You've probably seen my comments on the UT171B I've posted early this year on this forum. If not, search for the post. After almost a year I can add this:
Positives:
- I've been checking the meter every so often against my voltage reference. So far, they've drifted one count apart.
- I really like how quick it is in autoranging, and providing a stable reading. It usually gets to its final, stable reading half a second (2 or 3 readings), which is faster than my other multimeters. You appreciate this when testing several components in a row.
- I like the screen for its low-light performance.
- It reads AC frequencies correctly even if there's DC offset. Not an important feature, but occasionally nice.
Negatives:
- the Ohms range switch setting is really overloaded, it takes plenty of button pressing to get to the mode you want. I wish they had spread out the functions a bit more on the main selector switch.
- The 4-20mA mode simply reads hi/lo for anything under 4mA or over 20mA. I wish they'd just extended the displayed range to -25%-125% like it's done on other meters.
- The display is merely ok in bright light, and scratches show up prominently against the black background. I'd still get that display again though.
- I wish it'd show min/max/avg on the full 5 digit display, instead of only on the 4-digit secondary one. So you don't get full precision there, which limits you when you want to, say, analyze drift of some component over an hour or so.
I'd still recommend you buy the BM869s though. For the price I paid ($170), the UT171B is pretty sweet, but it doesn't seem to be available at reputable western sellers, and for some reason the price has gone up again as well. Better buy the meter you can get from a place where you're confident they'll handle the warranty properly in case of issues.
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