On Tuesday, 7 April 2015 21:49:51 UTC+1, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Tue, 07 Apr 2015 11:01:14 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

My experience says a £40 or so DVM from the far east is likely to be ok.
For many, a Fluke is simply too expensive for casual use.

40 notes these days will buy you a lovely s/h AVO model 8 and it'll last
a lifetime.

But for a lot of modern uses an AVO isn't that good. It's relatively big, bulky and heavy too.

I bought a model 7 the other day for 15 quid and it's built
like a tank and will measure up to 1200V with zero risk of exploding in
your face - unlike those ridiculous cheap AND nasty DVMs where you're
taking your life in your hands with just normal mains voltages.
Real quality never dates.

not everyone wants to measure 1200V. I have about a dozen AVOs on a shelf they haven;t been used for years. We use DMMs now they are far better for almost every use an AVO was put to.