What multimeter should i get?

[toli]

The 1253 is actually pretty easy to use. I've used quite a few of its functions without having to open the manual. Plus, since it has a great OLED display, the setup is very easy to navigate through and to change settings. I believe that's one of the things the OLED makes easier in comparison to the standard display.

[saturation]

Yes, that's wonderful toli, but then the flip side is they downplayed battery life, or OLED in sunlight.  Seems like overall its best as a pseudo-bench meter for indoor use.

The 1253 is actually pretty easy to use. I've used quite a few of its functions without having to open the manual. Plus, since it has a great OLED display, the setup is very easy to navigate through and to change settings. I believe that's one of the things the OLED makes easier in comparison to the standard display.

[toli]

Agreed

I was going to purchase the 1252 as well since I didn't see much use in an OLED screen for a DMM. But turns out its a great feature for me, and I'm glad the 1252 was out of stock which made me go for the 1253. I don't use the DMM for long periods of time without pauses. Even if I'm working on a project, I'm only using the DMM for a small period of time before going back to soldering/testing. So the battery will probably last quite some time with my type of use. Plus, all my work is done indoors so I can really enjoy the OLED display.

Yes, for people who use their DMM extensively, the 1253 won't last long enough. On the other hand, the 1252 only lasts about 36 hours according to the data sheet, which is quite low as well.

At the end its a matter what your needs are. For me the 1253 turned out to be great, as it answers all my needs. And for the price there's nothing I would like more. In fact, I really don't see anything wrong with it for my needs. But as everything else, it is subjective.

[saturation]

There is an Agilent white paper about how to buy DMMs, and it makes a good point.  The market is so saturated with meters, that the real difference between each is how you can best maximize its use for one's personal need, in terms of workflow.  Like personalizing a smartphone or a PC,  one needn't settle for one interface or size for all, but increasingly find a specific meter with features that fill your niche better to make you work easier.

Based on this idea, one can keep introducing new DMMs, each with an added very subtle difference, address thus just that niche for a particular use, This philosophy seems to be in their DMM family, were the differences between each are small, including basic accuracy.

[slburris]

I've now had a few days with my 1253, and I have to say this meter
has a serious chance of displacing my 87-V as my primary meter.  I've
used it several times in low light situations, and there's just no
comparing a backlit LCD display to the OLED display.  It's just
extremely readable in any indoor situation I've tried it in.

On the subject of batteries, I'm betting the battery shipped with
the meter isn't going to last long, so I'm looking for a replacement.
I've become a fan of the low self discharge NiMH batteries.
However, while I use the Sanyo Eneloop for AA and AAA, they
don't seem to make 9V.  Anyone tried the Tenergy 9v?

http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-Centura-Self-Discharge-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B003QUNYQI

Scott

[saturation]

So am I, there are several 9v varieties with 8, 7 or 6 1.2v cells in them, so their working voltage is 9.6, 8.4 and 7.2 [ the one that shipped with the 1252a].  Higher cost with more cells, LSD more than regular NiMH.  

What I see is if you use the meter a lot, LSD doesn't matter; but if you want it working when you want it, and have infrequent use, the LSD are preferable as it will hold a charge longer during storage.  However, since the 9V rechargeable have lower mAH, their runtimes are shorter than alkaline, so a higher working voltage will keep the meter running a touch longer than simply mAH.  

Let us know how you fair!  I still have a stock of non-LSD 9V NiMH so it'll be awhile before I buy a new set.

http://www.amazon.com/PowerEx-IMEDION-Low-Self-Discharge-Rechargeable-Battery/dp/B004NVVPJC/ref=sr_1_22?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1302370012&sr=1-22

I've now had a few days with my 1253, and I have to say this meter
has a serious chance of displacing my 87-V as my primary meter.  I've
used it several times in low light situations, and there's just no
comparing a backlit LCD display to the OLED display.  It's just
extremely readable in any indoor situation I've tried it in.

