Bought a new Multimeter today.

[Eric H]

And I'm already looking forward to the day it dies so I can toss it.

I didn't realize how good I had it with the old Blue Point (Snap On) meter I had, it was a Rolls Royce ( or a Fluke) compared to this Harbor Fright POS.

Guess I shouldn't expect much for $18.95 and if I cook it on a Flyback no big deal, but I fully expect the cheap rotary switch to croak before that happens.

At that price point its not Autoranging so the switch will get a workout.

It smells like a cheap Plastic Shower Curtain and the Leads are only about 18" long, hopefully my old ones will fit so I can use them instead.

Stock Photo, it looks good doesn't it?

[snelson903]

i know what you mean, i have the same meter and it will tell you anything it wants too,its a constant lier. lol i just added to the few meters on the shelf that i cant trust ,i like useing my blue point meter or the one i got from mac tool .not sure who makes it for mac mybe otc have to look .

[N2IXK]

Why buy a multimeter from the likes of Snap-On or Mac Tools? They don't actually MAKE the things, but just rebadge some other maker's unit, and tack on the premium price that goes with their name and the mobile tool truck. Presumably, they sell to auto technicians who respect (or at least are locked into) the brand, and don't mind paying the premium out of brand loyalty.

The "industry standard" multimeters for the electrical/electronics industry are made by Fluke. Agilent, Extech, and BK Precision all make good units. You need to define exactly what you need, then start looking for a suitable unit to fit your budget. Will you be working on building wiring, or just TV/Radio/Automotive stuff? If you are working on high energy stuff, you want a Cat III or Cat IV rated unit, for limited energy stuff like TV repair, a lower rated unit will suffice at a lower price.

There are LOTS of multimeter reviews (and selection tips) over on Dave Jones' "EEVblog":

http://www.eevblog.com

As far as those "One Hung Low" meters from Horror Fright, check Dave's rants here:

http://www.eevblog.com/2009/04/29/ee...timeters-suck/

http://www.eevblog.com/2009/05/24/ee...e-multimeters/

[Chip Chester]

Like he said. Plus, if you're going to buy a meter from HF, why spend more than 3.99? It's the same badness either way.

For a analysis project, I had to monitor several points in a circuit while underway. Bought a bevy of cheap red meters at HF. Had to disassemble and fix 4 of 6 because of the ball detents not being assembled correctly. One didn't power up at all, so it went back. Got thru the project, and just pitched them.

A friend asked me to help troubleshoot an old British car electrical problem. While questioning the accuracy of certain measurements, I asked what kind of meter he was using... HF. The price? $1.99. Nothing like checking out a crap electrical system with a crap meter...

Chip

[Eric H]

I know what your saying, I bought my Blue Point from the Snap On truck because he was there, I also get a small tool allowance so it wasn't all out of pocket.

Not the best use of funds but it was a good meter until I blew it up with 10kv, it was originally intended to work on cars with but since the shop has a Fluke I took my meter home.

It may still be repairable if I ever find a schematic, it still functions but the calibration is whacked and there are a couple smoked resistors that I have no idea of the value.

As long as I'm using it around TV sets and their HV supplies it makes no sense to use an expensive meter, I wouldn't mind something a notch or two above this one but the budgets a little tight at the moment.

I didn't actually buy this one at Horror Freight, if I had it would probably have been $9.95.
I bought this beauty at the Local Electronics Warehouse, I was surprised they had something this cheap actually but I guess they have to compete. They had some multi hundred dollar Flukes as well.

I really want to get an Auto-ranging unit at some point, flipping the range back and forth gets tiring and slows things down.

I used this tonight and it actually works pretty well, for how long is anyone's guess, until I hit it with 10kv most likely.

[N2IXK]

Originally Posted by Eric H

As long as I'm using it around TV sets and their HV supplies it makes no sense to use an expensive meter...

A big part of the increased cost of better grade multimeters is better input protection circuitry. MOVs, PTCs, gas tubes, clamping diodes, and fast acting fuses all cost money, but they help your meter shrug off the occasional overvoltage or "checking voltage on the ohms/current range" type incident.

Better internal shielding can help a lot for this kind of work, as well. I have seen a few cheap Chinese meters that go completely nuts when they get anywhere near a tube type TV chassis. The radiated signal from the horiz sweep/HV circuitry gets into the meter and causes all kinds of wacky readings.

[snelson903]

i have alot of different meters besides the cheap ones , i have bench ones b&k ,tectronix ,fluke. but iv been in the automotive business all my life and for quick test on a car the cheap meters are fine ,esp when in the garage environment shortens there life , they get stollen ,fall into things ,get dropped from a good hight ,only when there is strange problem do bring the nicer stuff along with my scope or signal gen. depending what the problem ,but in a garage environment you want nice equitment around all that dirt oil solvents other people that dont care about your stuff. plus i dont think iv ever paid retail for any of the cheap meters ,some meters arnt user freindly either some i like better than others.

[zenithfan1]

The body of that meter looks somewhat like my Velleman. I picked it up after my son stabbed the screen of my more expensive one using one of the leads. The leads that came with mine were kinda short but luckily I found a NOS vintage set that are long and have interchangeable tips. Made in the USA and fit new meters perfectly. I paid a buck for those and 60 for the meter. It is auto ranging and has a transistor test. It seems to be almost as good as the expensive one and also don't go nuts around tube tvs. All in all, it was worth 61 bucks

[Celt]

Here's my auto-ranging Fluke 79 that's now quite old. I love it and have come to rely on it every time that I'm at the bench!

[CoogarXR]

I bought a fluke-lookalike once. It freaked me out, when the batteries would get low it would read incorrectly. For instance, I was checking a live wire I found under my old house and it read 174v. That was a head scratcher... I stuck it in a nearby outlet, and it read the same... I tried another meter and it read 114v. I put new batteries in it, and it was back to normal. Needless to say I don't use that meter for critical readings heh.

[dieseljeep]

I bought some decent meters from Sears. I have a few different models.
I generally check my meters for accuracy, against my Fluke.
D/C accuracy is spot-on, A/C is off by one volt, on the higher ranges.

[ChrisW6ATV]

A few years ago, I was camping and there was an electric fence nearby with goats beyond it. For fun, I put my "free with coupon" Harbor Freight meter on the fence wires but got no reading. Then, I decided to try the terminals from the fence's power supply. Yep, those worked. I heard a "ssst" sound from the meter and took the probes away but the display was frozen. It didn't change when I turned off the meter, but then it slowly faded away, and the device was dead. Oh well, I kept the meter leads for spares and put another free HF meter in my camping supply box.

For my real work, I use a Beckman Tech 310 that I bought new about 1987. Those are fantastic meters.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

A few years ago, I was camping and there was an electric fence nearby with goats beyond it. For fun, I put my "free with coupon" Harbor Freight meter on the fence wires but got no reading. Then, I decided to try the terminals from the fence's power supply. Yep, those worked. I heard a "ssst" sound from the meter and took the probes away but the display was frozen. It didn't change when I turned off the meter, but then it slowly faded away, and the device was dead. Oh well, I kept the meter leads for spares and put another free HF meter in my camping supply box.

For my real work, I use a Beckman Tech 310 that I bought new about 1987. Those are fantastic meters.

The leads aren't even worth keeping, as they're so flimsey and short.

[ziggy7]

On the other hand, I got my Mac/Tektronix ET330 DVM at a local pawn shop for $50. I love used stuff.