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I would like to buy an auto-ranging multimeter that can do all the usual things plus capacitors, and a buzzer for continuity tests (and 12v detection duties too in an ideal world).
I'm a fettler not a pro, so Fluke is out of budget, any recommendations not exceeding £50?
I value durability above bells and whistles, and am hoping that reasonable accuracy is a given.
Clarke
I use fluke and they are the go to for professional use but Clarke are the best am stuff
Pretty much any meter is fine for personal use. I've got a few meters and one that was a fiver gives very similar readings to my fluke, in fact it actually responds a bit quicker. I wouldn't over think it. Just find one with the feature list you want. Although if you do want fluke their budget model, the 101, is sub £50. I don't think it does capacitance though
I’ve got a couple of ex army Metrix MX67s. They come up very cheap on eBay, and as a tinkerer I find them ideal. Robust and very easy to use. They usually come up with the case extra leads and instructions too.
Worth getting one which measures "true RMS"
(some cheaper meters bodge the rms calculations assuming waveforms are sinusoidal.)
Decent leads are always a worthy addition to a cheap multimeter. Nothing more frustrating than chasing a fault with leads that don't make a good contact with the meter or the wire breaks down internally.
Can't remember what I paid For fluke leads but it was worth it and not outrageous.
Wouldn’t mind a new one myself. Did qualifications in electrics but only have a cheap £10 one and need something a bit better.
Worth getting one which measures “true RMS”
This is a good point as is the one about getting quality leads. You can always replace the leads later if you need to
I bought a second-hand Fluke 20 years ago; it was probably 2 years old at the time. Still prefer using it to my newer non-branded meters... granted, it's only used for basic fault finding these days!
I have a UNI-T UT61E multimeter which seems pretty decent.
It's True RMS. I paid €77 for it back in 2015, so no idea if it is still available but I seem to remember eevblog or some other reputable place saying it was a good one to get if you could find the proper German version rather than the ropey Chinese version.
Why would someone who does not have a reasonably high level electronics knowledge want to accurately measure non sinusoidal waveforms with a true RMS meter ?
True RMS-
Well it probably doesn't matter if you just measure mains AC voltage waveforms, or nice clean DC waveforms.
But if you are measuring anything with nonlinear electronics causing distorted waveforms it makes quite a difference. Even mains AC currents can be very distorted with electronic loads like CFL light bulbs.
It's also something that is probably just achievable at around the £50-£60 pound mark!
https://www.fluke.com/en-gb/learn/blog/electrical/what-is-true-rms
In true STW style - recommend what you have.
My Fluke123 'scope has been awesome over the years I've had it. Might be a bit over your budget though......
Had an extech one for a years like This
Worked well on industrial electrical down to electronics (basic trouble shooting)
I'd be tempted by the aneng an8008 which looks very good for £20-30. It has plenty of favourable reviews and should be fine for a bit of hobby work.
The Uni-T meters look good value as well.
The only thing is that with cheap meters from unknown manufacturers (like the aneng) is that it is hard to trust the cat/voltage safety ratings.
There is a lot of relevant advice on here:
https://www.markhennessy.co.uk/budget_multimeters/multimeter_safety.htm
(I have a metrel 9050 which is lovely, and I would recommend, but clearly above the budget!)
True RMS-
Well it probably doesn’t matter if you just measure mains AC voltage waveforms, or nice clean DC waveforms.
But if you are measuring anything with nonlinear electronics causing distorted waveforms it makes quite a difference. Even mains AC currents can be very distorted with electronic loads like CFL light bulbs.
That was kind of my point most people who don't know if they would need a true RMS meter don't need one 🙂
Yeah, but the original post asked about accuracy - for someone that is new to multimeters it can seem very odd that the measurement could have a 40% error whilst the measurement is displaying a precise reading with 3 or 4 decimal places. It really isn't obvious!
A little follow up from me. After fabs post above I bought an Aneng AN8000 (not the 8008, as the AN8000 does higher current) as I wanted a little meter for the toolbox. Only £13. It seems pretty good. Accuracy is on a par with my other meters from a couple of very quick tests. That was voltage and resistance. I didn't realise it did capacitance as it wasn't a feature I've ever needed but it does (although it wasn't mentioned in the spec list). Just tested it on a few random caps and it was fine for polyester and ceramic, they matched the written value, but miles out for electrolytic. Leads seem quite good too. Perfectly fine for hobby meter (unless you really need to test electrolytic capacitors).