On the subject of batteries, I'm betting the battery shipped with
the meter isn't going to last long, so I'm looking for a replacement.
I've become a fan of the low self discharge NiMH batteries.
However, while I use the Sanyo Eneloop for AA and AAA, they
don't seem to make 9V.  Anyone tried the Tenergy 9v?

http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-Centura-Self-Discharge-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B003QUNYQI

Scott

[toli]

Keep us updated. I want to order another battery (put it in the Aligent, and use the one supplied with Agilent for my second DMM) and not sure which will last longer.

[gobblegobble]

I recall reading that you'd need only one week of inactivity with non-LSD AAs to reach equal charge to LSD version. No idea whether 9v cells do better or worse, but a week sure does sound awfully short period at least with my typical DMM usage.

As for the 9.6, 8.4 and 7.2 volts, only supported options according to the manual are 8.4 and 7.2. I'm sceptical to whether one should be worried of damage due to the higher voltage, but more of a concerned to the inbuilt charged to not properly charge the 9.6 volt battery as the charging settings only include 8.4 and 7.2 volt options.

Anyone got an opinion on these? I've gotten recommendation on them but haven't used myself any...

[saturation]

Yes, that's important, see bold item.  Right now that's all I'd buy, because the manual says so.  So far, most 9V NiMH sold are 7.2V.  I think its prudent to choose either 8.4, or 7.2 and the only other choice is whether its LSD or standard NiMH, LSD is about 2x the cost of standard NiMH.  At worst, the 1252a charger will cutoff prematurely, so the 9.6V cell is undercharged since it also does dv/dt cutoff sensing.

If you use the meter at least weekly, choose standard.  If rarely, choose LSD.  The battery linked is a bit expensive and it doesn't say LSD.  

If you don't know which to buy, get LSD.  I just bought a set of Tenergy 9V 200mAH LSDs for $25 for 4 + a 9v charger from Amazon.  I'll see if I can migrate away from alkaline on my other DMMs given LSDs capabilities.

A good source for batteries [ lots of choices of brands and great prices]

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/9V-Batteries_c_669.html

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon, see these folks.

I recall reading that you'd need only one week of inactivity with non-LSD AAs to reach equal charge to LSD version. No idea whether 9v cells do better or worse, but a week sure does sound awfully short period at least with my typical DMM usage.

As for the 9.6, 8.4 and 7.2 volts, only supported options according to the manual are 8.4 and 7.2. I'm sceptical to whether one should be worried of damage due to the higher voltage, but more of a concerned to the inbuilt charged to not properly charge the 9.6 volt battery as the charging settings only include 8.4 and 7.2 volt options.

Anyone got an opinion on these? I've gotten recommendation on them but haven't used myself any...

[Tony R]

I found this one, It sounds pretty good but I'm not sure, its a little over your $35 price range but it will work...

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-in-1-digital-multimeter-98674.html

[Bored@Work]

I found this one,

Looks like a re-badged Mastech.

It sounds pretty good

Typicall chinese crap.

[Russel]

Dave's video blogs have really done a service to those of us that aren’t electronic engineers. (At the very lease...Me.) The reason that I say that is that after seeing multimeters explode, and Dave explaining the reason for the high energy fuses in multimeters in the equipment reviews, I have become much more safety conscious. I never really though much of measuring mains with a cheap multimeter, but I do now. A cheap multimeter may be OK to see if an AA cell is dead, but I won't go anywhere near the main with one again. I've got good, safe multimeters, and now use them all the time. Never again will I purchase a cheap (and in my opinion) unsafe multimeter.

[saturation]

A simple solution is to go to Grainger.com, an industrial supplier.  They only list items of known reputation.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/AMPROBE-Digital-Multimeter-1WKN4?Pid=search

From there, you can choose among reputable brands in the industrial/electrical field.  The prices aren't the best, but some are on sale, like linked above.  That website only sells to US buyers, and does not include state tax and shipping costs.

You can do better in terms of specs, for price/performance by shopping elsewhere, but at least now you've narrowed the field to key players and models.

[slimm]

Did you check out Sears?  And Home Depot carries several low end Sperry meters. I also noticed Loews is now carrying some Amprobe meters. I picked up an Amprobe AM 240 at one of my hvac supply houses for $24.00 recently good luck!

[saturation]

I can confirm, the tenergy batteries are great for its price, I haven't tested its LSD capacity well enough; I let a few 9v set for a month and test terminal voltage, but so far its better than ordinary LSD as is, so its worth it.

