Now to be the odd guy out I would highly recommend staying away from the new Flukes.

The biggest problem we had with the Fluke 87 handhelds (or similar) was they always sprouted feet and walked away. Anything worth $400 that fits in a coat pocket will have a very short life at a job.

Our best meters were the HP 34401A 6 1/2 digit bench meters but they cost about $1200 which meant each bench got only one or two. That would buy six pretty good 4 1/2 digit TRMS handheld meters. It's always a tradeoff.

 

I have a Fluke(189) for bench work, and that only. For less critical work like working on cars. I use less costly brands. They do the job anyway. So it is not a dumb idea to have several DMMs

 

The newer Fluke 87V (recent serial numbers) are rumored to have lock-up issues near cell phones. I thought it was a BS Internet rumor - anyone witness such a thing. Various stories on Amazon reviews.

 

I'm not sure of the cell phone lock up issue but the contractors I talked to that returned theirs for issues seemed to have the problem of if they used their meters like a guy uses and abuses a cheap meter they didn't last.

The guys who treated them like gold bars and only used theirs one or two times a week and handled them with kid gloves never had problems. Go figure.

At the computer place where my brother works as a networking tech they seem to have all sorts of problems with their Flukes that get used like a normal multimeter. Seems like they last until just a few months out of warranty then start getting buggy.

I took one of his old 87's apart that had the display get buggy to see how they were built and to be honest for what a guy pays I was not impressed. Same common circuit layouts and components as the meters 1/4 their price.

20 - 30 years ago they may have set the standard but since then the technology world has long since stepped up and in many ways walked right past fluke. That and I have more suspicions that they are cheapening up their products and just riding on past reputation and namesake like so many old big name companies have done.

 

Lose one at a job site!

Sir, I'll have you know that I still have the 3/8 inch Craftsman socket set I bought in 1970.

Well it wouldn't be me that took anyone's Fluke meter. You couldn't give me one. Believe a former boss tried. I worked as the large equipment service tech and he said I could have any brand new meters off the sales floor for the new service truck.

I took one of the $20 Mastech meters over the selection of Flukes. That one cheapo meter did all of the functions that I would have needed three flukes to do. Same warranty too!

 

20 - 30 years ago they may have set the standard but since then the technology world has long since stepped up and in many ways walked right past fluke. That and I have more suspicions that they are cheapening up their products and just riding on past reputation and namesake like so many old big name companies have done.

Sad to hear that.

 

The newer Fluke 87V (recent serial numbers) are rumored to have lock-up issues near cell phones. I thought it was a BS Internet rumor - anyone witness such a thing. Various stories on Amazon reviews.

Fluke fix this problem in 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAu0O_0Ezps

 

Problem is you will need at least one (maybe two) good meters to back them up for getting accurate readings. I have one cheapo meter that is 3 1/2 digit and about 0.5% basic accuracy but I haven't used it in years because I have two better ones.

I don't know about really nasty $10-20 meters, but $50 meters are pretty good. I have a few, bought for features, and they measure the same as my Flukes within the last significant digit.

These days the manufacturing quality and calibration of mid-brands is quite high, definitely good enough for hobby work.

 

I don't know about really nasty $10-20 meters, but $50 meters are pretty good. I have a few, bought for features, and they measure the same as my Flukes within the last significant digit.

Yeah, I have a couple too. Their basic accuracy is about 0.5% and their display is 3 1/2 digits. They are good enough for basic troubleshooting, but I use my 4 1/2 digit (0.05%) meters when I need to set a reference voltage or something accurately. Point is you always need at least one good meter to do accurate reading and check calibration.