What multimeter to get

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I wouldn't advise anyone looking at buying a Fluke against it, but there are other brands worth considering based on your needs.

I have a BK Precision 2707 I bought about 15 years ago that I have never regretted purchasing. It has an hFE socket for testing transistors that I've used more than any feature besides voltage and ohms. That one feature has made all the difference to me. Nothing wrong with BK's quality IMO. For a $100 meter I'd put it up against a Fluke.
 
My $5 harbor freight ones seems to be working fine and accurate up to 13.3X volts.
 
There are several things to consider when getting a meter and personally I would put them in this order:

1) Does it measure what I need to measure
2) Is it reliable (I mean truly reliable).
3) What is the accuracy (real, not the crap data sheet from some no name supplier)

You will notice I put accuracy as the last of the three. For 99.9% of the things ones does in electronics, 0.5% is good enough. Even terminating a Li-Ion battery to 0.5% is pretty good.

It must measure what you need to measure or it is worthless.

It must work 100% reliable. If you can't trust your meter, then it is again worthless. I have had the cheap meters for backup and over time they always seem to become unreliable. Not my Fluke's. Better construction, corrosion tolerant switches and other contact surfaces, etc. I trust them as they always work.

The cheap meters always have "great" specifications, however, they in reality do not. They "may" have that spec under perfect conditions, but you are not always using them in such circumstances. You can trust what the reputable vendors have on their data sheets. These are the specs under all the stated operating conditions. Do you really think you can build a reliable meter for $10 that has the repeatable accuracy of one for 10-20x the price? Yes there is more markup with the good brands, but they all draw on the same suppliers for picking their parts.

Fluke -- they work. BK Precision -- good lower cost option. I have had some good success with their bench meters. Agilent -- Fluke features and support at less cost. Wavetek -- tolerable. Extech -- as cheap as I would go. I think Fluke's will take the most abuse.
 
My opinion: Unless you actually need a Fluke (you would already know, if you do), don't waste your money on one when there are perfectly adequate and substantially less expensive alternatives for the vast majority of user's needs.

There's a deference between buying a showroom piece and buying a practical usable device.
 
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Wrend said:
My opinion: Unless you actually need a Fluke (you would already know, if you do), don't waste your money on one when there are perfectly adequate and substantially less expensive alternatives for the vast majority of user's needs.

There's a deference between buying a showroom piece and buying a practical usable device.
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The Fluke is the practical usable device, it works every time and you can trust the display (There are also other manufactures that makes good meters).
The cheap (below $30) meters are not for professional use, but can work fine for hobby use, just remember that you cannot always trust it.
 
The considerations with meters are:


  1. Safety. Can you measure energetic (mains) circuits with it? If the meter costs less than $100 you probably shouldn't.
  2. Reliability. Will it always work, and will it give the same readings day after day, month after month? Cheaper meters (under $50) may fall short in this regard.
  3. Accuracy. All meters are accurate out of the box, but some (like the $3 Harbor Freight ones) may not stay accurate when the switches oxidize. My samples definitely fail here.

For low power battery electronics you should buy better than Harbor Freight cheapies, but you probably don't need to spend more than $50.
 
HKJ said:
The Fluke is the practical usable device...
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Yeah, hundreds of dollars worth of practicality. :rolleyes:

...

This is the multimeter I use most often: http://www.sperryinstruments.com/product/dm6400

It's accurate, reliable, and capable enough for most of my needs (it measures NiMH, NiCd, Alkaline cell voltages down to the mV for comparative testing). It also comes with a 5 year warranty, and is about 5 to 10 times less expensive than a Fluke multimeter.
 
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Wrend said:
Yeah, hundreds of dollars worth of practicality. :rolleyes:

...

This is the multimeter I use most often: http://www.sperryinstruments.com/product/dm6400

It's accurate, reliable, and capable enough for most of my needs (it measures NiMH, NiCd, Alkaline cell voltages down to the mV for comparative testing). It also comes with a 5 year warranty, and is about 5 to 10 times less expensive than a Fluke multimeter.
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I prefer my Fluke which cost less than 2 times as much as your MM. If you are happy with what you have then that's all that matters, but I can't see that you would have to pay 5 times as much to get a Fluke with similar features or spend hundreds for a Fluke. My Fluke cost ~$75.
 
There is only one resounding answer to this question . Fluke !
the easy answer is to buy a used meter at a pawn shop from a friend or online for about half what they are new .
BK or any other good meter is an equally good idea .
if you're going to buy a harbor freight meter just kill yourself first .that's like buying 12$ tires or 6$ chinese ratchet sets .suicide is easier .
 
wreckless1 said:
There is only one resounding answer to this question...
Click to expand...

