Its well done engineering. The 101 has less parts, less to go wrong and they can spread them out more, that is clearance and creepages, greater than what CAT III requires, making it more electrically robust compared to the dense parts of the 87V.
The 87V failed at 13kV still, that's far above the 8kV required by CATIII, so it faired well, but the 101 is tougher in that respect. From the post mortem of the failure shown in joe smiths' video, it looks like conditioning diodes failed simultaneously suggesting the MOVs did not respond fast enough and allowed kV to enter the low volt stages and blow the diodes.
The 101 series, 15+ series, and the 117 series, maybe even more, are all made in China and if you compare the parts and PCB side by side, they look similar, suggesting its the same factory, and parts supplier. Its designed well for manufacture, there are no 'bodges' or repairs at least from all the sample teardowns shown, very likely no hand soldering too, so the long term product costs are low [likely all automated] with few bad boards from production or Fluke bins bad board rather than repair them.
The DMM functions are fairly mundane, so that Fluke custom chip has been tried tested, whatever it is. Fluke emphasizes toughness, reliability, dependability and ergonomics, over more functions or digits.
Its mostly the lack of functions for the cost of the DMM that others bring up when comparing other DMMs against Fluke.
Their product testing lab is NRTL quality, and they have metrology NIST grade NVLAP labs, which overall means they have the engineering expertise and equipment to make very high quality devices,
all in house.
In the end, it shows the difference in Fluke product management, its not the country or people, its the engineers and managers designing the product that make the difference.
Now, as far as the sales and product support staff, that is another issue as its a whole different part of the company
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xshocked.gif.pagespeed.ic.CrwtrNUjLO.png)
And yes, they charge you extra for all this behind the scenes stuff, too.
![DMM :-DMM](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiliey_dmm.gif.pagespeed.ce.CvRqtDiING.gif)
given that there has been already much video review about high energy tests, etc etc. im actually more curious, what is the main factor that makes a fluke (esp the 101) out last even its own brother the 87? imagine if we could see (measure?) what was it that really failed when the energy levels ran over the dike walls (which "walls"?) ? ![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif.pagespeed.ce.5xOqKkq0Co.gif)
who knows?
maybe there is a way to add a protection to the 87 and make it as "energy" proof as 101? maybe a small spark gap in a weak part? (it would probably involve destroying many more DMMs in finding that out lol
) ... i wonder, did fluke destroy alot of 87s and then discover there is no other way? or they didnt?