Differences Between Brymen BM-257 and BM-829

[unbiased]

Hmmmj, my new Greenlee DM-830A seems to work perfectly fine on all selections, except the NCV  "EF" function.  The EF function when I activate it to try and detect voltages around my house seems to be unreliable.  It gives false beeps even when held in mid air at times and it beeps when I put my hand in front of it.  It beeps on areas where there are no voltage sources too.  It seems to be set to be overly sensistive.  But what gets me too is that if I rest it on some house light AC switches it sometimes beeps to detect it and at other times it does not detect the voltage source at all.  So bottom line... the EF function on my Greenlee DM-830A is not useful.
I either got a defective EF function or all of these models are unreliable for EF dectection.  Maybe that's why that eBay seller is selling them for $150 each or best price offer.  I don't know for sure but I don't care as I don't need nor plan to use the "EF" function of the meter.  The rest of the functions on the meter are just fine.  So still happy about it.  Dang good meter for the price.

[Lightages]

Yes, that sounds defective. My BM257 works as it should. Maybe you should use your warranty.

[unbiased]

Yes, that sounds defective. My BM257 works as it should. Maybe you should use your warranty.

I am not worried over it. The meter works fine really. The EF mode does detect AC line voltages but I think it is just a wee bit over-sensistive.  It seems that when it really detects a strong field it beeps louder continuously and the field strength meter shows more bars.  On false triggers, it just beeps once or twice and stops beeping.
So maybe I just need to learn its characteristic behavour.  Nevertheless, I will not use it and trust it for determining any live wire conditions.

fyi, I pulled the metere totally apart to see if I could maybe spot something like poor or loose solder joints or defective looking parts or areas.  I combed through with a magnifying glass and could not see anything wrong.  The build and soldering is excellent.  All things in place as far as I could see. No broken or shorted traces, nothing bad to the eye. The build of these meters is excellent overall.

[P90]

Hmmmj, my new Greenlee DM-830A seems to work perfectly fine on all selections, except the NCV  "EF" function.  The EF function when I activate it to try and detect voltages around my house seems to be unreliable.  It gives false beeps even when held in mid air at times and it beeps when I put my hand in front of it.  It beeps on areas where there are no voltage sources too.  It seems to be set to be overly sensistive.  But what gets me too is that if I rest it on some house light AC switches it sometimes beeps to detect it and at other times it does not detect the voltage source at all.  So bottom line... the EF function on my Greenlee DM-830A is not useful.
I either got a defective EF function or all of these models are unreliable for EF dectection.  Maybe that's why that eBay seller is selling them for $150 each or best price offer.  I don't know for sure but I don't care as I don't need nor plan to use the "EF" function of the meter.  The rest of the functions on the meter are just fine.  So still happy about it.  Dang good meter for the price.

Perhaps you're just full of energy...   

I ordered one too from this seller, so I'll have to check it once I receive it, and report back. Hopefully it's not screwed, as that would probably explain the lower price... 

[unbiased]

I ordered one too from this seller, so I'll have to check it once I receive it, and report back. Hopefully it's not screwed, as that would probably explain the lower price... 

Yes, please do report back on how your experience goes with the meter. I see that he only lists 2 left now on ebay.  So that means he sold 3 of the original 5 listed since I bought mine.

[Locator]

I ordered one too from this seller, so I'll have to check it once I receive it, and report back. Hopefully it's not screwed, as that would probably explain the lower price... 

Yes, please do report back on how your experience goes with the meter. I see that he only lists 2 left now on ebay.  So that means he sold 3 of the original 5 listed since I bought mine.

I bought one of them, too. I'm also interested to see if the EF function works properly. (I'm assuming this is non-contact voltage detection?)

[unbiased]

I bought one of them, too. I'm also interested to see if the EF function works properly. (I'm assuming this is non-contact voltage detection?)

Yes, the "EF" function on the Brymen and Greenlee meters is the same thing as "Non Contact Voltage" or NCV.

[P90]

I wouldn't get too excited about those non contact voltage detectors anyway. I have a few various fluke and other NCV sticks, and they sometimes beep in my bag, or when pulling them out of my pocket. Heck, you can swipe your hand quickly in front of them and make them beep. 

capacitive coupling     

[Locator]

I wouldn't get too excited about those non contact voltage detectors anyway. I have a few various fluke and other NCV sticks, and they sometimes beep in my bag, or when pulling them out of my pocket. Heck, you can swipe your hand quickly in front of them and make them beep. 

capacitive coupling     

Agreed. Mine go off all the time with static, being jostled, bumped, etc.

