Which DMM (as a spare) should I buy?

markz

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Onto my second digital multi meter.

Clamp style $28 - http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-digital-clamp-meter-0520729p.html#srp
Auto ranging $30 - http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/autoranging-digital-multimeter-0520052p.html#srp
Cheap $14 - http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-digital-5-function-multimeter-0520060p.html#srp
Same one I had $24 - http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-deluxe-digital-volt-meter-0520055p.html#srp
 
I was thinking of buying the Autoranging, or the clamp. The clamp is useless for most things electronics, which leaves me with autoranging.

flat tire said:
None of the above lol get a good multimeter used. I have Fluke.

I do not see a cheap used Fluke on Kijiji.
$70 for the FLuke 101 on ebay.
12E+ is $120

I think I bought my current Mastercraft DMM for $15, and the plastic screen cracked from me carrying it around in the bike basket to monitor amps/volts on my guerilla charges. So for $30 I can get the autoranging, which will become the one I use on a regular basis. I cant fathom spending more because I dont do much with them, just need a cheap spare.

Which Fluke dmm do you have?
 
12b got it years ago for cheap looks like the price has gone up.

Anyway get a good multimeter quality tools are one of the best things you can spend money on in this life.
 
Depends on the work you are doing. With the stuff that I am doing and a majority of the folks here are doing, a cheapy does well, especially as your spare.

Are you putting a bike together or designing components for production?
 
Just battery stuff is all I currently use my original dmm for. I used it yesterday to measure A(ac) to see how much my Meanwells were pulling from the wall. It looks like the Autoranging dmm is the one I should grab before its not on sale no more.
 
99% of the time I can use a crappy DMM from Harbor Freight that they give away free with coupon periodically. Or one of my other cheap meters of various brands, each of which has a different accuracy level.

But the other 1% of the time I really need to know exactly what is going on, and that's where I use my Fluke (77-III) that I got used in a bunch of other stuff I bought when we closed the techshops I worked at.

There's probably others as good as a Fluke, but mine's been thru a whole lot of abuse and stilll works right. :)

I also have some very old multimeters, some back to the 1960s, one back to the 1940s, but they are more for my amusement than accurate usage until I have time (someday) to test them and verify their calibrations.
 
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