I got the $25+$5s/h charger + 4 battery deal, its the best bang for buck in cost from Amazon, see link.  Working voltage is 8.4Vdc.

http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-Charger-Self-discharge-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00461DNTO/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303306941&sr=1-4

Charger is better than the simple timer chargers I have, has dV/dt cutoff and 5 hours max charge timer, and its small: the perimeter and thickness of 3x9V placed side by side.  

Battery construction quality is high, much better than the GP 9v shipped with the 1252a.

I've now had a few days with my 1253, and I have to say this meter
has a serious chance of displacing my 87-V as my primary meter.  I've
used it several times in low light situations, and there's just no
comparing a backlit LCD display to the OLED display.  It's just
extremely readable in any indoor situation I've tried it in.

On the subject of batteries, I'm betting the battery shipped with
the meter isn't going to last long, so I'm looking for a replacement.
I've become a fan of the low self discharge NiMH batteries.
However, while I use the Sanyo Eneloop for AA and AAA, they
don't seem to make 9V.  Anyone tried the Tenergy 9v?

http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-Centura-Self-Discharge-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B003QUNYQI

Scott

[toli]

Thank you for the update.

Did you try charging them in the Agilent? Was there any issue with the fact its 7-cells and not 6-cells like the stock battery is?

Any comparison in terms of battery life inside the Agilent between this one and the stock battery?

[saturation]

Hi Toli,

Yes, charged in the Agilent 1252a, no problem.  The battery maintains higher output voltage over a week compared to the stock battery, despite the tenergy being only 200mA vs 300mA for the GP battery.  But I haven't had a month of use yet, so its premature, but so far its great.

The manual states 8.4Vdc cells are OK, so its a reason I bought them, I'm unsure of the 8 cell batteries, but the tenergy NiMH  are cheapest I've noticed [ thanks to slburris], about $6 each.

"List of compatible batteries for the Agilent U1252A :
• 7.2V 300mAH Ni-MH Rechargeable battery, 9V size
• 8.4V 300mAH Ni-MH rechargeable battery, 9V size
• 9V Alkaline non-chargeable battery (ANSI/NEDA 1604A or IEC 6LR61)
• 9V Carbon-zinc non-chargeable battery (ANSI/NEDA 1604D or IEC6F22)
"

Thank you for the update.

Did you try charging them in the Agilent? Was there any issue with the fact its 7-cells and not 6-cells like the stock battery is?

Any comparison in terms of battery life inside the Agilent between this one and the stock battery?

[saturation]

Some interesting Tenergy LSD NiMH 9V vs GP 9V standard NiMH battery data.

Over the past 2 weeks, the average discharge of the batteries are:

Tenergy: 9mV/day
GP: 33mV/day

The tenergy data is consistent across 3 quiescent batteries and their rate of self discharge is nearly identical, measured with a 6.5 digit 3456a.

All batteries were charged to full via the tenergy charger, and will be allowed to self discharge over a month.  I anticipate self-discharge rate will slow down further as time passes but even if not, the tenergy are worth the cost despite having lower mAH.

[hannobisschoff]

Hi Ian, now I'm the guy that asked a similar question right before you, I got my "problem" solved by buying a second-hand fluke for a VERY good price. Now first of all, I'd like to apologize to the members who must be quite fed-up with this question by now. (I only discovered the bunch of reviews Dave did a bit too late). The awnser is simple: Don't be scared of 2nd-hand high end meters, and "GET SOMETHING DECENT FROM THE START."
Good Luck.

Hanno.

[slburris]

How's the long term Tenergy test going?

I think I'll place the same Amazon order for some to try out.

I still really like this Agilent meter.  Would I have paid $450 for it
over a Fluke?  No.  But at the Grainger sale price, this was really
a no brainer.

Still waiting for the great Grainger spectrum analyzer sale :-)

Scott

[saturation]

Very well and impressive for no name batteries.  I will post new discharge values later; its got a logarithmic curve; the daily discharge rate is dropping with time so its starting to plateau.

The Agilent issue GP 9V is also slowing down but the overall discharge rate is still 5x higher.

