eevBLAB 91 - Why Are Fluke Meters So EXPENSIVE?
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- 8 industry reasons why Fluke meters are so expensive, and why people still buy them.
You might be surprised by some of the reasons and have not encountered this thinking before in the industry.
Part 2: The Teardown • EEVblog 1447 - EXPENSI...
NOT sponsored by Fluke. In fact you should buy my BM786 for 20% off using the coupon code 555, way cheaper and better than a Fluke:
www.eevblog.com/product/eevbl...
00:00 - Why are Fluke meters so expensive?
02:27 - Reason #1: Lifetime Warranty
02:49 - Reason #2: Made in the USA
03:38 - Reason #3: Longevity of Production
07:24 - Reason #4: Measurement Confidence
12:08 - Reason #5: Construction Quality & Consistency
12:27 - Reason #6: World class Standards & Calibration
13:15 - Reason #7: They are the Defacto Standard, and premium player
13:53 - Reason #8: Calibration Procedures & Service Information
What is calibration: • EEVblog #420 - What Is...
Keysight metrology standards lab: • EEVblog #1039 - Keysig...
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#ElectronicsCreators #Fluke #Multimeter - Наука та технологія
NOT sponsored by Fluke. In fact you should buy my BM786 for 20% off using the coupon code 555:
www.eevblog.com/product/eevblog-bm786-multimeter/
i just bought your BM786 last week....
Hey Dave, one day when I will make 9000 Indian rupees , I will buy your meter instead of fluke. I like this meter, now this meter is in my wish list. Will buy the day when I get the money, probably within 2 to 3 years.
No... 121GW or bust.
Since you don't ship to Russia for some reason but the Amazon does, is there any way to apply this coupon on Amazon? Or get the discount some other way? I'd like to buy but you just don't ship to Russia.
I only trust Tektronix TDS3000 scopes and compare Siglent to them to make sure the Siglent it good. Siglent will never gain the internal software confidence that Tek has, even if the Siglent can be so much "cooler" and have a better screen.
My Dad ran a small avionics repair shop for decades. His Fluke died after decades of use. He dug out the warranty card and sent in the whole unit to Fluke with a letter stating what he did and that he was extremely happy with the device and was hoping they could fix it. There was no reply (this was back when people wrote physical letters) for some time. When the box arrived, Fluke had kept his old device for analysis and sent him a brand new near top of the line replacement costing a couple thousand more than the one he sent in with a thank you note for using Fluke equipment. That kind of service helps make you number one as well.
That's how you get a lifetime customer !
Dang!!
Had a similar experience with a LEICA slide projector (!) when I was in art school: bought the cheapest model and when it had issues, they replaced it with a better model free of charge, apologizing for the poor performance of the entry-level model... needless to say that I am a fan of their brand ever since.
Wait, you're telling me fluke gave him a top of the line model in return? So I buy a fluke 102 & it when it goes bad on me, I get a fluke 289 replacement? Seriously?!
Fluke meters as shown don’t cost 1000s so one costing 1000s more is not possible.
When I was studying electronics, my dad bought me a Fluke 83. It was the low end model with no RMS feature. But even though it was the low end model it was still expensive. He bought it with some of his savings, he made his homework when it came to the best brand. "It's not top of the line, but it should do, right?" .. . "Absolutely, dad!.. this is awesome!" I said. That was almost 30 years ago and I still have it and I still use it. I blew the fuses a few times but it still works great. Thank you dad, I miss you so much.
I've selected Fluke because I can believe what it tells me.
My dad also has had an 83 in his tool box for more than 20 years, I used it for high school and college. After I married, he gifted me a 77, I use it for pretty much everything, last week it helped me refurbish my wife’s prius hybrid battery.
:’) rip ole’ pop. Sounds like a good man
Thanks for sharing. My dad wasn't like that unfortunately. I always tried to imagine how it must be to have a parent that was supportive. I love hearing stories like this.
I have a 34 year old Fluke 73. Has been sent back to J Fluke at least 5 times for various reasons. Dropped off of wings, banged around, thrown into my tool bag thousands of times. The case looks horrid, and the guts may not be original, but it still works and it is still dead on accurate . Have no idea how many sets of leads have been bought for it. Compared to the money that meter has made for me, Fluke gave it to me. Fluke says Lifetime, they mean it. Nothing else compares.
I worked for a state government run power utility company as a substation operations maintenance technician and Fluke was the only brand that we used for all of the mentioned reasons in this video. 100% correct. I now teach at a state technical college and use a Fluke 115 with my students in the labs. Most opt for cheaper brands, but I use the Fluke (or Amprobe) as an example of what they'll see on the job out in the field. The cycle of Fluke continues.
Which fluke is best for electronics and which one is best for someone wanting to go into the HVAC field?
I was a licensed electrician in Australia for 17 years and I had a Fluke T5 1000. The T5 is rock solid. I now live in the USA and no longer do full time electrical work, yet the T5 is still part of my kit. Fluke are in my mind the best quality meters on the market. “Good tools aren’t cheap and cheap tools aren’t good”
i got a T5-1000 for about 15 years, never had an issue, change batteries and ready to rock, also have a 902 FC...no issues with either.
Being a "Tradie" I would always get the best, now that I am getting close to retirement I toss up on how much to spend on a good tool, not cheap, not expensive mabe in the middle, but as they say " you get what you pay for"
If you buy cheap, you buy twice.
Having been in the trade. Some bought snap on at 10 times the price of craftsman. They would complain about there 30 grand of snap on tools, while the rest of use were happy with are reasonable priced craftsman. They worried about insurance and lost tools not covered! We didn't..
@@davef21370you buy expensive and lose it you can't afford to buy again! Buy reasonable you can afford to buy 2 ,3 even 4 times. Lose it no prob. Stolen? Don't have to argue over insurance.. broke no biggie! Less stress for the tech and management.
In 1987, in Moscow I made a Russian engineer cry with joy when I gave him my Fluke 77. He had been very kind to me regarding setting up for an exhibition there, and I had given him it as a gift in thanks; something that was simply unafordable and actually unobtainable for engineers then. Russian engineers knew the quality and reliability of Fluke even then, and so he was mega-grateful for my gift. For all I know, he may still be using it now.
My 73 is over 40 years old and has been connected up wrong more times than I can remember, and it has NEVER failed me. That makes me a Fluke customer for life, except the meter will outlive me!
My Dad gave me a fluke 77 in EE School. I use it in Retirement, but need new leads.
Sure ! Fluke was in use in Firefox ! Even cold war soviets know the value of good ole Yankee stuff.
It really was bright thinking of you back than to understand how you could thank the guy.
I got my 27 for a fraction of the price brand new from old militairy stock.
Also got a scope (which is basicly a Phillips)
I was verry used to 77's at my work in aviation and indeed never thought much about it.
more like "It's a good meter you can rely on", thanks Dave for this unknow side story.
@@greywolf271 Cold war Soviets knew the value of anything made outside the Soviet Union. The problem is they couldn't afford any of it.
Senior Advanced Microwave Metrologist tech here. Years ago, the USN quit recalling Fluke meters for periodic calibration and replaced the stickers with "cal if suspect" stickers. We tracked every single piece of GPETE/TAMS by model/serial for the lifetime of the unit. In doing so, we found that Fluke's handheld DMM's NEVER went out of calibration. They would only fail to operate outright due to abuse/accidents. We had a saying - Heaven is where the meters are Fluke, the scopes are Tektronix and the spectrum analyzers are HP. Hell is where the meters are HP, the Spectrum analyzers are Tektronix and anything is Giga-tronics.
