What multimeter?

[Avantegarde]

The battery on my classic car died last week. While trying to detect where the problem lay I also discovered that my old multimeter (a Gunson's Autoranger) was also a bit knackered and unreliable. So, what modern multimeter would you recommend? It needs to be cheap (less than £20) and read voltages, currents and resistance, preferably using crocodile clips.

[Urbandreamer]

It's difficult now to get a bad one.

Well, it's not quite that simple, but close. They are all fairly accurate and reliable. Where they often fail is in robustness and reading high currents.
Don't assume that because it looks to have a terminal to check currents up to 10A that it actually does.

You may have more of an issue with croc-klips. That sort of thing is now bought as additional items. You might wind up spending more on test leads than the meter itself.

I spent £6 on one this year, which explains the comment about the 10A terminal. Push the budget to £20 and I'm sure that you'll be happy.

I'd also point out that a lot of car fault finding in the day was done with a bulb or bell and test wires.

[Sobraon]

For car and electrical work I always use an Avo model 8 or a mk 5 Avo minor, plenty on ebay ( mine I am certain will see me out). Light current (electronic) work requires a different instrument IMHO and as Urbandreamer points out its difficult to go wrong for a reasonable budget.

[MonsterMork]

what modern multimeter would you recommend?

Snap On EEDM503D at £125, EEDM504D at £170, or EEDM604ECRT at £675 including certified calibration.

It needs to be cheap (less than £20)

Ah ......

Try Aldi or Lidl. Picked up an el cheapo (a tenner) from Aldi a few weeks back as an emergency stand-in for my Snap On kit (stolen, don't ask), which seems to be doing the job well enough for now. Just standard leads on it, so if you want to add croc clips then eblag is your friend as the Aldi special uses the ubiquitous 4mm banana plugs to attach the leads.

MM

[AleisterCrowley]

Fluke are tops, but 10 x your limit !
Get a 'mystery brand'/own brand from a reputable outlet and you should be OK. Don't buy a random one on eBay

[PhaseThree]

I use a Fluke most of the time but got one of these from Screwfix last year as a backup

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-mas830b- ... 600v/75337

For £7.49 you can't really go wrong, and it does just about everything you typically need.

[servodude]

I've found the Tenma brand to be OK for quality in the past
e.g. https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/mp ... dp/3014340

-sd

[Mike4]

It needs to be cheap (less than £20).

Nice to read posts with a sense of humour.

The hard bit is the DC current. I use a clamp meter. The UNI-T UT210E is good for DC current, but at £35-ish blows your arbitrary budget out of the water.

Any cheapo ebay DVM will do all the rest for you for about a fiver. I second the idea mentioned earlier of spending £20 on a decent set of gold plated leads.

[jfgw]

For car and electrical work I always use an Avo model 8 or a mk 5 Avo minor

If you get an Avo 8, allow half of your budget for the 15V battery if you want to use the highest resistance range.

Cheap meters are not as well protected as more expensive ones and can cause personal injury if not used correctly. My Fluke is designed to survive mains voltage on an ohms range. I did try to measure the voltage across a car battery with the red lead in the 10A socket once and I didn't even see a spark. It did blow an 11A fuse that cost me £8 to replace but this was better than having a cheap meter go bang in my hand. I suspect that all but the cheapest meters have a cheap glass fuse or two to provide at least some protection. I suggest checking the specs before you buy to make sure though.

Julian F. G. W.

[AleisterCrowley]

The AVO 8 has been around since Edwardian times (well, seems like it)
I can imagine the Doctor using one to fix his TARDIS after being stranded in 1912, up a lighthouse.

[Sobraon]

@jfgw ( and anyone else interested), Avo 8 battery BLR121 replacement £4.39 inc p&p ( ebay item 293022922728), yes I know its an alkaline modern replacement but the Ω's don't know that .

[Urbandreamer]

I have used a AVO in the past, They are good.

However honestly, are they the right tool for the job?

When calibrated they are accurate, are you going to calibrate it?

OK, let us assume that you don't, what advantage does a very heavy meter have upon one significantly lighter?

Is the moving indicator important to you? OK, I will accept that when it is rattling it tells you something a digital metre wont, but is that something that you are looking for?

Yes you might be able to see them from a distance, with good eyesight. But I have always thought it better to put the thing where you can see it, which can be difficult with something effected by gravity.

In their time the AVO was the thing. If you want to use one on a work bench, then they are certainly as good as anything today. However, hands up who wants to use one "belling" wires or checking around a car.

[bungeejumper]

I got an el cheapo digital meter a couple of years ago, after the needle fell off my old analogue meter. It must have cost me all of four quid. The downside of this yellow object was that I had no real clue how to use it, and the instructions had been translated from the original Martian into Chinese, before being further slimmed down to 50 words and printed in five point type on a scrap of cigarette paper. Maybe it would have been easier to understand if my Turkish or my Thai or my Arabic had been more fluent?

So I never did figure out why I had three pluggy socket things for just two leads, and what all the hieroglyphics meant? All I knew was that it read minus 40, or sometimes minus 8, more or less regardless of what I was trying to test, or how I turned the dials. It was, in other words, boggered by the time it left the factory.

Realising that my only use for a multi meter was to check continuity, voltage or (very, very approximately) resistance, I went back to a cheap Draper analogue meter. Sanity was instantly restored.

BJ

[Mike4]

So I never did figure out why I had three pluggy socket things for just two leads,
BJ

Try using the 10A range for measuring 10 Amps of current, and you'll find out.

The lesson will cost you four quid though

[bungeejumper]

Try using the 10A range for measuring 10 Amps of current, and you'll find out.

The lesson will cost you four quid though

Thanks for the laugh. I still have my old dad's Avo meter in the loft, weighing about three kilos, in a stout carrying case made of rhinoceros hide .

Dad was a switchgear specialist who worked on dams and major pumping stations and suchlike, and he was baffled by my inability to understand electricity. Mind you, he was also the genius who suggested putting a very wide-opening switch into the HT lead of my 1950s motorbike, because it didn't have an ignition switch. The first time I tried to use it, the HT current transferred its affections to my hand and arm instead of to the spark plug. And, this being a twin, the machine carried on idling while I got eight shocks a second at 15,000 volts.

As you see, I survived. Never been able to think straight since....

BJ

[DrFfybes]

It needs to be cheap (less than £20).

Nice to read posts with a sense of humour.

The hard bit is the DC current. I use a clamp meter. The UNI-T UT210E is good for DC current, but at £35-ish blows your arbitrary budget out of the water.

Any cheapo ebay DVM will do all the rest for you for about a fiver. I second the idea mentioned earlier of spending £20 on a decent set of gold plated leads.

I just went into the garage to see what I bought to diagnose a flattening battery, and I also have a UNI-T UT210E which IIRC was £35. Bought specifically for the clamp meter function to detect battery drain.

As a current detector it isn't massively accurate, but when you're expecting a static drain of 40mA and you're getting readings in the hundreds then you know something is not right. If your car is flattening the battery then a clamp meter lke this is the easiest way of checking if there is a drain (could be a sticking door solenoid, flat alarm backup battery, etc etc).

I find the leads and probes a bit fiddly compared to others I've had and the ranging after switching from AC to DC is a bit difficult sometimes, but otherwise very handy, even detects live cables like a proximity tester.

FWIW my car only flattens the battery if I lock with the remote to set the alarm, on disarming there are 5 pips indicating an alarm fault. All I need to do now is disassemble half of a 165 year old car to get to the alarm unit . Or lock it with the key.

Paul