[P90]

I wouldn't get too excited about those non contact voltage detectors anyway. I have a few various fluke and other NCV sticks, and they sometimes beep in my bag, or when pulling them out of my pocket. Heck, you can swipe your hand quickly in front of them and make them beep. 

capacitive coupling     

Agreed. Mine go off all the time with static, being jostled, bumped, etc.

and they get confused around 3phase 208v, I have the burned pliers to prove it... 

[P90]

I ordered one too from this seller, so I'll have to check it once I receive it, and report back. Hopefully it's not screwed, as that would probably explain the lower price... 

Yes, please do report back on how your experience goes with the meter. I see that he only lists 2 left now on ebay.  So that means he sold 3 of the original 5 listed since I bought mine.

I bought one of them, too. I'm also interested to see if the EF function works properly. (I'm assuming this is non-contact voltage detection?)

Received multimeter today. As I suspected, EF function is finicky, works OK if you hold it up to 120v wire, but waving your hand in front of the meter makes it go bonkers.
Other quick observations, autoranging is slow, as compered to other meters. Plastic quality / tilting bail cheap compared to Fluke 87, but that's expected. Nice large display. Selector switch could be a bit larger. All in all OK for price.
Also it is old stock from 2009, probably why they were somewhat cheaply priced.

[Locator]

P90,

How can you tell it is from 2009? Is there a date code on the MM?

[P90]

P90,

How can you tell it is from 2009? Is there a date code on the MM?

The manual and package is dated 2009, and there is a date code inside the meter that reads 0947, which I'm quit certain means 47th week of 2009.

[unbiased]

Received multimeter today. As I suspected, EF function is finicky, works OK if you hold it up to 120v wire, but waving your hand in front of the meter makes it go bonkers.
Other quick observations, autoranging is slow, as compered to other meters. Plastic quality / tilting bail cheap compared to Fluke 87, but that's expected. Nice large display. Selector switch could be a bit larger. All in all OK for price.
Also it is old stock from 2009, probably why they were somewhat cheaply priced.

I have the same date code 0947 on my meter's circuit boards. I guess these are older meters from 2009 then, but I don't think anything is wrong with them other than the flaky EF behavour.  My manual also has year 2009 marked on it.  So I wonder if this is equivalent to the Brymen BM-829 "S" revision or is it just the older BM-829 multimeter?  I don't know when they revised to "S" versions so I cannot be sure now.  Nevertheless still a great deal on a real nice rugged multimeter.

[Locator]

Received multimeter today. As I suspected, EF function is finicky, works OK if you hold it up to 120v wire, but waving your hand in front of the meter makes it go bonkers.
Other quick observations, autoranging is slow, as compered to other meters. Plastic quality / tilting bail cheap compared to Fluke 87, but that's expected. Nice large display. Selector switch could be a bit larger. All in all OK for price.
Also it is old stock from 2009, probably why they were somewhat cheaply priced.

I have the same date code 0947 on my meter's circuit boards. I guess these are older meters from 2009 then, but I don't think anything is wrong with them other than the flaky EF behavour.  My manual also has year 2009 marked on it.  So I wonder if this is equivalent to the Brymen BM-829 "S" revision or is it just the older BM-829 multimeter?  I don't know when they revised to "S" versions so I cannot be sure now.  Nevertheless still a great deal on a real nice rugged multimeter.

What is different about the "S" version? Was it introduced recently?

[Lightages]

There S version was released to address changes in requirements to meet certification standards for CAT ratings and others. There are some layout revisions and some component changes. The old non-S versions are still as safe as they were before, but the new version should be safer. I have no problems using my older non-S versions and IMHO there is nothing to worry about with the older version. By law, in some countries, the new S versions are the only ones allowed to be sold once the older versions that were produced up to a certain date have been sold off.

[unbiased]

There S version was released to address changes in requirements to meet certification standards for CAT ratings and others. There are some layout revisions and some component changes. The old non-S versions are still as safe as they were before, but the new version should be safer. I have no problems using my older non-S versions and IMHO there is nothing to worry about with the older version. By law, in some countries, the new S versions are the only ones allowed to be sold once the older versions that were produced up to a certain date have been sold off.

