Digital Multi meters

One modification he's done to the Craftsman meters is to install an inline blade fuse holder with a 10A fuse in the black lead. That way, if you blow a fuse, it's less likely to be the internal one on the meter, and you can replace it without taking the meter out of the rubberized case...and besides, most folks who work in an automotive setting are more likely these days to have the blade fuses on hand than glass fuses.

So based upon the recommendations of this master tech, I purchased a Craftsman digital multimeter and added the inline fuse holder, and it's been as good as I've needed up to this point.

There are several differences between these two extremes:

Mechanical Durability

The RS got all scratched up quickly in my tool box. After a year or two you could not read the meter easily. Then the battery holder broke. My Fluke has a rubber boot, is made of tougher plastic, and has a seal to waterproof it. It still reads quite easily.

Electrical durabilty

I have never known anyone to smoke a Fluke. Goodness knows that I have tried a few times. I have had to replace a fuse a couple of times however. My RS has a couple of burned resistors inside.

Accuracy

The Fluke 87 III is a 4 1/2 digit meter. It holds its calibration well over time. My Radio Shack drifts with the wind. The Radio Shack will tell you if it is an 1 K Ohm resistor. If I want to know if the resistor is really 1.00 K Ohm or a 1.01 K Ohm then I use the Fluke.

Price
My Fluke cost me almost $400 vs the RS at $20.

All that said for working on tractors or heavy trucks I don't normally go get the Fluke. Any of my meters will work fine. I would suggest you look for mechanical durability first and features second. It will last longer that way.

HTH

Cliff (VA)

If I were to buy a meter today, I think I'd just look for one with the features I want. You can get a lot of features for the money with one of the off-brand meters. I really wish my Fluke did frequency; I kick myself every time I fire up my generator that I didn't cough up the extra bucks when I bought my meter.

Gerald J.

For gennies, points, or anything with brushes and/ inductive currents.. keep a cheapy 10$ vom around to do volt measurements, and to watch needle swings on ohm scale when checking capacitive circuits. Past that.. pick a non autoranging vom with features you need.. like ohm / continuity, capacitor check, gain check for transistors, freq counter, etc.. etc.. the list is virtually endless. You can get range holding meters, ones that check duty cycle, some do waveform graphing.. some hold date for pc downlaod..e tc.

I picke dup a v-tech that is basically a copy of some model of fluke.

has temperature sensor, plus everything else I mentioned.. i think I paid ? 90$ for it at radio shack.. Has a shock proof rubber 'armor' around the case, and good leads.. nice unit.

I was able to use that even on a system with points and a genny.. even though a cheaper micronta autoranger didn't register ( though an old micronta desktop did work ok ).

Soundguy

I wasn't able to find a beckman website but here's a look at a retailers site.

http://www.byramlabs.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=36&filter_id=63&ref=o