I was looking for a insulation tester for a while, good ones like Fluke or Megger are too expensive for one or two times usage in a year.
So I thought I give it a go on a UNI-T, most of my meters are Fluke or Gossen so I didn’t know what to expect from UNI-T, I must say I have a pocket DMM from UNI-T and it served me well till now.
I picked up a UT501 from ebay for 65USD including shipment, UT501 is more than good enough for house installations with its 1000V. I didn’t have anything with ground/earth failure when I was doing the video so I can’t show how it reacts on an insulation or ground failure.
I was quite suprized with its build quality to be honest, I have seen a lot no name or el cheapo DMM’s over the years and this one doesn’t feel like one. Test leads, cable and crocodiles are decent, backlight works in dark but its not that bright, screws which hold the tester together don’t have metal receivers, but what do expect for this price. Tester feels still solid without the metal receivers.
If it had normal ohm meter it would be really nice meter, the volt meter is just to indicate voltage and not for accurate measurements, but that’s the whole concept behind a insulation tester, you don’t need a great volt meter in there, I think anyone who own a insulation tester has a decent DMM too.
Anyways here a video with some tests:
And some pictures of UT501: