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Quality multi meter

Av8rRob

Av8rRob

Well Known Member
Question for the electical gurus, is their a difference besides the cost between a cheap HF $4 multi meter and a good quality one like a Fluke? And by difference, I mean a real usable difference for some building and maintaining a RV (not and electrical engineer at work).

Just curious
 
For maintaining an RV, no. Elcheapo HF will work fine.

I have a multimeter calibrator that is highly accurate I've used to test the cheap multimeters one can get at Harbor Freight (sometimes with a free coupon) and those have been fairly accurate.
 
I'd agree with Bob. The biggest difference is durability. I've got several high quality (Fluke, etc) meters (several different careers in electronics in my past) that are almost impossible to kill. I also have several HF freebees, and while they are relatively easy to kill, and frequently die without provocation, they are plenty good enough for just occasional use.

Charlie
 
Seemed like the HF cheapies are sensitive to battery voltage and would give wacko indications when weak. Keep a fresh battery in them.
 
I've purchases some of the <$50 meters for home use and they are okay - mostly checking battery voltage before my son tosses batteries from his game controllers. As mentioned above, don't expect a long life from them.

If you are relatively young, spend $140 for a mid-grade Fluke and never look back. I have two but also perform a lot of installs/upgrades at two locations.
 
jask said:
A free HF isn't even worth what you pay for it.
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For routine stuff we do in the hangar the HF meters have proven to be a very adequate tool. I get a free one whenever the coupon rolls around so have a box of them. Every time someone has asked to borrow my VOM I tell them I can do one better....."I'm going to give you one". :)

Many of them have been in use for several years now. The only quality lapse I've seen after using several of them is one lead that came apart.
 
My wife got a free one from HF. The first time she used it check voltage, sparks flew and smoke rose from the meter.
 
Come on, guys.

jask, what's your background, and how long have you been doing electrical/electronic work? I've been messing with electrons since before you could buy a digital meter, and back then, a *very* expensive meter would go up in smoke if you didn't have everything on the meter set up correctly before applying the probes to the test article.

The higher dollar meters these days will survive all manner of operator ham-fistedness. A cheaper meter likely won't be as tolerant, and it may give you more opportunities to treat it in a ham-fisted manner. That's the price you pay for not paying the price. But for someone who will not use a meter enough to run down the included cheap carbon battery, and is conscientious enough to set up the meter correctly, it makes no sense to tell them they need to shell out $200 for a meter.

Everyone is obviously welcome to their opinion, and they're welcome to say what something is worth *to them*, but it's a stretch to think their singular experience defines value for everyone.

Charlie
 
I carry a cheap Harbor Freight meter with me in my parts bag when flying cross country, but use a Fluke 87V at my home base. I can depend upon the Fluke to be accurate, and it has several useful scales. It has a NanoSiemens range which is good for checking insulation resistance, diode resistance, frequency, duty cycle, capacitance, etc.
 
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Disclaimer: I have a collection of high-end Fluke and Keithley multimeters, and I really think very little of unsubstantiated opinions.

So I just grabbed one out of my shop, cold, battery over a year old. Hooked it up to my voltagestandard.com DMMCheck.

The calibration values are included just for posterity.

Results:
Vref: 5.0000 HF read 5.02V
1K Rref 1.00019K HF read 1002 ohms.
1mA 0.9998mA HF read 1.00mA

As you can see, for a sometimes free multimeter they are fine.
 
I an just giving my honest opinion. No, it was NOT set to ohms. I have 3 flukes and have been doing electrical work for 50 years.
 
rv7charlie said:
Come on, guys.

jask, what's your background, and how long have you been doing electrical/electronic work? I've been messing with electrons since before you could buy a digital meter, and back then, a *very* expensive meter would go up in smoke if you didn't have everything on the meter set up correctly before applying the probes to the test article.

Everyone is obviously welcome to their opinion, and they're welcome to say what something is worth *to them*, but it's a stretch to think their singular experience defines value for everyone.

Charlie
Click to expand...

Because Jask (and I) both think HF sells mostly cheap junky chinese tools and are worth what you pay for them, doesn't give you the right to query him for his resume, and your resume doesn't make you an authority on the relative value of such tools.
I am an ardent supporter of 'if it worth doing its worth doing right', and that includes tool purchases.
Just sayin...
 
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Walt said:
Because Jask (and I) both think HF sells mostly cheap junky chinese tools and are worth what you pay for them, doesn't give you the right to query him for his resume, and your resume doesn't make you an authority on the relative value of such tools.
Just sayin...
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Thanks Walt for saying what I was biting my tongue for. I personally dislike HB for political reasons but if all you're really going to do is check continuity and voltages a cheap one is fine, maybe there's still a radio shack where you live. If you are into doing stuff that also requires a oscilloscope, you already know you need a quality one.
 
I have a box on a shelf containing broken Snap On tools.

I don't have a box on a shelf containing broken HF tools.

I'm so confused.
 
I bought a Radio Shack MM probably more than 25 years ago and it is still
running strong. I saw several new ones on eBay in the 40-50 dollar range. I have used it a lot.
 
I do use harbor freight tools. They sold really poorly made tools years ago. Now, a lot of their tools are just ripped off versions of good usa tools. No, I don't have a box of broken harbor freight tools either. I just toss them away when they quit working.
 
There are brand new fluke multimeters on ebay in the $40 range. I think it's probably worth it. I may buy one myself since my 35 year old fluke meter is finally getting where I can't read the display any longer.
 
A comment on reliability

I to had a bunch of HF meters and was surprised at the performance for a freebie. But occassionally they would act wonky and I always had to use a more substantial meter (costly) to solve the mystery. So my caveat is ? garbage in CAN = garbage out?. If you have driven to the hanger and get bad info or dont trust the info, do you fly anyway, borrow another meter ( if anyone is around?),drive home to get another or drive to HF and buy a new one. For this delimma, I always carry my brand name Multimeter to the hanger when needed.
 
Sam Buchanan said:
It's not a good idea to check house line voltage with the meter set on ohms..... ;)
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You got that right. Back in my power plant days, we saw the results of trying to check the buss voltage on a 480V MCC with a Simpson set on ohms. Now those Simpsons have an inline fuse, but it's only rated at 250V. So when the fuse arced over, the meter became a dead short. At that point, the test leads started an arc on the bussbars which blew the tech about 10' across the room and embedded molten copper in his face. His eyes were only saved because he was wearing safety glasses. The entire Motor Control Center burned to the ground before the 15KV-1000A main breaker blew. Y'all be careful out there!
 
If you're talking about the $6 7-function one from HF, not having a continuity beep is a deal killer for me.

Beyond that you don't need a true RMS meter for DC nor Cat III rating, etc. That said, having a meter with temperature, capacitor testing, AC voltage, etc has been very helpful over the years. It's paid for itself many times over.
 
If you do end up buying a cheap MM (And they work just fine!) do yourself a favour and spring for genuine Fluke leads/probes. So much nicer to use than cheap ones.
 
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