😂
attention here
If they are HP….I mean Agilent…I mean Keysight 😂😂😂
All the Fluke meters I’ve used where we had to have a traceable calibration certificate, were calibrated using a Fluke computerized calibration device. It made the calibration affordable. To calibrate other brands the tech had to test every single function and range manually and the costs for recertification were often as much or more than the cost of a new meter with certs.
I went through cheap multimeters at the rate of about one every couple of years. I wanted something that would last, so I finally bought a fluke for 10x the price. So far it has outlasted everything I had purchased before.
One benefit I didn’t anticipate is that it was so expensive, I have never lost track of where I put it; so I have never had to go looking for it like I have the others. I always know exactly where it is and where all of the components are.
Quite a time saver!
There are all levels of cheap, so were the cheap meters on the level of free meters that were offered by harbor freight in the past, or some in the sub 100 dollar class? I've picked up so many of the HF ones I pretty much have one at arms reach everywhere in the house, and while some go wonky, they served handily for the most part.
@@hwingerrr5680 $20-60 range mostly. A few of the $5 ones, but they barely last beyond the first use.
Interesting. I had a bad experience with a clamp on from them and refuse to buy their products anymore. While the meter was 10 years old I was barely used and in the original moulded plastic case (so no damage from UV or anything else). The plastic tabs broke and the rotary knob contacts stopped working.
I opened it and epoxy those back. The design of them was very poor. No webs. When trying to close back the meter the battery tab screw broke the entire screw pillar off too.
We have a saying: I'm too poor to afford cheap stuff.
2 fuses in 25 years is all I have put into my 83 in 25 years. Buy once cry once. If I have a problem with it I am pretty sure Fluke will be there. Will a no name China made company be there?
I regard Fluke as the Snap-On of the electrical industry. A status brand. I deliberately choose Fluke for specific safety critical pieces of test equipment at work, purely because it ticks the health and safety box.
I'm not keen on how their marketing seems to be adding useless gimmicks to upsell basic tools like test lamps though.
And I'm the kind of guy that will buy a generic wh5000a DMM because I have no worries about tossing that thing in my glove compartment or trunk(boot for non-'muricans)
Yep, if you show up for a job interview with a Fluke and Snap on tools, it's conveying an image about yourself. I also know people who do fantastic work with pretty cheap tools.. perhaps not the bottom of barrel Harbor freight, but something like Craftsman (before they started making total shit)
@@zakofrx Not to sure about the older ones, but Snap-On/Bluepoint sold ones that very much looked like Fluke but the calibration guys said they were different. The leads are very different, felt cheap to the touch. Replaced those as soon as we could justify them to supply.
Also, the Tilley hat 👍
Same for me. When I'm working on mains, I'm using my fluke multi. I used other vendors for other measurement devices.
This was absolutely fantastic content - it's not "This is the multimeter you should get", but "these are factors to weigh when shopping for a multimeter". Finding out that most of the reasons for Fluke's superior price actually don't matter to *me*, so I can make my alternate purchase with confidence rather than wonder if I'm missing out on something or cheaping out.
We need more of this kind of wisdom.
Buy once cry once
This is Steve “so you want to be a consultant” Friedl? I recognized the name and logo. I sent my children that essay. It is such a great guide to success in business and life. Thanks for keeping that online!
Sounds like Fluke are the Zippos in the multimeter world
@@remogaggi82 ....You must have real world experience to be able to make such a complicated topic SOOOOOOO Simple.
Thank you.
I wish the readers of your comment understood what that means.
Do you have a "I bought the wrong tool," story to share with the truth seekers?
@@truthsRsung what's complicated?
I worked as a high voltage lineman for over 4 decades. When I started we used the old analog meters then the company started buying Fluke meters. I’ve used several Fluke multis meters and clip on amp meters, Fluke is the state of the art and always worked.
Oh man those analog meters are legendary. I still got a couple of those in my garage and recently tested it out and it's still accurate.
our work bans anything besides fluke for standard meters. arc flash is the reason
I was in China many years ago and walked by an electrician working on some building wiring. The yellow meter on his ladder caught my eye because it seemed really high-end compared to most everything else I've seen around there. Took a closer look, the brand name was "FUKE".
At least it wasn't puke
Or Fong 😂
Or NUKE hahah
I'm a property developer that uses Fluke, and I can confirm AvE's observation: "Sometimes you've just got to whip out a 12 inch Fluke, to get the sparkies to take you seriously."
Fuckin Oath LOL
As one of those sparkies, I can confirm.
I once had an electrician cite in an email "the tools he saw in my bag" (Fluke 117, Fluke network analyzer) as a reason to take what I was saying seriously.
"I see your Schwartz is as big as mine."
If your multimeter is not near black and dirty I won't take you seriously anyway. If it is brand new shiny yellow I assume you are an engineer and there to make my life difficult by breaking shit you shouldn't be playing with.
in the 2000's microsoft was having trouble selling SQL server, they actually upped the price to match oracle... and boom their sales went up... instead of down... because of the impression that a higher cost translated to a higher quality product, even though no changes were made to the product except for increasing the cost. =D
well, Apple's still doing exactly the same thing...
Evidently database engines are a Veblen good. As an open source (and very cheap) guy I find this amusing and curious.
@@rafalwlo Nope. Apple gives you a shitload of value for the price. You simply can beat their quality: fit and finish, ease of use, security and outstanding customer support. Their products will get you laid just like a Ferrari will.
@@bobweiram6321 I mean, if a woman bases how she picks her partner based on what phone the use, they're not much to have from the beginning.
@@bobweiram6321 Totally agree.
I have worked in the Railway Signalling Department for over 40 years. When I started we used Analogue AVO'S, but we're prone to damage. Then British Railway only provided Fluke Meters, they were robust fairly waterproof compared to the AVO's. The Flukes were smaller and easy to use. We got the first ones in the 1980 and only in a military green colour. I love them.
I changed from my military spec AVO 8 (Screened metal wrap around case and increased sensitivity (400 volt scale)) when my work changed to fault finding floodlights. The difference to the job not having to lug the AVO up the ladders made but instead stuffing the fluke in my jacket pocket was immense. The fluke was the only meter on the market at the time that had nearly the same accuracy specification as the Avo.
Around 2000 we were preparing to do a sensor check in a refrigerated warehouse where they brought fruit in from Chili. The system recorded the temperatures, and alarmed at a very tight range. Every 5 years we had to meet with their engineer and remove each sensor individually and make sure they were inside calibration specs. Both of us had to witness the measurements and sign off on the official sheets. There were over 200 sensors so this took weeks. There was a list of acceptable meters and my Fluke 87 was of course on that list. Problem was a week before the engineer was to fly in they asked for my calibration info. It was 8 months out which still within the standard year or even two year range, They said they needed 6 months. There was little time to get it in and calibrated, everyone was scrambling I then asked if I purchased a new meter would that satisfy the requirements. They said yes as the meters are calibrated before they left Fluke,s factory. My company was thrilled to buy me another $600 meter, so I wound up with two 87s that I still have even though I retired a few years ago. I also have a 25, 119, 52, and a 17B+. The only time in a 40 year career I ever had to replace a Fluke meter is when I lost one. All techs carry a toolbag meter for the day to day troubleshooting, and I have dropped a few. The better meters only came out when you needed the accuracy The cost of meters is a minor expense compared to downtime. As my portion of the trade moved to DDC every tech carried at least two laptops in case something happened to one you wouldn't lose a days productivity.