Since I put the tenergy in the 1252a the battery indicator has remained at full for nearly 2 weeks; on the GP it would drop in days and I recharged it once a week!

Its a definite buy.  I am just characterizing its performance.  I think you can safety replace all your 9V alkalines with this type. 
Its actually so good it should squeek a lot more hours out of the OLED version to make it much more practical a unit.

BTW the 9V charger it comes with is sweet too; fast charging, good annunciators RED= charging GREEN = DONE.  I think it flashes when something is wrong, but I haven't seen that yet

How's the long term Tenergy test going?

I think I'll place the same Amazon order for some to try out.

I still really like this Agilent meter.  Would I have paid $450 for it
over a Fluke?  No.  But at the Grainger sale price, this was really
a no brainer.

Still waiting for the great Grainger spectrum analyzer sale :-)

Scott

[slburris]

Saturation,

How are the discharge rates on the Tenergy batteries looking now?

I think I'm about to pull the trigger and get some of these for my 1252.

A little off topic, but have you ever compared the Sanyo Eneloop AA's against
the Tenergy equivalent?  I'm thinking if they did a good job with the 9v battery,
they may be worth a look for AA and AAA LSD batteries as well.

Luckily they are all available from Amazon -- If you can't buy it at Amazon, it probably
shouldn't be bought :-)

Scott

[saturation]

Hi scott,

I posted it elsewhere online, my apologies, I forgot here, here's a paraphrase: 

The packaging and products build quality are first rate, as good as name brands like Energizer or Duracell.

Charger
It not only shuts off based on reaching the final voltage, but has a backup timer to prevent overcharging.   It works as described with the LED being RED when charging, and turning green when charge completed. The charger is very small and pocket sized.

Battery
The end charge voltage of these cells are 9.7V, so one can be sure its anything but a 6 cell 9v.

I was skeptical whether these batteries were truly low self discharge. After 1 mo since I charged 3 tenergy batteries and the Agilent supplied 9V together, and after this time, the standard NiMH has self discharged to 8V while these cells are still 9.7V!

The discharge curve is a decaying natural log, and measured to uV levels you can track uV drops daily until it plateaus at 9.7V.

The higher number of cells on these Tenergy unfortunately makes the battery meter on the Agilent less helpful, as it appears full all the time, until its near its end, then the graph drops fairly quickly and the low bat icon appears.

I did compare the tenergy 9V against eneloop 1.25V AA cells, the eneloops have an edge in retention over time, but its fairly small.  But strictly speaking that's 9V vs 1.25V and things could be different for the construction of 1.25V AA tenergy cells.  You'd have to weigh the cost difference.

I noticed someone [ tenergy?] posted comparative data at Amazon.  Here's an important one, total charge/discharge cycles, and they are fairly close.  This is fairly extreme use, discharging at 1C continuously will shorten the cell life, but good testing! 





NB: The 1252a is a fantastic DMM.  Great for home labs, fast, accurate, I use it more than my other DMMs and the 1272a I have on tests.  One side issue for me is the rubber coating on the body is flaking off mine, and it isn't a year old, its mostly on the hand contact areas and particularly on the rotary knob.  The beep is wimpy, but otherwise a great DMM.

Saturation,

How are the discharge rates on the Tenergy batteries looking now?

I think I'm about to pull the trigger and get some of these for my 1252.

A little off topic, but have you ever compared the Sanyo Eneloop AA's against
the Tenergy equivalent?  I'm thinking if they did a good job with the 9v battery,
they may be worth a look for AA and AAA LSD batteries as well.

Luckily they are all available from Amazon -- If you can't buy it at Amazon, it probably
shouldn't be bought :-)

Scott

[slburris]

I moved my Agilent meter to the Tenergy 9v about 5 months ago, and I've
been very happy with the results.

Scott

[saturation]

Glad to hear it, same here, I use the tenergy centura 9V on the 1252a and it rocks.  Battery life is far less an issue now because the self discharge rate is negligible and the only time I need to charge it depends on how much I use it.   Its perfect for it except for the low bat meter.  BTW the AA and AAA tenergy centura are quite good too, now almost a year since I got them.