranging meter will be just as accurate as one that is not. About double your price range is the Fluke 110. I hae used several differant modles and the higher dollar one is almost right on the money traceable to the government standards.

Maker's catalogue page...

No accuracy figures, but looks like all of the features are listed (including manual ranging). Seems like a decent enough meter if it has the features you want. How accurate do you need your readings to be, and was there anything special about the old meter in this regard?

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Melodolic Spielberg

That meter is a heap of crap, I've opened one before and the quality of construction is poor. Don't buy it unless you are happy to throw it out when it dies, which will be the worst possible time so says Murphys Law.

Autoranging has nothing to do with accuracy. An autoranging meter will simply take a bit longer to get a reading, unless you use the manual range override which mode decent autoranging meters have. Don't buy a manual range only meter, they are a real pain.

You can get a used Fluke 70 or even an 80 series on eBay for around the $50 mark. I even got an 80seriesIII on eBay for around US$50, so bargains can be had.

Much better value IMHO to get a used Fluke than get a new cheapie. You might take your chances a bit, but it's easy to check if it's in cal when you get it, and then you'll have a top quality professional meter you can use with confidence.

Dave :)

I agree about the Fluke meters. They've never let me down.

If you're set on getting a brand new one then look at Extech. They make decent stuff. Here's one that's one penny shy of costing you $50.00 --

Bob

This is a response you're likely to hear a lot ! I like my 77 series II as well. They just keep going and feel so well made too.

Graham

I agree. If you want a basic one, the Fluke 10 is great. You never think about what goes into making a good meter until you use a bad one, and it takes twice as long to settle on a value, is slow to autorange (or doesn't autorange at all), breaks when you drop it, burns up the batteries in no time, etc.

I strongly disagree about Extech, though. We have one at work (450?) that someone got for the IR thermometer. The thermometer is fun, but as a multimeter it's crap. It migrates around the lab with the other handhelds (all Fluke except for a BK Precision LC meter) and whenever I mistakenly use it I find it disagrees with every other meter in the room. I think someone once threw away a set of test leads, thinking they were bad, when it was actually this meter.

It's too bad, really, since I've seen that version with IR thermometer for sale for about $115. If it didn't suck, it'd be a great deal!

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Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

What are the chances of it dying? I've got a DMM that's had regular use for

15 years and has never failed. In fact, none of my meters have ever failed.

Got my first autoranging meter a few weeks ago - I can't say that I found manual ranging to be a pain. (I bought the autoranger because it was reduced to a thord of the price and has an RS232 output.)

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Melodolic Spielberg

Ken, if you got 20 years of use out of a Radio Shack DMM, consider the original purchase price money well spent. The only multimeter that I've ever gotten longer useful life out of was my trusty old Triplett 630 analog, which is now close to its 50th year in service.

For an inexpensive DMM, the Wavetexk 5XL is both rugged, accurate, and hard to beat for it's price. Mine is now going on 10 years old.

For extreme precision and accuracy, although it's probably not needed for most routine electronics and computer applications, buy a Fluke. I use a Fluke Differential Voltmeter for my primary calibration reference. I don't even own a Fluke DMM, because they provide far too much pecision for my day to day needs, and I would be heartbroken if I happened to drop one of these $200+ boxes that I owned onto the floor. They don't bounce well, well the Wavetek generally does, although if it doesn't, a new one can be had for under $50. Something to think about.

I would strongly suggest that you keep at least one quality multimeter on hand as a "sanity check" on your DMM, since DMMs often come up with some off the wall readings (even the Flukes) when their batteries begin to go south.

Just for what it's worth, the inexpensive Wavetek provides reading good to three decimatl place, but in all honesty that 3rd place is usually

+/- 2 when compared with an accurate calibration standard. With the exception of critical instrumentation measurments, not much work in electronics requires accuracy greater than this.

Hope this helps.

Harry C.

p.s., Some of the Radio Shack equipment produced 20 years ago was almost decent, but the stuff that they sell today is total throw-away junk.

If you leave it sitting on the bench and don't beat it around or change the range switch too many times then the chances are reasonably good it will last for many years. However, start to mistreat it and it will soon fail. Take our production facility at work, many times we have tried to outfit the production workers will cheap meter like this, and in *every* case the meter has failed within the year, most after a few months. No Fluke has ever failed in the same environment. Actually I lied, all our Fluke 19s died, but it was an experimental model made in China and was quickly taken off the market.

This particular meter you are looking at, we got several (re-branded under a different name) as throw around lab meters. Every one of them has died within a year or two.