Chili?
I was in the military for over 20 years and I’ve been given various reasons when I asked why we always buy Fluke. “Made in the USA” and “Better Input Noise Filtering” were the two most common reasons I was given. We didn’t have any specific test procedures that required a Fluke, most just said “using a multimeter” or “Using a Fluke 77AN or equivalent” perform such and such.
Measurement confidence, however, was a very real thing. We don’t even calibrate Fluke multimeters used for non-critical measurements anymore. When a Fluke fails, it doesn’t go out of calibration, it dies. If it turns on, it’s good. That’s a huge deal in the field.
Does the US military have now Flukes 77 IV?
I too was in the air force 20+ years. I learned that my 77/AN was a "XB3" item. That meant it was a throw-away.
@@aicisha I don’t remember off the top of my head. I know for sure we had 77 II and III meters in some places.
@@aicisha They sure do. Oddly, the 87 needs to go to calibration and counts against the ship's calibration budget. We had dozens of 77s, but only 1 or 2 of the 87s "officially."
Psst, on those meters which died, have you tried changing the battery? :-P
I work as a US defense contractor technician and we use fluke meters as our only digital multimeter for the reasons you stated in this video. We also have some old Simpson analog multimeters too. It would take too much money and time to qualify another brand that it renders the old standby as a much more cost efficient way to go. I agree with you 100%. Some of the first fluke digital multimeters i.e: model 77 and before are still in use to this day. My personal meter is a Klein tools MM600 and it has done well by me so far. BTW I am from New Jersey in the USA. Love your videos. Have been watching you for years!
Simpson analog multimeters - measuring D’ohms!
Yup, totally agree. 1st hand knowledge of my own backs this up. Plus, because of this, I don't even have to spend one nanosecond of time questioning quality, accuracy, etc... Bryman? Huh? Never heard of it and don't have time to fact check and that time is money for me!
Love my MM600 as well.
I regularly use an old Fluke 77 from the 1980's and purchased a new Simpson 260 for those occasions where you really just want to ignore RF and read the DC. The Simpson is also a good reality check for the Fluke or any other DVM. How do you know the DVM is in the ballpark?
I’ve got my Fluke meter that I use all the time. Now I know some of the reasons why. I also have an “old” Simpson Field Effect meter that I got in govt auction back in 1972.
Absolutely correct. My entire 34-year career has been in "that" environment. Even changes like HP -> Agilent -> Keysight make us cringe; each name change runs the risk of deeper, unaccounted changes. Particularly considering that document changes can cost thousands of dollars, sometimes per page. Thanks for sharing!
Used my Fluke from 1981 to 2013, industrial automation in Norway, they were calibrated and tracked and
never heard of a Fluke that failed. My Fluke survived a lot of happenings.. :)
In this setting I think they are very cheap, and they are safe, and no one in industry needs cheap tools that
fails when you need them
I am a commercial electrician and I trust my fluke meters with my life. Knowing if something happens the meter isn't going to explode and kill me gives me alot of confidence. Nice video.
Or knowing it's not telling you that it 6V instead of 600V. LOL!
Could the blue one explode?
@@sbrunner69 any meter can. They all have ratings. But what I'm talking about is your testing a piece of large equipment and a car crashes into a transformer blocks away and sends a surge of voltage down the line. I expect my fluke meter to contain the damage, it will be destroyed as any meter would be. But I expect it to contain all the damage internally and not all over me.
Trying to think of any possible situation that would cause a DMM to explode. Closest thing is using some cheap meter with an unfused 10A range in current mode, and placing it directly across mains voltages. Even then the meter wouldn't explode, but the probes would object in vigorous fashion 😎.
It's interesting you say that. I started my career in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a 16 year old in the late 80's. Where we sourced our test kit and components has influenced my life - we only had the best - it was critical to keeping our military safe.
I only recently moved to non-Weller soldering irons! But certainly Fluke was a manufacturer of preference way back then as it is today.
Fluke and Avo were the weapons of choice when I used to work for the UK Ministry of Defence in the Naval Supply ships. In the early days we used to be provided with the enormous and heavy analogue Avo 8 meter. This bulky beast had a certain advantage made use of by a Senior Electrical Officer of my acquaintance who was a great advocate of 24 hour drinking. When the behemoth was removed from its beautifully made leather case, it left the exact amount of room to stow a six pack of stubbies so he had enough McEwans Export to keep him going until lunch time. Of course everybody who didn't know just thought he was carrying around one of the main tools of his trade - including the Chief Engineer!
I was about to make a comment about the Avo model 8. Can't trump that though.
How long did his liver last?
In the American military..., at least in the early 90's, the choice for, "big ol' analog meter", was the Simpson 260...
Had that same Avo8 and Fluke thing going when I was in the RAF servicing ground radar systems in the 80's. The stuff I worked on was designed in the early 60's and all of the routine servicing had to be done with an Avo8 since that was what the methods of work were written for. I recall that the systems that came in and replaced them in the early 90's had done away with the Avo8 and just used the Fluke meters.
@@Kreln1221 We still have them! (on submarines at least). Barely ever used, but still there.
I have been using Fluke DMM since early 1990's and I am in love with them, as you correctly said I trust their accuracy, reliability and ruggedness.
I bought my Fluke 73 some time in the 80's. Was head technician of a company then. Fluke still works perfectly. As an aside, in the late 70's I bought a Micronta (Tandy) bench meter, and it also is in top condition. Readings between the two are identical.
Outside of corporate standards, where lots of electricians and such choose and pay for their own tools, an overlooked factor may be simple peer pressure/influence. If everyone you work with has a Fluke, you have to defend yourself every time you pull out a blue or red colored DMM. (Granted, this reason likely frickled-down from the other items you mention.)
The fluke's Ex series Is Red
Here in Germany its the never ending fight between Gossen Metrawatt (Black & Green) and Fluke (Yellow). There are other professional Brands like Benning but if you have a different meter than what everybody around you has got you're the weird guy.
Also I'll never forget the moment my colleague attemped to measure between 230V phases with a fluke lookalike ("Vici") and the meter literally *exploded* . 1000V Rated my ass.
It's the same with Snap-on tools.
Sheep ideology is for people with weak confidence. I whip out my blue HoldPeak and I don't give a flying f what others think._
@@DjResR Same. When I whipped out my Aneng Q10 for the first time, I got some smirks from the lads. They all have Flukes with high stability, precision, repeatability... we don't need any of that for the kinds of HVAC jobs we do. The Aneng has big high contrast numbers, it costs less than a family dinner, it has a torch, and you can crack it open to glue magnets on the back - so you can work on an air handler unit up on a ladder, upside down, and still have both your hands free! All of us carry Q10s/Q1s now :-) save for a few stragglers.
As a professional metrologist working for an international calibration organization for years, I can attest to the quality and repeatability of Fluke meters versus most other brands. After testing/ "calibrating", the overwhelming majority (99+%) pass within spec. In quotes because the calibration is simply testing the meter using a high-end Fluke calibrator to a standard test procedure and requiring no adjustment (if even possible to adjust).
Ah yes, the 5700, we have like 6 at work lol.
Doesn't most meters, pass within spec? I have two over 30 yo Tektronix meter that is within spec, I do also own some cheap $5 meters that measures (as wrong) like they did 1st day.
