I am about to buy a cheapo multimeter. Does anyone know whats the difference between the two, a good meter & bad meter.
If you're looking for something that will hold up and has all the functions you want, look for a TPI unit. It's got most of the functions of a good FLUKE, but at a fraction of the price. I've had my TPI 183 for four years now and it's been beat on in a bad way. It's a true-RMS meter too. http://www.tequipment.net/TPI183.asp It's not cheap, but it will last forever. As for cheap to expensive, the differences lie in quality and features. You'll want something that is auto-ranging and has a range that meets your needs. Most of the cheap ones will do all the basic things like VDC, VAC, Resistance. As for picking, figure out what all you will be doing with it and then choose a meter that meets or exceeds your needs.
I just can't justify the cost of a fluke when you can get a TPI that does all the same things and is just as durable at less than half the cost. But this thread isn't really about a good multimeter, but a cheap one. For the basics almost any meter will meet your needs.
I'm still on my first Fluke-77. It does everything I need it to do and with zero errors. I have it calibrated once a year. If you need accuracy and dependability, the answer is Fluke, everything else I've dealt with so far has been OK, but not great. I have an older Craftsman Digital MM that has tons of neat functions, but half of them don't measure very accurately. It was good for what I needed it for though which was checking DC voltages and checking resistance to ground and looking for opens in simple circuits. It cost me 39 bucks and it has "worked" just fine for those tasks for about a decade now.
meh I'm getting a snap-on blue point. thanks for the input guys. this kind of stuff really helps to love this forum moar and moar.
