On 3/18/2011 12:48 PM, Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,
"hr(bob) wrote:

On Mar 18, 8:28 am, wrote:
On 2011-03-17, wrote:

bad almost as quickly as the cheap ones.

That does no jive with my firsthand experience. When I was
maintaining them, we had 2 failures out of 200 meters over a 4 yr
period. I suppose Fluke quality may have gone down in the last 15
yrs, but I find it hard to believe Flukes are now failing as often as
cheapo meters. Sorry, but I just don't believe you.

nb

But even if the el-cheapos fail 5 x as often as Flukes, the Flukes are
more expensive on a yearly basis because they cost way more than 5x an
el-cheapo. My HF el-cheapos have held up just fine, and I don't have
to worry when I use them aboutmishandling them and seeing $$$ go down
the drain.

A friend of mine bought some cheap ass mechanic's tools years ago, from
the three stooges auto parts store. At that time, Craftsman made some
pretty fine tools, with a lifetime guarantee, and I had advocated for
those. But his came with a lifetime guarantee also, and were far less
pricey.

Unfortunately, he was in the middle of a major engine repair when one of
his sockets broke. After that, he realized that a quality tool is better
than a lifetime guarantee. "I don't need a lifetime guarantee right this
minute, I need a tool that isn't broken," is how he put it.

Being able to throw away a broken multi-meter isn't what I need, ever.
And not knowing whether I'm being deceived by a supposed measurement due
to intermittent probes or a cold solder joint in the meter isn't what I
need, ever, either.

That is why you don't use HF tools for work you are making money from,
or for stuff where people could get killed or seriously expensive
equipment could get trashed. But, on the other hand, if you want
something to keep in the desk to quickly diagnose/fix a kid's toy or
whatever, they can be quite adequate, in some cases. I have good tools,
and I have disposable tools. The key is knowing when which is
appropriate. (ie, I don't need to pull out a Fluke or a Simpson to find
out if a wall wart has any juice at the tip, or to determine the
polarity because it wasn't molded into the case. Saves me digging out
the real meter.)

--
aem sends...