As long as you choose to ignore all the other answers that don't suit your tastes.

Sure, they make a good multimeter, but it isn't worth the price for the needs of most users as a general instrument in my opinion. Also, I personally would much rather spend a reasonable amount on a new and sufficiently capable multimeter than a used one with questionable history, regardless of its branding.

Then again, I don't frequent pawn shops, yard sales, nor second hand stores searching for bottom dollar deals on my electrical equipment. I'll gladly leave that to those who are so inclined. Best of luck.
 
I have just had a look on the Amazon (UK) site for the prices of Fluke meters.

The cheapest Fluke seems to be the model 115 at £194-94 including postage or the model 114 at £194-80 post free ...Then there is the model 179 at £244-94 including postage ... Unfortunately after that they get really expensive.

I will stick with my ultra-cheap Sinometer model M-830B meters which were about five or six pounds each in Maplins store ... I rely on my DanaCo Precision Voltage Reference Source (5.0002V at 72 F) to confirm that my meter is accurate ... The reference cost me $20.15 including postage to the UK ... The meters read it as 5.00 volts on the 20V range ... If one of my meters is reading different to the other two , I will change the battery and if that fails to bring the meter to the same reading as the others then it is given away to someone that doesn't need this degree of accuracy ... I will probably get a fourth meter (just in case) ... Four meters for £20 or so is OK as far as I'm concerned ... If necessary , I can have my reference checked for a few dollars plus postage ... My meters and reference are always kept (rightly or wrongly) at room temperature which is normally 20C to 22C.

I can take my voltage reference to the shop to check out the new meter before I buy it ... The guys there are quite interested in seeing how accurate their low priced meters are.

Even my trusty old Avo 8 analogue meter is reading exactly 5.00 volts ... I had forgotten how accurate it was till now ... The mirror scale gives zero parallax error on the needle.

For my purposes , all my measuring devices are more than adequate to measure the voltage of my 18650 and 18500 batteries , even the Avo model 8 ... All I'm looking for is a meter that is within 10 millivolts at 4.2 volts and they are all within that degree of accuracy ... I don't need a meter that will measure within one millivolt.

If a meter has to be given away or thrown away , it's only a few dollars (or pounds) to get another one.

I have used and owned several Fluke meters and they were very accurate when checked against our sub-standard ... Each Fluke eventually had to be replaced due to failure of the display ... Even the Fluke that I had when I retired went the same way and it was only about five or six years old ... I retired over 17 years ago , so maybe they have improved now.

I would need to buy a heck of a lot of my cheap meters to get anywhere near the cost of a Fluke ... My cheapies are only a couple of years old so even if I have to buy a new cheapie every year , it would take 30 to 40 years to equate to the price of the cheapest Fluke.
.
 
My experience with Fluke Meters hasn't been so great. I own a couple of them, and I've had problems with the LCD drivers, resulting in partial failure of several display segments. I won't argue that they are well made, well engineered and pretty tough, but the LCD issues seriously detract for the long term value.

There are few applications however where accuracy of better than 1% is going to make any difference, and for what a Fluke costs, you can buy several 'bargain' DMM's, and if one of them gets trashed accidentally, it is no great loss. I actually have a pair of Triplett DMM's at the moment, a 2105 and 9005. I'd class these more as intermediate price, altohugh I got them at a hefty discount by buying them out the 'back door' as factory re-conditioned (Something they don't offer any longer). The 2105 has just about every feature you can imagine including a computer interface and a plug in wattmeter.

I guess my point is you can pay a lot more for a Fluke, but I am not all convinced that for the hobbyist, there is a lot of benefit for the extra cost.
 
There was a time when Sperry was a good brand, but I believe now they are just off-shore sourced meters with their names on them. Perhaps they are a bit better than the really cheap ones. With items like this long warranties are not unusual as most people are not going to spend the shipping costs and hassles as they may be a significant portion of the original price. My local "cheap/surplus" electronics shop carries Sperry right alongside such high quality brands like Metex ... need I say more?

In that range, BK Precision may be a better choice. They still seem to care about the name of their products as they make margin on the more expensive stuff too.

That said, you can get the Fluke 113 for $130
 
SemiMan said:
......My local "cheap/surplus" electronics shop carries Sperry right alongside such high quality brands like Metex ... need I say more?
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Hey, don't be making fun of Metex!:laughing: I've relied on the DMM in my old MS-9140 for about ten years, for best accuracy among my DMMs. About 6 months ago, the military calibration expired on my Fluke 27/FM that I've had for about a year, so a couple months ago I took both units to a friend of mine who has a Fluke 8808A he uses for his work. This meter is required to be calibrated, checked, or whatever yearly. The Metex, after all these years (I have him check it every year, or so, just for the heck of it) is the same as always, "in spec", but "just".