Flukes meter is not able to be adjusted, but this is also, as you know, not the important pat, only their drift over time matters. :-)
@@friedmule5403 you'd be surprised how much the cheaper meters drift. The worrying thing is that drift can vary considerably from year to year
@@JoshuaNorton Could you elaborate at all on what you dislike about the scope-meters? I've been considering trading in my 28II for a 99B and then just using a cheaper meter for basic stuff.
@@sdgelectronics Thanks a lot for your great reply! I have apparently been lucky with my super cheap meters, they have kept showing the same wrong value in the last 3 years, but okay, I do only use them to detect if the power is on or off in small circuits. :-)
I work for a large rapid transit authority and use an issued Fluke 77III. My meter at home is a 77 that I bought used in 1990. As you said, one of the reasons people pay the price for a Fluke meter is confidence in the product. Throughout my 45 year career in electronics, there have always been fluke meters available or in use most everywhere. Their equipment will either be obviously bad, or reliable. That is in comparison to other brands in use in the same locations. I own a fluke for the same reason I wear a radio setting watch. I want it to be correct. Thank you for an entertaining and informative presentation.
As an Avionics technician in the RAF, (in the '90's) we used Avo, Allen-Bradley, Collins, Tektronics, Hewlett-Packard, Fluke, Schlumberger and various others with the National Standards Laboratory calibrated standards, with procedures written for a range of over 3,000 standard, and special to type test equipment and ATE in my inventory.
In rare cases direct equivalent main test equipment may have been called out in the documentation (e.g., sig gens, scopes, DVM''s etc.), but for the most part and the exact reasons you stated, procedures were T.E. manufacturer and model specific.
The same is true for Industrial manufacture and Process Plant control/instrumentation test/ repair and Cal.
Been an electrician for the last 35 years. I have tried many different brands of meters. I trust my Fluke meters and I find they level off with the reading faster than others. Super helpful when chasing down a water based fire alarm ground fault. If there is something better, I haven’t found it.
I will ALWAYS buy Fluke, for the same reasons.
What about sanwa made in Japan ?
Whats a good fluke meter you’d say?
My understanding that calibration and accuracy of the meter is very important in this case since 0.4-0.5V error could be important for e.g. for smoke detectors? However i still fail to see how Fluke is better than Hioki or APPA etc as long as the equipment properly calibrated and accurate? Or when your are measuring small volts 0.5 - 1.5 it is important or Ohms? But so does *absolutely* accurately even 1979 Soviet multimeter or APPA iMeter5 etc Fluke sure has its place on planet Earth and this is all..with respect..
Plus dunno why but Fluke seems to never lose calibration.
When you talk about the use of multimeters in the US military, I was a calibration technician in charge of a calibration/metrology laboratory for the Navy. When we inducted Fluke multimeters and tested them for total function, they were always considered rock solid. We loved them and knew them to be absolute superstar devices. That is not a common sentiment about most military equipment. We had procedures for calibrating fluke multimeters for all quantitative functions. They were always perfect out of the box and we sent them out to the fleet with no further calibration required, secure in that knowledge.
Yup. I worked (just shy of nine years) as a calibration technician within the USAF's metrology and calibration (AFMETCAL) system. My experiences with Fluke's equipment were like yours. I quickly learned which brands of test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) were quality products and which were not. Our customers would sometimes buy off-brand gear that came with a "certificate of calibration" which more often than not was just a worthless piece of paper. We'd perform an initial calibration on the off-brand equipment, and quite often (maybe 70% of the time?) it'd fail to meet one or more of its stated performance specs, and consequently the customer would have to send the thing back for a refund. You get what you pay for.
My brother worked briefly at a Navy calibration lab at NAD Earle, NJ
@@fornax205
Yep. I'm a mechanical engineer with the Air Force but I work with shop guys that do electrical work on end-items and on the jet. I trust their opinion, their stuff is always Fluke, that's what you use when you're doing work that could take down a jet if you don't do it right.
Had mine 25 years now...used on cars outside in the rain,left in a van from minus 10 to 40 degrees and it's never been a problem...still functions perfectly😊
I have had my Fluke 88 since the late 80’s , it still works perfectly and it gets used often in the Auto industry. Replaced the leads, fuses blew from amp testing but that’s not the fault of the meter. It was worth it and still is. I think it was 400$ at the time.
When I worked for NOAA, we only used Fluke. Because we were making data sets for Nautical Charts (sonar bathymetry). And the charts could get the Gov't sued over a mistake or error. So all our equipment was calibrated and sealed. If we went to court in a multi-million dollar case involving say a shipping company or oil company, the traceability was a factor. A survey ship at sea is thousands of dollars a day in operational cost, so you just don't take chances where you don't have to. The cost a Fluke meter is pennies by comparison ...
Well said, it all comes down to traceability. It doesn't necessarily need to be a Fluke but it better be calibrated and able to be objectively proven.
Spot on with those observations you made.
Here are a couple others I saw, having worked for 17 years in a military contracting company.
We had to build high reliability, high precision, high accuracy devices. These were spelled out specifically in the contract with industry standard ways of exactly measuring each.
The US military used to be the worlds largest consumer of electronic products. They required highly reliable resistors, caps, ICs, etc., so the industry provided them.
When the consumer electronics/ cell phone market exploded, that changed. The biggest customers for component were cell phone manufacturers and other consumer electronics, who, on average sold their customers new phones every year or two. They refused to pay the high price that comes from highly reliable components (7 to 10 years) as it wasn’t needed so the manufacturers stopped providing them.
This left the military contractors and test equipment manufacturers in a pickle. They still had the same stringent requirements but now had to build their products with less reliable, less accurate components. So what to do? They started screening batches of components. Companies popped up that provided these services. Your purchasing dept buys several lots of resistors and sends them to these testing companies to evaluate the reliability of each lot. Those that didn’t pass weren’t used. The extra cost of these tests is necessary to maintain the high standards contracts call for.
Fluke was affected by this as well so they have to go through extra steps to screen their parts to get the results they need. The fact that Fluke still continues to sell highly reliable, highly stable (with respect to metrology standards) products is due to the extra effort they have to go through to obtain these materials.
The US military requires that some equipment be made in the USA to cut down on possible industrial espionage. Buying and placing a piece of test equipment, now many of which can be connected online, inside a secure facility can become a security risk. It’s easier to manage and inspect/audit domestic manufacturing facilities and they are subject to US law for any illegal actions they may take. Not so with overseas manufacturers.
There are other reasons as well but these are the ones that came to mind watching your video.
Great job. I really enjoy your content. Keep it up!
Thank you for your insight!
Having worked in plant and vehicle maintenance i can say that fluke's are the best. They never lose their calibration and they are amazingly rugged. The leads are also super nice. Also like the replaceable internal fuse for measuring amps.
Been using meters and Fluke for quite some time. I like them but have never had this explained as well as you just just presented it. Makes perfect sense and I really appreciated the info. Thanks so much for sharing this. I feel enriched and enlightened . Stay safe.
I purchased a Fluke meter in the early 1990's when I was a electrician in a industrial poultry processing plant. 90% of what I done was either extremely wet, extreme heat and even working in freezer buildings. That meter was always in my tool belt. Later started my commercial/industrial electrical contracting company where that meter was used a lot and of course beat around a lot. Still works flawless today.
