Multimeter recommendation

[Lightages]

Fair enough. Just remember that a piece of paper does not make me qualified. I do not have such papers and if that is all you will take to believe I have sufficient qualifications from experience, so be it.

I agree that my UT71E could be a lemon as far as accuracy goes, but it is clear that the current measurements are not made for more than 250V and thus do not meet their CAT ratings. I have not tested the volt/ohm input for the CAT rating either but having a battery snap wire running against the input trace is most definitely not safe practice and probably will not withstand high voltage.

I have my opinion, you have yours.

[Wytnucls]

I don't think you understand the CAT rating.
Meters are tested on the Volts/Ohms range only. They have to sustain the following voltages for very short transient. The PTCs, Crowbar circuit, MOVs and GDTs would come into action then, to protect the meter from damage for voltages over 1000V. If you look at your meter, you'll see that the CAT rating is on the Volt/Ohms range only.

CAT II 600V 4000V peak impulse transient 12 Ohm source
CAT II 1000V 6000V peak impulse transient 12 Ohm source
CAT III 600V 6000V peak impulse transient 2 Ohm source
CAT III 1000V 8000V peak impulse transient 2 Ohm source
CAT IV 600V 8000V peak impulse transient 2 Ohm source
CAT IV 1000V 12000V peak impulse transient 2 Ohm source

When you measure current on the Amp range, there is very little voltage across the shunt and fuse, as its resistance/impedance is usually around 0.01 Ohm, in series with the circuit under test which could have a 1000V supply with a 200 Ohm load for instance, causing no problem, as long as current is kept below 10A. If you go over that 10A rating, the fuse blows, whether it is rated at 250V or 600V.

If you try to measure 1000V across a live supply, with the leads in the A/mA, causing a short, then all hell breaks loose, high voltage and amperage is applied to the shunt and fuse, with possible arcing and destruction of the meter, even with HRC fuses. This is the situation where a higher voltage rating for the fuse is safer, to contain the energy flowing through it.
There is further protection behind the fuse on the mA/uA range, consisting of a bridge rectifier and Zener diode, limiting voltage to 6.3V in case of overload.

So, in short, the voltage rating of your fuses does not affect your current reading limits and 600V/1000V is fine on the UT-71.

[T4P]

Hold on a sec, those glass fuses have a VERY limited breaking current. I have seen some explode violently from just 100amps surge
Plus they're not DC rated, which means it's EXTREMELY risky to use over 50VDC
There are so many users of the UT61E and i have calibrated it after receiving them both within a month, they are well within specs
Even my local supplier took away the 71E when i went to ask because people complained it IS crap.
Doesn't meet accuracy specs, doesn't meet CAT rating. Good luck containing a 4000V peak impulse without a add-on MOV on the both the 6X and 7X
But hell, if you shorted the current range thereotically it won't have any voltage drop, BUT IT WILL HAVE THE VOLTAGE FLOWING THROUGH.
There's a stark difference between Voltage Drop and Voltage going through it, alright, if you don't believe me try it on a 250VDC(!) 100A supply

A good competitor? What else? MS8218! As if i would need internal logging!
Stays well in spec, 50000 counts and a proper bargraph that looks more like a analog
And guess what? I haven't seen a inaccurate reading outside of the specs, a friend of mine(who has some the same voltage reference as martin...) was interested in the UT61E and borrowed both of mine to check it's accuracy,
10V was exactly 10.000V (both of them!) compared to a HP 3468
1V was 1.0001V and the other one 1.0002V
(He left it overnight and left it on datalogging with UltraDMM, the graph was pretty stable)

Alright, you also took shots at saying the UT61E was "barely better" than the UT71E when you didn't own one,
it's not that i didn't own one before, i did! For a short while... i refunded it at a local shop because it was NOT even 0.5% on most DC and AC ranges compared to my UT61E
 

[Lightages]

To avoid this pissing contest and avoid continuing to hijack this thread, I have started another thread.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects-designs-and-technical-stuff/cat-ratings-and-interpretation/

In any recommendation of any multimeter one must consider its use, and possible mode of failure in this intended use. Consider that an instrument might be pressed into service beyond the original purchase criteria and that the best buy is to buy something that will not be dangerous or have flaws that might cause harm from future error in use, or from unintended use by the original purchaser or another person.