The Fluke also checked out OK, but the Metex is actually a tiny bit more accurate. Of course, that's comparing a 19,999 count 0.03% +3 meter with a 3200 count 0.1% +1 meter, but still......:)

All that aside, in the past I've always aimed for DMM's in the $100 dollar range, for the most part. Both the accuracy and precision of meters in this range is all that I've ever really needed. I figure when working with Li-Ion cells for example, it really isn't necessary to have accuracy beyond a hundredth of a Volt, or so. If your reading 4.20 Volts, and the "real" voltage is 4.19, or 4.21 Volts, it doesn't really matter that much.

Dave
 
45/70 said:
If your reading 4.20 Volts, and the "real" voltage is 4.19, or 4.21 Volts, it doesn't really matter that much.
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The accuracy of the voltage sensor on a typical lithium ion charger is only 0.5% or 1% or so, so most meters are going to be more accurate than the charger.
 
Mr Happy said:
The accuracy of the voltage sensor on a typical lithium ion charger is only 0.5% or 1% or so, so most meters are going to be more accurate than the charger.
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The worst of my cheap DMMs read 30mV too high when measuring my 5.000V Precision Voltage Reference ... That's an error of 0.6% ... I gave that meter away ... None of the other cheapies were as bad as that ... On a 4.2 volt battery it would have read about 25mV high ... I could have kept that meter and just deducted 25mV from the 4.2V , but my Son-in-Law needed one and it was an excuse for me to get another more accurate cheapie ... The meter that I normally use reads 5.00V with the meter leads correctly polarised ... If I reverse the leads it reads -4.99V ... So as long as I put red to red and black to black , it is spot on at the moment.

It is nice to have two or three cheapies to compare results with ... In future I will label each meter on the back with a note to tell me if the meter is reading too high or low ... At the moment it isn't necessary.
.
 
Wrend said:
My opinion: Unless you actually need a Fluke (you would already know, if you do), don't waste your money on one when there are perfectly adequate and substantially less expensive alternatives for the vast majority of user's needs.

There's a deference between buying a showroom piece and buying a practical usable device.
Click to expand...

Ok. Here is where I would like to chime in. I have great respect for the dedication/integrity of our members and Lord knows they have been very helpful to me. Personally I do not want to spend a lot of money on a multimeter or buy a reference tool that will sit on a shelf for 98+% of the year. Is there a decent cheap reliable meter that a noob can get started with before making the quantum leap? Other than measuring batteries i am not sure what else i would do with it until I start building lights? The economy sucks but there has to be something worthwhile buying that will get the job done? I am clearly ignorant on the issue and have an open mind. Links are greatly appreciated!!
 
I haven't used this one, but it seems like a fairly capable and inexpensive multimeter: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FLZDPG/?tag=cpf0b6-20 And here's an auto range one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JQ4O2U/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Reviews for these are generally pretty good, and they seem more popular than some of the other MMs on Amazon. Reliability may or may not be an issue. Good price though.

If you want to go even cheaper than that, you can always pick one up at your local hardware store. Bit of a gamble, but most should work reasonable well for general use. Safety could be an issue with these, so avoid taking measurements from high power sources.

Bottom line, make sure it measures what you want it to accurately enough (doesn't necessarily need to be the "best"). Or, what's the point in getting it?

...

Of course, for my needs (mostly cell testing with this MM), I like the Sperry one I linked to earlier.

It has nice 1.5V (2V) and 9V (20V) battery test functions that measure voltage under a load to better determine a cell's/battery's proportional state of charged capacity. I can also compare their regular 2V and 20V DC voltage measured values with the loaded values to get an estimate of their relative internal resistance and condition. The 1mV resolution on the 1.5V (2V) battery test, and 2V DC really comes in handy here for testing my AA and AAA cells.

Also, it seems accurate, reliable, and solid enough to take a fair amount of abuse in stride.

The only real drawbacks it seems to have are that you have to take it apart to install the battery and to get at the fuses, and that it doesn't have some of the functions other MMs in this price range can have. (I think I payed a little less than $40 USD for mine.)

But again, it really just depends what you're looking for.

...

By the way, great video link there, "Mr Happy." Well worth a watch just for the laughs. Even my wife found it mildly entertaining. :thumbsup:
 
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