Thanks for answers. I think I will get a cheap one and go from there. It's my first multimeter.

Harbor Freight.

 

Have at least one meter with a CAT 3 rating for when you work with sizable amounts of electrical energy. A cheap meter is nice until it becomes a hand-grenade.
http://ecmweb.com/content/does-your-meter-safety-measure

 

Mastech are my meter of choice now. I bought a MS8265 model a few years ago and its now my primary meter.

For the price you won't find a more capable multi function Class II and Class III rated meter.

 

Pretty much like the Vc97 multimeter

 

Exactly!
In one way I am almost amazed at what the higher quality Chinese made stuff does in comparison to what we often refer to as American standard units like fluke is often seen for being.

I have ran my 'cheap Mastech' against several peoples fluke meters and so far it has never came up short on its accuracy or repeatability and to be honest it takes over a$1000 in fluke meters to do everything my Mastech does in one.
Granted this model doesn't have autoranging but to me auto ranging is like automatic 4WD on a vehicle. If you know how to drive it's nothing but a nuisance for its switching in and out for no good reason far more often than it's justified for the conditions than an advantage in the few times you are in a position where you really need it.

That and if you leave behind a $50 Mastech or drop one in a tank of goo or worse and ruin one you don't get the same butt chewing from your boss when he has to replace it like when you do that to a $500+ fluke.

 

Exactly!
In one way I am almost amazed at what the higher quality Chinese made stuff does in comparison to what we often refer to as American standard units like fluke is often seen for being.

If it's just for hobby or relative measurement use that's fine but I've got NIST calibration records for Fluke meters that have been on the job in an industrial setting being abused 24/7 for 20 years used daily to qualify equipment that each costs (tens of)millions. The value a $500 meter investment for each tech that an adjustment and reading on thousands of quality checks is correct, will be correct for years and have years of traceable data during a ISO type audit is priceless. People buy Fluke meters for the same reasons carpenters buy expensive hammers, you need something you can beat the crap out of every day and still have it perfect and ready for the next day when it's earning your pay-check.

 

I bought UT61E 4 1/2 digits, V/I/ cap/Frequency/RS232...
The details spec.

 

Agree. I have three "good" meters. The first digital meter I ever bought, which was a Micronta (Radio Shack) that I bought in the 1984 time frame. It was a basic meter and was about $30 at the time. It is still my primary meter after all these years. This despite doing my best to smoke it shortly after I bought it by checking the voltage on a wall outlet after just having measured a current draw on the unfused 10 A current scale and forgetting to move the lead to the voltage port. Immediately blew the breaker and I thought for sure it had blown the meter -- but it still worked just fine.

I bought another Micronta a few years later because I needed the capacitance measurement capability. I don't use this meter much because it lacks the auto-off feature that the older one has and, as a result, I tend to chew up batteries with it.

Then I have a Fluke (87?) that I inherited along with a bin of used parts and equipment that I picked up from a company that agreed to give me everything that was in an old lab in exchange for a couple hours of consulting work -- basically they were cash strapped and also just wanted the junk gone. I'm sure it was a mistake that the meter was in there, but when I took it back to them and offered to return it, they said that no one had opened those drawers for years and so obviously they didn't really need it -- especially not bad enough to welch on a deal.

Somewhat to my surprise, I hardly ever use the Fluke -- and I really don't know why. Maybe it's just that I am so used to that old Micronta and the fact that it has always treated me well.

Then I have about seven other meters that start at the basic MasTech and go downhill from there.

Hi,

I had a Micronta from back then too, but after 20 years the display connector started to break down so eventually i could not read the display anymore. Too bad because it wasnt a bad meter.
Since then i got another one from them, but like your other one no auto off so i have to be careful.
I also got another one from them, eats 9v batteries. Other than that, it's nice because it does 20 amps and very high resistance and other tests like transistor and capacitance, and frequency up to 20MHz. That one was more expensive though at 100 dollars USD.
I have a couple small ones from them too, not too bad i guess.

 

Hi,

I got to this thread a little late.

The type of meter you need depends a lot on what you are going to use it for. If you need to measure accurate voltages then you need one that can do so. For example, i like to make sure my Li-ion batteries are charged properly so i use a 50000 count meter plus a 0.02 percent accuracy voltage calibrator so that when i measure the voltage i get a good idea that it is really what the meter says it is, to a close tolerance.