My experience with the Fluke DMM’s. Electrician mate of mine accidentally dropped his Fluke meter into gold mining leach tank (alkaline environment, slurry under constant agitation), the meter was recovered a month later during the shutdown and after a clean, the meter still worked. Awesome bit of kit.
Many years ago, I was involved in a research panel discussion about industrial test equipment. As an electronics engineer, I listed all of these points as my reasons for purchase of these products at the company I worked for. I summed it all up by stating "If it work's, it's a Fluke!" The crowd went wild, the panel discussion was closed, and my partner and I were presented with our own brand new Fluke multimeters!
I bought an old Fluke 73 III for $50 years ago. Does just fine for my automotive repairs.
Reason #1 02:27 Lifetime Warranty
Reason #2 02:49 Made in the USA
Reason #3 03:38 Longevity of Production
Reason #4 07:24 Measurement Confidence
Reason #5 12:08 Construction Quality & Consistency
Reason #6 12:27 World class Standards & Calibration
Reason #7 13:15 They are the Defacto Standard, and premium player
Reason #8 13:53 Calibration Procedures & Service Information
Very much appreciate it!
Thank you! Saving this, will watch the video tonight.
cheers mate, he don't half talk a lot
Thanks, btw. Isn't Fluke 101 at $45 kind of a hobbyist multimeter though?
* Lifetime or 10 years, whichever comes first.
I've been retired for many years now. I still have Fluke 77s (like in the article you showed) that I acquired in the 80s. I've had them calibrated at least every 3 years and one has never needed any adjustment, the other has only needed drift adjustment 2 times and they were both less than 0.01% I have 3 others and the only repair any of them have ever needed was one pink rubber connector with embedded wires between the circuit board and the display. Only my clamp meter is less than 20 years old. The only other meter I have is a Triplett vane meter and its from the 80s too. Confidence is a huge factor. Right or wrong, I just don't trust anything else.... Fluke has never let me down.
I am a carpenter and very happy with my old Fluke 10 that I managed to buy at an auction some 20 years ago. I only test for continuity, line AC and the occasional battery. Nice thing about Fluke is, when you whip it out, customers think “he must know what he’s doing!”…
I am an appliance repair technician, and have went through many meters over the last 20 years. Watching this video, I think the 786 meter is for me. I also have a you tube Chanel doing appliance repair so when I order mine in Canada, ill show in a video how it's working for appliance repair. Thanks for the video!
For a lot of folk, especially UA-camrs dinking around with stuff on camera, it's just a status symbol. "Oh look, I've got a Fluke, aren't I good huh?". BigClive is the hero here, although I know he does have Flukes, he's not proud about it and will use less hyped brands and even the generic dirt cheap ones on-screen. And frankly, if all you're doing is low voltage mucking around, you don't need anything fancy.
"will use less hyped brands and even the generic dirt cheap ones on-screen." - He does work with mains voltage every now and then though and that's a voltage level where I'd personally forego the use of dirt cheap meters too (unless I have nothing else at hand that is).
I work for a calibration lab. Fluke meters do remain pretty accurate with age and if they are out they can always be recalibrated to bring them back in. As Dave says there is a calibration and adjustment procedure for all of them. At the other end of the scale we have own brand instruments from one or two well known electronics suppliers that fail quoted performance specs from new. Recently we had 4 new of one meter in and 3 failed calibration.
I am inKlein'd to finish your thought, but don't feel it's my place.
I also worked in calibration lab that also calibrated DMMs for the army - for a while I dreamed about display digits at night. The calibrator was a big Fluke unit, which I really liked. The DMMs are OK, but nothing I would really be crazy about, there were more precise units than Flukes. I still use 78 Automotive DMM because it has some features that new units don't have.
I worked for one of the largest chemical companies in the world (US based) at a site in New Zealand. We were only allowed to use specific devices that were listed on a most effective technology document. The majority of the instruments that are mentioned were fluke. With a few exceptions for process calibrators etc. it made MET documents easier to manage as we had procedures which would reference specific models etc. It also helped to ensure that contractors working on site are using instruments with correct Cat ratings etc. I do own some fluke gear but I love my Kyoritsu and Hioki test gear!
I love my 30+ year old Fluke 75. Recently I left it outside in a supposedly waterproof toolbox, which wasn't. It got soaked. Water got behind the LCD window, but did not penetrate the display. There was a small amount of water on the PCB. I dried it out and it worked perfectly.
In the early part of my career I worked for Schlumberger Instruments (Solatron) and it always an in-joke that whilst we made meters to compete with (and in some case surpass) Fluke kit, Fluke was an integral of our test setups. Something we had be a bit hush-hush about.
My Schlumberger multimeter went bang in a puff of blue smoke , will use my fluke to repair it when I find a mains filter that fits in the hole...
@@joeatkin6600 Ah the RIfa and Blue smoke. Mine too. It was a 7150 type DMM and it was just sitting on the bench. I wasn't there and other half launched it outside never to return. My Henry Hoover and my 8640B all suffered the same Puffing Rifa. They survived any ejections though. The Kenwood food processor from 1986 still has Rifa's on board. Was nothing sacred from them?
"Longevity of production" (or a closely related attribute) is also important to "lifetime warranty". There might be cheap multimeters out there that have a lifetime warranty, but when your multimeter breaks, good luck trying to track down that random string of characters that passed for a company name on Amazon. (And which naming here apparently gets your comment deleted.)
by taking extreme parts you forget the middle ones: There is still other old and reputable brands which produce instrumentation tools for pros with that kind of warranty. That's especially true in the European market.
@@PainterVierax Very true, but I didn't mean to imply that Fluke was the only manufacturer that had "longevity of production".
@@PainterVierax Only problem is that they are either owned by Fluke (Beha-Amprobe) or cost as much as Fluke (Gossen Metrawatt)
I call those "alphabet soup" companies. Always frustrating to try and wade your way through all those "brands" finding a more legitimate/recognizable one.
I have worked in the Aerospace industry as an Avionics technician for over 30 years, both military and the private sector, and the Fluke has generally been used. I would buy a different DMM for home use if someone made one of comparable value. I am just very comfortable using my Fluke 83 III.
My uncle gave me his old t6-1000 Fluke as a gift. Unlike other testers that have so many bells and wistles and intimidating interface, It only has 3 buttons and a dial with 4 selections. The best tester I have.
I've had the same Fluke 75 meter for 40 years. It still works flawlessly to this day.
I’ve had my 87 since 1991. I had to go to Kuwait and my old 8020 screen got busted when the tool case it was in was dropped while unloading a helicopter in the Arctic and I couldn’t wait for the part to fix it. The last large communications company I worked for it was the standard.
I have the 77 multimeter. It has been going since the late 70's it was passed to me and it has never failed me once
@@phillipjacobs7975 ahhh, the 77.🙏😇
If I would have married the 77 instead of my ex... 👰> - $$$
Same here, bought mine in the early 1980's and I carried my 75 in an ammo can full of other tools bouncing around in the back of my truck. Still works fine, still using original wires and terminals. The poster can say what he wants about others being better, but everyone I know with another brand has had it go belly up eventually.
I’ve got an original Fluke 77 that my Dad gave to me as a present in 1986. Still my main daily use now almost 40 years later.
I had one too, until someone decided they needed it more than me, while on a job site.
I was not a happy camper!!!!!!
