Multimeters

[Specialist]

The Americans love Fluke as it is an American Brand and almost all of their kit (apart from the voltalert volt stick) is made in the USA, that's why they are fanatical about it, its all "buy USA" "Buy made in America" they want to buy only American made goods over there and they want the rest of the world to buy only American made goods as well....

Hmm, I used to think it was just the buy everything American scenario but they also buy a lot of Wera / Knipex stuff as well, & prefer it to their old favourite Klein tools.

 

[topquark]

The fluke meters are very good, but don't forget there are Megger meters and Meterman meters as well..........and the UNI Trend ones are quite good and very reasonably priced....

I think I paid about £80 quid (a few years back) for the UT70D.

 

[Specialist]

The fluke meters are very good, but don't forget there are Megger meters and Meterman meters as well..........and the UNI Trend ones are quite good and very reasonably priced....

Appreciate that mate & as you'll see I use a Megger (AVO) myself, but what make / type do you use ?

 

[Specialist]

Hi Topquark: Unitrend make some quite tidy stuff nowadays, I use 1 of their 2 pole testers for quick testing. Only thing I find with some of their stuff is it's quite bulky especially the clamp meters.

 

[topquark]

Hi Topquark: Unitrend make some quite tidy stuff nowadays, I use 1 of their 2 pole testers for quick testing. Only thing I find with some of their stuff is it's quite bulky especially the clamp meters.

It only just about fits in the biggest pouch in the case and having the probes attached to the back doesn't help

 

[Specialist]

See what you mean, looking at the Dimensions it does look pretty bulky.

 

[Engineer54]

The Americans love Fluke as it is an American Brand and almost all of their kit (apart from the voltalert volt stick) is made in the USA, that's why they are fanatical about it, its all "buy USA" "Buy made in America" they want to buy only American made goods over there and they want the rest of the world to buy only American made goods as well....

That's not quite true!! Some of there stuff is manufactured in Europe and the Far East, at the same ex manufactures factories that that Fluke bought out. Americans may well prefer to buy test equipment manufactured in the US, unfortunately for fluke and other electrical test kit manufacturers, the Yanks don't tend to see the importance of electrical installation tests as is required in other countries. Which is why Fluke and all the other American makers of electrical test kit rely on overseas sales to boost there market share!!

Haha, ...Ask a typical American Master Electrician about ELI testing, and you'll get a blank look!! The typical test kit of an American electrician consists of 1 or 2 Amp clamps, volt stick, multimeter, IR tester, a couple of plug testers (one will be for testing GFI outlets), cable/fuse finder kit, and maybe an infrared thermometer, or low spec thermal imagery tester!! I doubt if Fluke or Megger have sold more than a handful of MFTs between them in the states. I'm basically talking about every day installation test kit here, NOT high end test equipment. The specialised companies in the States will obviously use, just about the same test equipment as everyone else....

 

[Guest123]

What do you think of mine then......

 

[topquark]

Ground Force Interruptors, may the force be with you

 

[topquark]

What do you think of mine then......

Are those probes GS38 compliant? (I know my std ones aren't)

 

[The Finch]

Fluke 117 electricians multimeter supplied by firm, personal I've got one of the avo/megger 310 and also a uni-t purchased from maplin not bad prices and do the job

 

[Specialist]

What do you think of mine then......

Hi Lenny: I actually like the 8060 Multimeters, we used to use them in work a long time ago. When they first bought them in I thought that the switches would be a problem but as it turns out they never were.

 

[HandySparks]

What do you think of mine then......

I'd forgotten about those. Standard kit where I used to work. How old is it?

 

[Marvo]

I don't buy Fluke out of choice, to me it's overpriced for what it is and it's a skollie magnet.


In my car at the moment I carry a Fluke ammeter that I picked up for next to nothing second hand;


Also a Kyoritsu mega tester;


A multimeter (also Kyoritsu);


a LAN cable basic tester (no name brand);


a tone set (Toptronic);



and a 3-phase rotation tester which is home made.

All my test equipment is calibrated in our workshop every 5 years whether it needs it or not.

 

[Specialist]

Hi Marvo: I was looking at the Kyoritsu Analogue multimeters a while back & they looked quite good. What are they like to work with ? Does the case come with it or do you have to buy that extra ?

 

[Marvo]

I would highly recommend Kyoritsu testers, especially their analogue stuff although from what I read on this forum they're not in fashion with the UK sparkies. They're not particularly sexy but they're very solid, robust and functional.

Both my Kyoritsu testers shown above came with the cases but I'm not sure if those particular models are still being sold. I would look on Google for the latest models and compare them with others that have been suggested. It might also be worth checking their after-sales service in your country or area and make sure that they're not going to pull your pants down when it comes to periodic calibration certification etc.

 

[mackers]

Check out metrel multifunction tester good tester good price had mine 6yrs now

 

[Specialist]

Check out metrel multifunction tester good tester good price had mine 6yrs now

Hi mate: Thanks for that, but were talking about Analogue & Digital Multimeters not MFT's.

 

[Specialist]

I would highly recommend Kyoritsu testers, especially their analogue stuff although from what I read on this forum they're not in fashion with the UK sparkies. They're not particularly sexy but they're very solid, robust and functional.

Both my Kyoritsu testers shown above came with the cases but I'm not sure if those particular models are still being sold. I would look on Google for the latest models and compare them with others that have been suggested. It might also be worth checking their after-sales service in your country or area and make sure that they're not going to pull your pants down when it comes to periodic calibration certification etc.

Unfortunately nowadays there does'nt seem to be many places that stock decent Analogue meters, as you said they're not the in thing any more. I use Digital meters a lot because I have to but still prefer Analogue.

 

[Marvo]

I kinda use a combination or digital and analogue. For some things like component testing, current trending etc you can't beat the accuracy of digital. For me the downside of digital is sometimes they're over-accurate and detract your attention from the real problem plus they're easy to misread when your head is in a control panel and you're looking at four or five decimal places. For general use where you don't need to sweat the small stuff I like analogue which gives a more holistic window on what you're looking at with it's lower input resistance.