IMHO the UT71E is not a good buy, there are others as I have posted that are much better buys. The UT61E is a good entry model multimeter but it too has its flaws.

In the low end of multimeters to buy it is definitely worth  look at Dave's video on the $50 shootout, and for better meters his $100 shootout. I am sure that Dave will be the first to say that his reviews do not reflect the total of all available choices, and that the evidence of a good meter from one manufacturer for a specific model is not conclusive evidence that all models from the same manufacturer are equally as good. This is shown easily with "$50" Extech vs the "$100" Extech.

If you want no questions asked general acceptance of quality, buy an Agilent, Fluke, Gossen, etc and pay your bucks. This is, of course, not a guarantee that you will get the best buy, the most accurate, nor even the most suitable to the task you want.

IMHO, if someone has a concern with the accuracy, reliability, and safety of a specific multimeter, and it is not just the opinion of just one loud mouth complainer, then it warrants consideration.

Again, my recommendations for meters would include UNI-T for these models for low energy and low voltage work and for a budget price: UT10A as a really nice little pocket meter, UT33C as a good general purpose small troubleshooting meter for automobiles and general electronics.

For general electrical and electronics with a fair amount of safety and confidence, the UT61E is a good buy meter for around $60.

For high energy circuits and high accuracy I would not hesitate to buy a Fluke 87V, Aglient 1252, Bryson BM857 or BM867 or BM869, Amprobe AM-140-A or AM-160-A, or UEi DM397. This list is not exhaustive of course and some are MUCH more expensive than the others. The list also not from experience but from trusted sources for reviews and information.

My experience with modern multimeters is rather limited as I have just started to update my equipment after my last updates of equipment from many years past.

[nukie]

I own three Uni-T multimeter which includes a 71D. I own this unit for a few years now. Of all the DMMs I have, this is the one which drifted the most, I did not take note if it is still within accuracy spec. I record results of all my DMM periodically and I have very stable array of well aged LTZ1000 as references.

The readings is unrepeatable for the last digit and it doesn't like reading noisy DC, ie the filtering is kaput. To the point I had to do something, I followed the calibration video but I could never get it right. This annoys me OCD majorly. Long term accuracy is unstable.

If someone would payme 90% of what I paid, I would gladly part with it. There are many choices out there, the 61 series is a praised DMM even in the Chinese forums. I wouldnt hesistate to buy it.

The 71series is not too bad its actually very well built and robust structure wise. It has super useless stand, tilt angle is no good for me. It's probably the most feature packed DMM among Chinese can offer. But unfortunately it's jack of all trades it does everything but not perfectly. Don't believe me? Why don't get one 71D, then compare to the similar spec Fluke 187? Of course one would argue its silly to compare different priced items, but they have near same spec right? Perhaps the UniT should revisit 71 series spec sheet?

[Wytnucls]

Hi Nukie,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the 71D.
Uni-T does revise their PCBs and lay-outs fairly regularly, so hopefully your problem, assuming it was a design fault with the meter, has been sorted-out. Mine are quite stable, but I will only be sure about their long term reliability, once I get a precise instrument for comparison.
It is strange, because Uni-T has not skimped on components, pairing a pretty good Cyrustek with an TI low power uController.
Have you ever tried to have it fixed by Uni-T? They are usually pretty good with that sort of thing, although accuracy is only garanteed for a year, I think.

yes, sorry, I meant to say TI uC. Thanks T4P. and 2 Holtek LCD controllers and a 512K I2C™ CMOS Serial EEPROM and an AD/ES636 TRMS to DC converter and a ST HCF4011 Triple input NAND Gates uChip.

[T4P]

Wait, that's a TI MSP430 uC, the other one, not the holtek LCD controller. So there's actually 3 chips.
The cyrustek is ONLY a ADC and yes, i would prefer everything packed into one ASIC.

[onlooker]

I saw Protek 608 New in Box on ebay for ~$60 (incl shipping) (http://www.ebay.com/itm/221150904775?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649) for 3 days and no one take it. I am not related to the seller and have no experience about protek. I read the comments about it in this forum.  I am just surprised to see the price drop in just one year.  If I haven't bought a new ut61e recently, I may have given this one a try.

[T4P]

But the viewing angle is terrible.
The UT61E has a display a million times better though