Sadly the Fluke 77 my father gave me in 1989 for high school graduation walked off a few years ago. It was just as fast and reliable when it disappeared as it was when it was new. I don't care what Dave says, I have never seen a Fluke fail. All the bench meters in college were Flukes. I've had other meters, but they always fail. When the digits on my Fluke got a bit wonky, I just opened it up and readjusted the zebra strip between the PCB and the LCD and it was as good as new. I now have a Fluke 87 V. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands before I'll let anyone borrow it. Also, the auto-ranging of the Fluke has always been fast, unlike many other multimeters I've worked with.
Hehe, I still have my trusty Fluke 77, olive green, bought in 1985. When new, we marveled at its quick response linear display, a feature years ahead of anything else.
Hell, the probes last about 20 years per set!
I also have a Fluke 88, more sophisticated. Fluke replaced the display about 24 years ago. Both meters are phenomenal.
Wow! You've outlined here what most of us would never have thought of. Fascinating! Thanks!
Thanks for your most excellent videos, I've learned sooooooo much from you. I'm really green to all this, only just successfully soldered TTH pin, fitting a socket to an oled section on a radio amateur pcb board for raspberry pi. Just learned how to crimp a dupont connector so the learning curves are steep, aided by your fine, fine work. Thanks buddy.
I still have my Fluke 77 that I used daily for years in the semiconductor industry for field calibration of precision measuring instruments. When the company upgraded our meters to one of the "true RMS" Flukes they gave us our old Flukes. After 30+ years it still works like new.
I am with you
Yep, my Fluke 77 is 20 years old and used daily. It’s a bit worn looking but would never replace it. Those in the know covet it and the younger engineers ask why I use an old beaten up crap meter😂.
@@PeteCourtier I'm with you brother. I've had my 2 Fluke 77's since the '80's working on semiconductor manufacturing equipment and even though I and the meter's are now retired, they still work like new on projects and repair duties. We're talking almost 40 years of reliable service.
My 77 that I bought through Sears is still running and still accurate.
From Indonesia 🙏🙏
There's one other important reason: You don't get fired for buying [important brand] products. Fluke is one of those brands.
I bought a Fluke 77 in 1985. It has been all over the world and it still works as well as it did when I bought it.
Great vídeo, it made total sense. Thank you for sharing!
A great video Dave! I ran a calibration lab within a division of CSIRO. The joys of metrology, and NATA
To hit closer to home, on the documentation part. Take the TI-84 Plus as an example, almost everyone has to use these at school (at least here in the Netherlands).
They are slow and expensive, yet everyone has to use them, as all the educational material references it and relies on the exact calculator.
Edit: restructured the comment a bit.
Perfect example ! I grew up with Ti-83+. our school text books had the 83+ baked into the schoolbooks
Good reason to test maths in ways that don't require a calculator. Firstly, no-one gets stuck with an old or useless one, second;y, it's cheaper, thirdly, you have to think about your answers, and fourthly if the answer to your problem isn't a whole number, simple fraction or a multiple of pi you've probably screwed up somewhere.
Really? As far as my experience in school there goes, there are now deals with schools to always go for the most up-to-date calculator for... reasons... that parents have to pull their wallet for every time. :)
I remember Ti-30 in that role. I often used a higher model in class but had access to an actual Ti-30 when required, as usage was exactly the same if avoiding the new (at the time) AOSP 2 user interface that required users to uselessly punch function buttons before the numbers.
@@johndododoe1411 I believe a bigger problem these days is calculators that can talk to each other wirelessly. In my day, calculators were fine if they didn't have a 'alphanumeric keyboard' - ie. weren't a 'computer' This had the ludicrous effect of banning the TI92 because of its keyboard, but allowing the TI89 which was functionally identical, just had a traditional form factor.
I'm a professional electronics technician. Back in the old days, I used a Simpson 260 meter. In 1983, I purchased my first Fluke 77. In 1985, I purchased another used Fluke 77 just like my first one. I paid $135 for the first one, and $25 for the second one. Both are series 1, with the gray rubber cases. I still use both of them daily to this day, nearly 40 years later. I don't even know where my old Simpson is anymore.
Thank you, Dave for breaking that down. Very well explained!
The only reason I own mostly Flukes is because I shopped around for them in slightly used or as-new condition. Otherwise they are cost prohibitive for my non-professional use.
absolutely correct on how large corporations almost do anything and pay (happily) any price to get the exact same specifications every time they buy another one of those god old whatever they used forever. I remember working in one of the biggest medical device manufacturers, a famous Australian one! and sometimes it felt almost comical the amount of trouble they indoor to get the exact same item regardless of the importance or complexity of it. doesn't matter if it was a simple detergent or sandpaper or high-tech test equipment, the cost of changing brand A detergent to brand B detergent, or switching from 1000 girt to 1100 grit sandpaper was millions of dollars as they have to prove with traceable facts and tests, those changes wouldn't have any effects on quality and longevity of the product.
As someone who has worked in medical production for a bit I'm not surprised. Entire staff has to sign off that they have read the entire spec sheet, safety warnings, etc of pretty much any substance and component involved. I never before considering reading the safety warnings for soap but we had to. Surprised we didn't have to sign off before using the toilet paper.
I can't blame them, I do the same on my life. for ex, when I need to fix any problem on my car, I just go for my reputable mechanic and I don't even ask for the price, I just say fix it. The amount of trouble I could get from going to another one I don't trust yet, its not worth the savings vs the risk. It even goes as far as using only original parts, why risk the warrant on after market? to save some small bucks and can come to bite you on insurance or warrant.
I can understand what goes into the decision.
Heck, even when I'm buying groceries on the super market, I go for the brands I trust and only some times I try something different, only because I know how the taste and quality is going to be and I don't care much about the price, it doesn't matter either way. Why change it and risk something that might taste bad or even be bad.
Its all about the mental resources I would have to spend to change vs the cost in money.
Ironically, not everything is about saving money, but almost every time its about saving time. Time is usually the most scarce resource you have either way, you can always earn more money later.
Time saving and risk management, simple as that.
@@jakx2ob Trust me there was an entire division of supply people who were doing just that, so that every roll was the same quality as the original contract specified, even if they had to special manufacture the poorest quality paper to meet that old specification, because that was the best when the contract was issued, 100 years ago.
@@SeanBZA I guess they need to mix in just the right amount of thorns into the pulp or whatever else they do for the abrasive feel.
@@monad_tcp For organisations and corporations this makes sense, but most individuals or families do not have the monetary leeway to behave like that.
Great explanation! Very objective👏💯 I started using Fluke meters in Mexico & now I keep using them in Canada. They have a very high reputation in North America & they are long-lasting!
I have a Fluke 77 that's a good 25 years old now, never failed. I once had it in storage for 5 years, and when I found it I discovered to my horror I left the battery in (not my habit). I date a battery, so it was easy to check. Five years old, still held some charge, absolutely zero leakage. That's why I now use Panasonic batteries exclusively, and not just in my Fluke gear..
All good points!
I'm a calibration technician in a USAF lab (aka PMEL) for over 30 years and would recommend most Fluke meters for any applications that matter. Every time we calibrate an item, we document our findings if it met specifications or out of tolerance (OOT) and that data is periodically reviewed by an engineer to determine the ideal calibration interval to meet at least an 80% reliability rate. Let's say the engineer is reviewing actions on a Fluke 87 and after hundreds of actions determines that on average, this model meets specifications 94% of the time. In that case, the calibration interval would be extended since reliability confidence is so high. If it didn't have high reliability, then the interval would be shortened. For USAF meters, many Flukes are on a 5 year calibration interval while many cheaper models are on either 3, 6, or 12.month interval. It's not brand loyalty or even written procedures (at least not so much) but years of tracking maintenance data for every part number and manufacturer.
