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Recommendations for a digital multimeter please

kevlar

kevlar

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10 Years
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Apr 11, 2013
Messages
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Location
Newport, South Wales
I've struggled with a really cheap crappy multimeter for a while now and its time to get something a bit better. Can anyone recommend one? Nothing ridiculously expensive mind, just better than the standard £10 crap I've always used but keep it reasonably priced, let's say under £40.

Thanks

Kev
 
kevlar said:
I've struggled with a really cheap crappy multimeter for a while now and its time to get something a bit better. Can anyone recommend one? Nothing ridiculously expensive mind, just better than the standard £10 crap I've always used but keep it reasonably priced, let's say under £40.

Thanks

Kev
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Andy N. does one.
 
Not the cheapest but Fluke make the best metres IMO. I've got one from the early 90s thats as good now as it was then.

Theres a few sellers on eBay who are doing a model called the 15b for about £55. A bit more than you wanted to spend but that's cheap by Fluke standards and you'll probably never buy another one.
 
aaronhicksuk said:
Not the cheapest but Fluke make the best metres IMO. I've got one from the early 90s thats as good now as it was then.

Theres a few sellers on eBay who are doing a model called the 15b for about £55. A bit more than you wanted to spend but that's cheap by Fluke standards and you'll probably never buy another one.
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The 15B/17B/18B are China only models and are not built to the same quality as regular fluke meters, nor do they have the same warranty, they might as well not have the Fluke name on them to be honest
 
kevlar said:
Thanks Luke, what makes that one a good choice?
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I've got a UT70D that has been in daily use for the last 15 years, and it is still working great and accurate.

They are a low cost China made meter, but in terms of specs, they compare fairly well to equivalent Fluke meters costing twice as much.

My UT70D (cost £150) is in the same feature bracket as a £400 Fluke 87V, and it has stood up to 15+ years of heavy use and still works flawlessly, plus a huge advantage for electronics use is that the Uni-T meters default to DC, whereas the Fluke defaults to AC, and you have to press a button each time you power up to switch to DC

If quality and unlimited warranty are important to you, then buy a proper Fluke (not a China 15B/17B/18B) but if you just want something reasonably priced, I'd go with Uni-T
 
Fair play about the 15b, I thought it looked silly cheap for a fluke as they're normally £200+
 
Uni-t make some great multi meters

Got an 803t second hand for about £40 earlier this year, bit of a one off though id think as they are normally £100+
great bench unit though.

I also have a couple of old Flukes (work supplied) hand held units
 
replicas said:
Save and get the best Fluke nothing comes close. 115 or 117 are best for pinball .
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The only thing that makes a Fluke better is the lifetime warranty and the better protection against high-energy faults. Most pinball hobbyists don't need to worry about CAT ratings, as they are not going to be spending hours a day testing high energy mains voltages.

I could not justify the money a Fluke costs with no benefit over a Uni-T, and this is coming from a man with a £1k soldering iron :rofl:
 
BigIan said:
Uni-t make some great multi meters

Got an 803t second hand for about £40 earlier this year, bit of a one off though id think as they are normally £100+
great bench unit though.

I also have a couple of old Flukes (work supplied) hand held units
Click to expand...


Great deal! :thumbs:

Got an 804 on my bench I've been using for over a year and love it
 
I have a fluke 73 which is an old but good piece of kit, however i picked up one of these Chinese copies earlier in the year for the extra functions, and it's actually been pretty good...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121074199075

No backlight on either tho, so can be a pain, however i tend to use a head torch when working under the PF so i just have to look at it - which is what you have to do anyhow :)
 
Use various flukes at work, best one i use is the 789 but they are not cheap. But the 115 is a great meter for the price.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Horses for courses. Depends whether you a rich man or not (I'm guessing with your £40 budget that like most of us you're not a lottery winner) and whether or not it's for a bit of home use prodding and poking, or if it's for your job and your everyday bread and butter depended on it. I'm a software engineer so my laptop is my job. I have an HP with Intel CORE vPRo i7, Intel Pro 2500 Series SSD, 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM, 64-bit OS, etc., with enterprise level support/warranty. It cost my company a lot of money. I couldn't do my job on £299 laptop from PC WORLD ;)

But playing with electronics (model railways, Arduino and pinball) is my hobby so I can get away with something modest. My first job after leaving uni was working in Maplin (loved it, great job!) and we used to sell a lot of multi-meters. We had them all from a little pocket analogue jobbie for a fiver up to the full range of Fluke meters. Back then I bought myself a Precision Gold PG 012 and it's done a great job. Perfectly usable for checking a connection in your wiring loom, or testing voltages on the transformer, or coil diodes, or lamp/solenoid driver transistors, etc. It's still available for £34.99. Tests continuity with a buzzer, reads DC and AC voltages up 600V, resistances up to 2000M, capacitance to 20uF, frequency to 15MHz, diode test and NPN/PNP transistor gain.

But I've noticed that the higher specified PG 017 model is actually cheaper, currently on offer half price at £19.99! This adds current testing up to 10A.

I did however "treat" myself to a WG 020 last month as it was (and still is) on offer for £14.99. This adds capacitance up 200uF, DC up to 1000V, AC to 750V, inductance to 20H and duty cycle. It's bigger than my PG 012 but comes in a rubber case (they used to be sold separately).

I'm sure others will be appalled at my recommendation of Maplin multi-meters, but they've been good for me, worked flawlessly and if there any problems you've got a real shop to take it back to.
 
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