Most other stuff i dont need much accuracy for though, just resolution. Resolution is a good thing to have if you intend to measure the voltages of those 50mv shunts. It's good to be able to measure DC voltage like 10.2mv which many meters can do, but you have to be careful because some meters wont do that extra digit, the "2" in 10.2mv, it will only do 10mv with no decimal. So you can get readings like 1.23, 3.45, and 0.123, but once it ranges down to millivolts like 10.4mv it will only show two digits "10" rather than "10.4" and that's not as good as having that extra digit at the end when measuring the voltage of a current shunt. For example, with a 50mv 50 amp shunt measuring 10mv means you have 10 amps, but you cant be sure if it might be 10.4 or 10.1 or 10.0, or even 9.6 amps. With that extra digit if it is 10.4 amps you will read either 10.3 or 10.5 which is much closer.
So i see that as a fairly important feature.

 

Thanks for all the answers. I will read this thread in the coming days and then buy a multimeter.

 

If it's just for hobby or relative measurement use that's fine but I've got NIST calibration records for Fluke meters that have been on the job in an industrial setting being abused 24/7 for 20 years used daily to qualify equipment that each costs (tens of)millions. The value a $500 meter investment for each tech that an adjustment and reading on thousands of quality checks is correct, will be correct for years and have years of traceable data during a ISO type audit is priceless. People buy Fluke meters for the same reasons carpenters buy expensive hammers, you need something you can beat the crap out of every day and still have it perfect and ready for the next day when it's earning your pay-check.

That's just it. In a high precision specialty application like lab work a high cost high end unit is very well justified.

As far as your average electrician/mechanic/service tech doing home, commercial or general wiring work I say no way do they need that sort of device. Heck to be honest I have met way way too many licenced electricians and mechanics who have near zero practical application skills for using a basic multimeter than I care to admit to.
We see them in forums all over the place. They have the top of the line tools and are certified masters of their trades yet are here asking bonehead basic questions that any high school kid should be able to figure out.

As for new flukes forget it. A few years ago I worked at a place that sold them and the return for warranty volume was crazy high and the died just after the warranty was up was even worse for the volumes we sold and sadly most of them that came back looked like they had never been out ot the box for more than a day let a lone put in years of hard use and abuse that would be expected from someone doing installation and system repair work.

As far as I am concerned fluke has been riding on its ass and the name it created 40+ years ago. Too much of their new stuff marketed to the typical service contractor types can be matched or beat by common no name brand stuff for 1/10th the price that no one feels bad about when it does break down or go missing.

To me for the last 20 - 30 years most of fluke has been nothing more than a rich mans tool for name bragging rights. The quality and craftsmanship they once stood for for the prices they charge is long gone.

 

I bought UT61E 4 1/2 digits, V/I/ cap/Frequency/RS232...
The details spec.

Scott, does your 61E have glass fuses?

 

Scott, does your 61E have glass fuses?

There are two fuses, but I can't see it though inside the fuse, it is the same as this, someone disassembly it.

 

Pretty much like the Vc97 multimeter

These VC97 meters are actually pretty good for the price, I tried this one and the Victor VC97 and I have to say the Victor is slightly better build quality. I see lots of VC97 by different people and makes me wonder does the VC97 refer to some processor or other IC?

 

There are two fuses, but I can't see it though inside the fuse, it is the same as this, someone disassembly it.

My mistake, I was thinking UT71A and UT71E.

 

someone disassembly it.

I guess it shows why it is selling for a fraction of what an equivalent Fluke goes.

 

I guess it shows why it is selling for a fraction of what an equivalent Fluke goes.

Dave of EEVBlog noted how small those fuses are and lack of MOV.

 

A few of the characteristics I have found useful.

Auto-off - you really don;t want it to eat batteries.
Auto-range

So, those are like must haves for me.

A bar graph display comes in third.

I found a lot of use for touch hold and peak hold especially when you want to take a measurement and can't look at the meter at the same time

I use the Harbor Freight meter for the battery tester. For other batteries, I recorded the "fresh" value.

 

Auto-off is definitely a must-have.

I've generally found autoranging to be more of a hindrance than a help. I will NOT by a meter that has it unless there is a simple way for me to disable it. I had a meter a couple decades ago that you couldn't disable it and it rendered the thing practically useless.

Touch-hold and peak-hold can definitely be useful, but personally I won't pay more for a meter just to have those features.

A bar-graph display is a nice whistle, but again I won't pay more just to have it.

 

I guess it shows why it is selling for a fraction of what an equivalent Fluke goes.

If you treating the Fluke as for the professional application and then the UT61E for the hobbyist application, so they have different market, and they can stand on their market very well, different market, different application and different price, it very fair.