Some other considerations are accuracy specifications as well as input characteristics. All too often we see that these cheaper models might have comparable or better specs but when tested in a lab are complete garbage. If you look inside, many times there may only be one or two adjustments or very poor product support where they don't provide service manuals to cal labs (usually under the excuse that it's proprietary). They don't expect the product to last so you buy replacements after only a year or two. Many cheaper meters do not have great input characteristics where it affects the circuit you are attempting to measure. Low current circuitry can easily be loaded down by a meter or introduce capacitance or noise. This is extremely common with many cheaper models. With test equipment, the saying that 'you get what you pay for' is very true.
My final comments are in regards to safety. Search for CAT III meters and mishaps. You will find disturbing pictures and videos of electricians who were injured or killed when working on high voltage and current lines and panels because of internal arcing or breakdown because their meter wasn't specifically designed to handle. Would you trust a generic brand or the industry leader who has engineered their products with safety in mind?
I worked for the BBC in the 1990. All the broadcast engineers were given a Fluke 77 DVM marked BBC on the back. One went missing presumed stolen. I was found over a year later next to a railway line ( thrown from a bridge by someone with a grudge ) , and returned. It was not in it's case, but after drying out, a squirt of WD40 and a new battery it worked fine. One more reason to buy Fluke.
Anecdote is not evidence. What makes you think no other brand of meter could do that?
@@thehighprotondiet3127 It is a true story, but take from it what you will. Another Fluke meter may have never worked again. A different brand may have survived even better. Sometimes it's just luck. It was my one time experience.
@@thehighprotondiet3127 better to hear such story than to read nothing about it. And if you check the current video then you can not see any bias of the likelihood that someone else would tell us such story from one of those many competitors.
Of cause again no evidence but Dave did not call for telling him about our fluke experience, nothing like that so anyone using thoses meters of any brand could have come up with his story.
And of cause we do not know if in that spot it had even rained in the months or weeks between lost and found. But I like to hear such story first hand which only happened cause back then and now it was a company asset, not the 8$ throw away item of nowadays which is not a judgement about their quality. They could even be better in some areas or all. But back in the 90s a GBP was of different value than now for sure, especially since brexit when we started to even import more from the UK for the first year. Since then the import has come to a digital and hard 0 GBP imports due to all the nightmares from shipping to customs and so on. China is shipping fast than the UK and the UK idea of asking for shipping quotes was the last nightmare which always bothered and took time.
Lost battle they will never win back again. I do not know how the economy makes it through tough days but the british exports dried out since last january.
I been using a Fluke 77 Multimeter and Weller Soldering iron (same nickel tip) for over 30 years. I use them both daily.
I've been working in and around the military for decades, and everything you said about why Flukes are so highly regarded and required is absolutely true. For the average homeowner, they're overkill, but they are definitely the gold standard of test equipment.
Thank you for being objective - as a professional, people just don't understand how things work in large companies. The amount of money spent on multimeters doesn't even register in anyone's conscience and it makes no difference to us if it is 5x the current price. We have more important things to worry about. Just me trying to search for the right model on the internet for an hour or two costs $200 in salary.
I couldn't afford a new Fluke when I started my avionics career. My friend suggested an ad he found on Kijiji. It was advertised for $40. Sounded like a sweet deal. I got to the seller house and we tried it out, but it wouldn't turn on so he gave it to me for free. I ended up taking it to work and I found one of the 9volt battery tabs broke off. I soldered a paperclip to the missing tab and have used it for the last 6 years without fail. Apparently the guys dad used the meter for years before I did. I'm lucky to have this meter it has really helped me excel in my field
I bought an 87 for the automotive field and it's awesome. Still learning and it's made that proceess a breeze as far diag goes. I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but I think safety ratings are also far more trusted in Fluke meters when it comes to significantly high voltage systems like electric/hybrid vehicles
I still regularly use a Fluke 77 from the 1980's. Works great; extremely reliable.
As you can see from your video, the Fluke can also withstand incredible shaking.
My Fluke 77 has worn contacts on the selector dail.
@@MultiArrie My selector is pretty good shape but my Radio Shack DVM is already showing some wear and has a lot less usage.
I have a Fluke 77 and it is over 35 years old. Still works flawlessly and used at my lab nearly daily. Can't imagine using anything else except for home hobby. But for my professional work, Fluke.
After I retired, I bought a Fluke for home use. 😁
Great video, thank you. On top of this, as a EE student, I used Fluke MMs during my university days, so I have a nostalgic connections to it. :)
Great video. Thanks for sharing, Steve
This is fascinating, subtle stuff that the average guy or, say, self-employed electrician just wouldn’t consider and probably wouldn’t need to. Unique video, logical & rational explanation for every reason. Top drawer, thanks.
As a diesel mechanic for fifty years there were two must have standards, 1 Fluke meter and 2 SnapOn torque wrenches.
CDI makes their torque wrenches for them.
@Stangmaster 2 Is that a bad thing?
@Stangmaster 2 Well if they didn't want them buying it they shouldn't have sold it to them. Moreover, Chinese made doesn't equate to bad. The Chinese companies will make it to whatever specs you want. Tell them to make it cheap and they will. Tell them to make it great and they will. Same for American manufacturing.
@Stangmaster 2 I love your counter argument. I don't know what to say so I'll call him a troll and tell him to shut up. That'll show him.
@Stangmaster 2 not all Chinese companys sell junk, Dji is the best at making drones , no other company come close american or foreign !
Thanks for sharing your videos and keep them coming please.
In the aviation industry (Rockwell Collins), They specifically used Fluke and HP meters for the reasons you mentioned. I had a chance to get an old fluke 77, which never failed me. Except for replacing internal fuses. I have had other cheap Chinese meters that failed and have since thrown out. Will keep the fluke.
Same with Boeing and Naval aviation. I've not seen any other DMMs in Boeing's tool boxes and I can't remember seeing anything other then Fluke in the navy's (but its been long enough I might have forgotten). There were Simpson 260s in the Navy but they're analog, and I stayed away form them because I broke three from knocking them over.
Around 2012, I found an old Fluke 8060A meter that had been beat up and abused on a truck for around 25 years. It had been through the heat of summer and the dead cold of winter in a tool kit stored on various trucks since the mid 1980s. It had lived a hard life in some extreme conditions and it was still working.
Fluke arrived at one of our local electronics parts stores one day with calibration gear and many new products that we were eager to try out. I brought that 8060A there just out of curiosity. Was it still in calibration? YES. It was --as good as it was when new. (Note that our calibration sticker was WAY out of date)
Naturally, the Fluke sales staff were eager to point this out not only to us, but to other clients. But there is a lesson here: You get what you pay for.
I using two 8060a, spot on and very good instrument.
I have an 8060A I bought in 1981 when I was going off to college for EE. It still works, and now I know that it doesn't need calibrating. :)
This is very good DMM
I love the 8060A. Working in Calibration, I've seen them in a lot of different conditions and I don't think I've ever seen one fail verification.
@@dmjohnston I've got two, both pretty spot on!
In my military service I had to use analog meters because the documentation was for a specific analog multimeter. We had boxes and boxes of new old stock of this meter.
