"Doug" wrote in message
...
Recently I got a new Fluke 117 for like $120 on ebay. The leads seem
pretty good to me but I'm just an amateur. I like the tester but I
admit it's overkill but I bought it for its durability, exceeding my
needs and so I never have to buy another tester. Should it outlive
me, I hope to pass it on. And it's coming in handy as I will be using
it shortly to find the common wire in a 3 way switch so I can replace
the switch with a timer.

It should outlast you. One thing about the Fluke is the safety rating for
it. A CAT III 600 volt rating. I am not sure of the ratings of the low
cost units. For around the house and under 250 volts the low cost units are
probably ok. I work with 3 phase 480 volt circuits that can have over 300
amps on them at times. For that I use one of several of the Fluke meters I
have. Company I work for provides them. If you ever see a safety film of
what can hapen to a nonrated meter if you hapen to have it in the ohms or
amp position and get across a voltage , you will be glad you have a quality
meter.