Take the meter apart and look at the quality of construction and the components used, it's crap. Actually, this is a newer model and is a lot better than the ones from a few years back. They had blow holes in the solder joints, dry joints, crap gold plating on the switch contacts, dodgy probe contacts, and the cheapest asian components. This new one is a bit better in that it uses surface mount technology, but a lot of the components are hand assembled on someone's kitchen table.

Since outranging models came out in the early 80's people have never looked back. So much easier to simply select V or Ohms and let it do the work.

Dave :)

He uses it once a month. He had the last one for 20 years, which leaves me feeling that he is probably not a careless user. I suspect that the replacement will get nothing more than light use.

You said the new one is crap. Now you're saying the old one is crap, and that the new one is a lot better, apart from the components, which someone is assembling in their millions on their kitchen table. Have I got that right?

I didn't say it wasn't easier, just that I don't think manual ranging is a particular hassle.

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Melodolic Spielberg

Then it'll probably do just fine. BUt you still don't get the "measurement confidence" you get with a higher quality meter like a Fluke.

Yes, the new one is a lot better than the older models which were absolute crap. The new model is "less crap" relatively speaking, but crap none the less compared to a good quality meter.

True, it's not, if that's all you've got. We all survived quite nicely before autoranging meters came along!

Dave :)

Yes, the Triplett 630 is a damn fine analog meter. Sadly mine is just gathering dust, as there is simply no place for it on my bench when compared to a DMM, except for nostalgia sake.

I'll second that. Anyone serious about electronics should have a top quality meter in addition to any cheapie. But if anyone is hell bent on having a cheapie only, get at least two or three of them so you can do a sanity check against each other. Dave :)

I use a Fluke at work. My "measurement confidence" in more-or-less cheapie meters is based on 15 years of hassle free use.

So, "a heap of crap" is less crap than "crap", which is the same as "absolute crap"? I'd have thought the order, from less crap to more crap, would be "crap", "a heap of crap", and "absolute crap". If I'm right, does that mean you're talking crap? :-)

I use my meters interchangeably. Thus far, I have come through forays into the bad old days unscathed. I'm plucking up the courage to throw a volt or two at my half-price-15-years-ago Maplin own-brand moving needle jobbie.

Smoke me a kipper...

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Melodolic Spielberg

Then I'd say you've been incredibly lucky, or you've bought slightly better than what I'm calling "cheap". My experience is based on at least 20 cheap meters ( would be "crap", "a heap of crap", and "absolute crap". If I'm right, does

You are getting your crap mixed up! :->

I've still got and occasionally use my very first 20 range Tandy analog meter I bought when I was about 7, took all my pocket money that did!

Dave :)

Get item 90899-1VGA from Harbor Freight

On sale now for $2.99 and it includes the battery.

This is the meter to drop, abuse, throw in the tool box, carry up the ladder, give away as a gift, etc.

Let the guys and gals debate what meter to get here to their hearts content, while you use the thing. It is fine for most of what you'll do. And it will buy you the time to save the money to buy a good bench meter that you will coddle and treat with kid gloves. My view is that all meters under $50 are roughly the same in terms of accuracy - far more accurate than most people will ever need from a DMM - and vary only by features.

Ed

Spend the money and get a Fluke. Buy a used one if need be. I'm no electronics expert, but I can speak with much experience on DMMs. At one time it was part of my job to purchase and maintain DMMs for a high-tech company where they were much abused on the production floor. I've bought 'em, used 'em, and tossed 'em. Every brand you can think of. As far as I'm concerned, they're all junk compared to Fluke.

nb

Second the motion. I've got one that is a couple of years old and varies by one digit out at the LSD when comparing it to the bench HP.

Jim

I agree, but I'd opt for their 35017-3VGA instead. It's a bit more money but a lot more accurate, and shock resistant. Even if it does bite the dust after a year or two, buy another. Or three or four. You'll still be far ahead compared to buying a single obscenely overpriced Fluke.

How much money does this thing cost you in lost time when it fails?

Yes, all meters in this price range have the same accuracy, but the point has never been about accuracy, even a 1% tolerance meter is plenty for most work.

More money buys you measurement confidence, and for many applications that is *the* essential feature, as one mistake can cost you big $$$$. But if you don't need that, like for hobbyist use, then sure, buy a cheapie.

I'll give you one example from a place I worked at. A "calibrated" cheap meter failed once giving a false reading that indicated that there was a common fault in the product. As it looked like a common fault that had been seen before, and no technical person was on hand at the time to double check, they "repaired" the product using standard procedure. Only QA were on hand, and they said the meter was OK because it was "calibrated". Needless to say the product still "failed" after being repaired and they realised their mistake. The result? - several thousand dollars in repair cost, and over US$50000 cost to the customer because the product delivery was delayed by a day and they lost a days use on their survey boat.

Dave :)