Same here, tho we used both analog and digital meters depending on what the procedure called for. But the procedures did name a specific make/model meter to use, as in "Using a Fluke 8800 Digital Multimeter etc, etc, etc". And of course step one in the procedure was to verify the cal sticker.
I believe they manufacture newer versions of their meters too, though. If it's the Simpson 260 you are referring to.
@@markbrown8097 Simpson 260 does ring a bell for me.
I use them at work so I bought one for myself at home. And this probably doesn't matter to the vast majority of customers but Fluke is a big supporter of the union I'm in as well as our apprenticeship program.
After 40 years of working in the elevator industry, Fluke was my go-to. So many company supplied analog multimeters couldn't stand the use/abuse of the job, especially when you had the rotary switch in the wrong position on a 3 AM trouble call. I also appreciate the safety Fluke provides when measuring higher voltages. I've owned several Fluke DMM's I purchased for myself over the years. Always worth the extra expense to make sure I had the right tool.
I have one of the original multimeters from fluke that was produced in 1980 still being used in the field today to do measurements.
Just like you said it still works today and I have no reason to replace it because it does what I needed to do. Fluke has done an excellent job marketing their products. It's not just multimeters that are overpriced pretty much all their test equipment is overpriced as well as calibration services.
Take a category tester for testing category cable for a computer networks. Compared to other manufacturers they are always more expensive. Otdrs for testing fiber optic cable another example but they've done very well with their marketing as well as their audience.
Yupp, if you think a DMM is overpriced, wait until you see the CATX certification testers. On the other hand though, I've actually found the price of them to be a feature, we once had a case where someone tested a whole installation and got a 100% pass, but 45% failed continuity testing when we rechecked with a Linkrunner. We then acquired a Fluke certification tester (DSX I think it was), and retested, 40% pass rate. When we went to discuss our findings, having the "gold standard" and most expensive meter in the room shut down the arguments from the other side of the table quite quickly.
There also is Gossen Metrawatt, those multimeters are even more expensive than Fluke and Made in Germany. They're mainly used for power electronics troubleshooting.
I would guess, all the reasons mentioned for Fluke here, are also true for Gossen Metrawatt.
Where I am working at the moment the head electronics guy has kitted out everyone with Gossen Mettawatt DMMs. Have to say, as a lifetime Fluke user, that I have found the Gossen extremely slow to autorange compared to anything I have used previously.
@@simonstroud2555 True.
I'm so glad I saved this old $550 Fluke meter I that doesn't work anymore! I didn't realize they had a lifetime warranty.
That's good enough reason to buy a Fluke! Thank you for this information.
My aunt gave me a Fluke 21 that had been in her closet in a box for years when my cheap one quit working on DC. I'm going to get a battery for it tomorrow.
They just last and don't lose their calibration.
Spot on, Dave. And, when you write reports that reference test equipment, even the OCD clients that "know everything" NEVER get snarky when you list FLUKE, TEKTRONIX, HP, SENCORE, etc... That report can pass through many hands, and be scrutinized at meetings for days, and NOBODY challenges the kings.
Back when I was still doing IT consulting before I retired, the industry-standard joke was "Nobody ever got fired for buying/recommending IBM." It takes a lot of time and experience for an industry titan to be knocked off its perch, regardless of their actual quality/reliability.
Fluke was the standard for companies in mining and pulp and paper I worked for directly as a result of the calibration requirements. When lives are at risk you want something that can stand up to legal enquiry if something goes wrong and then you really have to have that paper trail.
They even make an intrinsicly safe version for mining.
@@EEVblog The 28-2 ex is great!
The only thing missing is the bargraph function, which the 28-2 standard edition has.
Great content. Down to earth and spot on. Thank you
Well I've used Fluke meters for many, many years as for being retired, however being in Electronics repair in many different aspects for the past 48 years. I have an old Fluke bench top multimeter model: 8050A and it's still working and going strong. Of course wold love to have the latest & greatest, however part of being old now is being poor as for unrealistic cost of test equipment and components. Best of luck everyone! And thanks to the Fluke Company! Can't be beat!!
For personal use (and living in Japan), I would recommend Sanwa. The first multimeter my dad bought for me when I was six was Sanwa’s multimeter.
I bought a Sanwa meter as my first meter.... that was 56 years ago... look after them and they last.... still have it and use it when I want an analogue read out instead of my Fluke...Yes, I've serviced the rotary function switch a few times.. meter movement still OK.... ;-)
Interesting, thanks for the info. I might get the tiny Fluke 101 as a 2nd multimeter. It's only $45, so kind of a hobbyist multimeter, but really compact.
I am from India. My first (reliable) multimeter in 1980s was Sanwa P3 analog multimeter. its accuracy and reliability was legendary.
Santander is a extremely good company with excellent products ,they may not be into humongous overpriced contractor rackets with defense departments
YES , my earliest experience back in late 70's was with Sanwa Analog meter and last for almost 20 years later and died because of my repeated mistakes of measurement so without those stupid action I could have it even 20 years more ...
As a military aviation worker for many years I used to be amazed when I ordered an $18 bolt knowing an “identical” one was available at the local hardware store for $1. Then I saw the documentation and certification for a bolt. There is value in knowing, absolutely, the bolt is exactly what it appears to be in material, finish, hardness and dimension in a critical application, particularly when the fastener is being loaded near its design limits. The fact the hardware store bolt will probably work just fine is not good enough. These requirements do unfortunately set up a atmosphere were item requirements are described in too much detail and you end up with a $500 toilet seat.
It's a dogs breakfast with a lot of hardware store fasteners, even on the box they will say "product of. . . " and list 3 or 4 countries. They may even test some, but you have no idea. so the $ saved is not worth it
I've done spy satellite testing for the government, and it's the same deal. You realize why that stuff costs the tax-payers so much money when you see a 1k pull-up resistor with a serial number on it, and the associated paperwork stack with the resistor's 24 hour burn-in signed off on and dated (in black ink.)
sorry, I was involved in a Kalifornia required inventory tax check at McDonald-Douglas and found out the REAL reason military parts and tools get so expensive.
The contract the military produces requires stuff to be kept in inventory by the manufacturer. Say it's a combination wrench... So it's got to speced out to standards so it will fit and work and that cost money so that's added to the price over the identical wrench at the local store.
Now, it's sitting in a warehouse that has staff that has to be paid, the electricity is being used for air conditioning and lights so that builds up day after day... adding to the cost.
And the BIG thing is STATE TAXES where an inventory tax is charged each year. (I worked in aerospace and one company that made pressure gauges and sensors actually THREW AWAY their complete inventory every year because it was cheaper to replace with all new certified aircraft spec stuff than to pay the Alabama yearly inventory tax).
So back to that wrench, each year the bookkeeping department adds the cost to keep that wrench in inventory to the price to be charged if the customer (the military) ever ordered it. So after 10 years that wrench might have an accumulated price of 20X it's cost at a tool store. If the company sold it at the original price they would have lost a lot of money, so the government understands it's the government's fault for requiring the inventory to be kept and pays the high price.
The real problem is that all the states got together and use 'inventory tax' to rake in money from companies which the companies just pass on to the customer as higher prices and the customer thinks the company is the bad guy but really it's the government hidden taxes.
Of all things in my life have ever bought the best is my Fluke 87 which I bought back in 1988 and after 34 years I am still using it every day no other instrument is more reliable and better build
Spot on 👍 When I was working for British Airways, virtually all our meters were Fluke and our maintenance documents would ask for specific test equipent.