Right, I thought I read somewhere within these threads (I cannot seem to find it right now)... that the component change was with those input protection power resistors you see by the input jacks.  I kind of remember reading some other post about the "S" revision versus the old was that the old meter boards layout had 3 power resistors configuration whereas after the "S" update, they changed it back to having 4 separate power resistors in that same spot.  So I showed photos of this Greenlee DM-830A earlier, and it shows it has 4 power resistors by the input jacks.  Thus, I concluded that this must be an updated "S" version. But I have no idea if that conclusion is correct now.  I hope someone else knowledgeable about the revision mods can confirm this or not.

Update: I found the thread which mentions something about the "S" revision with respect to the BM-867 model... I think it would be similar for all the model ranges.  They mention that the fuses were upgraded to 1000 VDC fuses too... which my Greenlee DM-830A also seems to have installed.  So it might be that Greenlee branded meters were already upgraded like this back in 2009 before Brymen branded equivilents? I don't know.
Here is the thread that discusses and shows pictures comparing "S" with non-"S" models of the Brymen BM-687.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/a-list-of-multimeters-that-do-not-appear-to-meet-their-claimed-safety-specs/msg428290/#msg428290

[nanofrog]

So it might be that Greenlee branded meters were already upgraded like this back in 2009 before Brymen branded equivilents? I don't know.

Brymen does a lot of rebranding for other companies. They even offer options within a particular model range regarding input protections and probes (i.e. PCB is laid out to fit both 3AG and 5AG dimensional fuses, and other spots filled/left empty between the different protection levels).

So it's quite possible that Greenlee ordered them with the increased protections (I assume they would actually).

Whether or not it's identical to the current S models is unknown without a comparison, but there's no need for concern IMHO. Worst case, even Brymen's basic protections are very good (relative to the CAT ratings it's manufactured to), and a lot better than what you're likely to get from other manufacturers in the same price range (particularly with anything made before the latest regulations went into effect).

[P90]

Is the auto ranging this slow on all the Brymen meters, or is it just this series?   

I like my Flukes.

[unbiased]

I don't know about your particular meter, but my meter seems to be quite quick auto ranging.  At least on the DCV and ohms range settings I just tried. The readings zip right there, no long hunting or waiting.  I don't have a new current era fluke to compare it with, but my meter is excellent.  I am very happy with it.

[Fsck]

Is the auto ranging this slow on all the Brymen meters, or is it just this series?   

I like my Flukes.

my 869 seems comparable to my 87v.

[iloveelectronics]

Is the auto ranging this slow on all the Brymen meters, or is it just this series?   

I like my Flukes.

With BM-829 (or the BM-521/525 series), if you have it on dual display modes the autoranging and screen update rate is a bit slow. But it should be rather speedy when in single display mode.

[P90]

Is the auto ranging this slow on all the Brymen meters, or is it just this series?   

I like my Flukes.

With BM-829 (or the BM-521/525 series), if you have it on dual display modes the autoranging and screen update rate is a bit slow. But it should be rather speedy when in single display mode.

That's what I thought, but it's slow even in the single display ohms scale.
Another thing, this thing is off-gassing that nasty Chinese plastic smell,  it filled up the room!   

[iloveelectronics]

With BM-829 (or the BM-521/525 series), if you have it on dual display modes the autoranging and screen update rate is a bit slow. But it should be rather speedy when in single display mode.

That's what I thought, but it's slow even in the single display ohms scale.
Another thing, this thing is off-gassing that nasty Chinese plastic smell,  it filled up the room!   

How "slow" is slow? Maybe there is more difference than just the colour of the holsters between these 2009 Greenlee's and the Brymen BM-829.

[P90]

With BM-829 (or the BM-521/525 series), if you have it on dual display modes the autoranging and screen update rate is a bit slow. But it should be rather speedy when in single display mode.

That's what I thought, but it's slow even in the single display ohms scale.
Another thing, this thing is off-gassing that nasty Chinese plastic smell,  it filled up the room!   

How "slow" is slow? Maybe there is more difference than just the colour of the holsters between these 2009 Greenlee's and the Brymen BM-829.

It's hard to say with accuracy, but I just checked a 330ohm resistor and it is a little over 2 seconds, that's twice as long as a couple other meters I checked. The single display DC volts seems quick enough.