Review: £10 multimeters - Now includes the new RS-14!

[boater sam]

My AN8008 has been delivered but I won't see it till October!
If its as good as you all say I'll be well pleased. Oh, £14.26 delivered from HK.

[Mark Hennessy]

I've had problems with Fluke/Pomona leads in the past:

http://golbornevintageradio.co.uk/forum/...6#pid65106

These are the miniature ones that are astonishingly expensive to buy. I think that every one we bought has now been withdrawn from service. Not good. Hopefully they've addressed the issue by now.

But the regular ones have been 100% so far. I guess random failure can happen at any price point...

[Refugee]

In my opinion meter leads just have a life of a number of thousands of usages before the wires just go open circuit due to flexing and that is your lot. More robust strain relief will help to extend life but at the end of the day they all have to die at some time.

[Mark Hennessy]

I agree with that in general terms, but in the case of those ones mentioned in post #52, they were bad from new. Really, I should have taken it up with Farnell, but was just too busy at the time.

A while back I sorted through a box of Fluke test leads, some of which dated back to the 1980s. I tested them all, then took out the ones that pre-dated CAT ratings and gave them away to anyone who wanted them, while putting the CAT rated ones back into active service. In that process, I didn't find a single faulty one, which was pretty impressive. There must have been 20 or 30 sets, and they would have been heavily used by students over the years. Still, nothing lasts forever

[Mark Hennessy]

I've been writing up my multimeter reviews on my website, bringing together lots of information that was previously spread across several forums.

In addition to those covered earlier in this thread, there are a some other meters, including the Fluke 101, and the BSIDE ADM08A. The latter might be interest to those who prefer manual ranging meters. This unit is 6,000-count, has true RMS, capacitance, frequency/duty cycle, and also has no-contact voltage detection - all for less than £20 delivered. Also, I've done a write-up on my UNI-T UT210E, which is an AC/DC current clamp with 1mA resolution.

I've also written a brief article on the subject of multimeter safety. It doesn't pretend to be exhaustive, but it does attempt to be balanced. Personally, I don't care if you use a £10 Chinese special or a £500 Fluke, but what does matter to me is that everyone has been able to make an informed choice in full knowledge of the possible problems and limitations of cheap multimeters.

Constructive feedback welcome. Also, suggestions for other meters to review will be considered, although please note that I've spent quite a lot of my beer reserves on the meters I have already bought for this project. Please go easy on me in the typo department - there's a lot of text in these reviews, and it is impossible to proof-read your own work, especially on a screen. I'll have another go at proof-reading later on.

https://www.markhennessy.co.uk/budget_multimeters/

Mark

[Mark Hennessy]

I've ordered a set of the £5 ones from China. I'll compare them carefully to the ones I already have, but if they're genuine (or as good as the genuine ones), then that's a bargain

Well, the Chinese Fluke TL71s have arrived, and they're obviously fake. Like they'd be anything else at that price!

While they seem quite reasonably at first glance, and I'm sure they'd be fine on the bench, I wouldn't want to trust the safety ratings. I've written to the seller to ask what guarantees they can provide that they will meet their voltage, current and CAT ratings. I'm not expecting an answer.

I'll do some more non-intrusive investigation soon, but in the meantime, what - if anything - should I do? Obviously, eBay encourage us to report fake goods, but can they really do anything about it? I don't feel conned because I was sure they'd be fake, but if they are in any way unsafe, then I'll do what I can to report it. I'm actually hopeful that they'll be OK - first impressions are quite good - they are very flexible and seem a lot better than the leads that came with all these cheap multimeters I've recently reviewed.

[specmaster]

Well I for one would love to see them subjected to the rated test voltage that they claim on the probes to see if they do infact withstand it without any sign of breakdown / flashover if possible. To tell you the truth I would expect them to be capable of providing sufficient insulation to allow them to be used safely. The area that I would be dubious of is the current rating, and I'm a bit suspicious of any lead that claims 20A without some sort of time duration  stated on them, even 10A is I think pushing it even on the genuine ones.

The above however does not apply in my opinion with standard leads supplied with the sub £50 meters, I would only use them 250v and less if the cable and probe are really thin like some are that I've seen.

[Murphyv310]

           
Hi.
My AN8008 arrived this morning.
Wow what a bargain. So far I'm checking some things and it is really accurate. I have checked the frequency range and it is accurate and good up to 8Mhz on checking some crystals.
I even hooked it up to the pantry transmitter on the buffer stage and even though its fairly low impedance I got an accurate stable reading.
Will do some more tests later.  

[Murphyv310]

       
Hi.
The "Hz" function has to be quite sensitive as off the loop I can get the meter to lock onto my local (1035Khz) detune slightly and the reading jumps around but always lower than the input frequency.
Very impressive indeed. The only gripe is the short test leads and they are rather thin on the insulation. The kit of leads is better, longer and thicker insulation.


Oddly the AN8008 came first, ordered early August, the AN8002 has not turned up ordered 14th July.

[Mark Hennessy]

Glad you're impressed

While the AN8008 is good, the AN8002 is considerably more sensitive on frequency. It'll be interesting to see if that makes a difference to your test.

I agree the test leads could be better, but of all the cheap meters I've looked at recently, they are the best by quite some margin (the only exceptions being the RS-14 and the Fluke 101). I find them quite usable and don't mind the short length on such a small meter; indeed the full-length leads that come with the Fluke 101 (same size as the Aneng) seem a bit incongruous. On the other hand, the BSIDE leads are thicker, presumably/hopefully with more insulation, but they are far too stiff as they are just PVC. Every now and again, genuine Fluke leads crop up on eBay from UK sellers - if I spot a pair for a tenner or less that are in unopened packaging, I'll pick them up.