EDIT: You typed while I was typing... I bet you'll like that one.
OK I see prices from $50 to $1200. Most of my work is with 12 and 24 volt on boats, cars, CNC mills, general machine work. Plus quite a bit of testing for voltage present on 110VAC and 220 VAC.
What's a good choice for a new multi meter? Try not to break the bank, but stay away from el cheapo.
It sounds like you don't have a lot of use for the upscale meters, except possibly the ruggedized housing. For that work, (repair work, that's what I do. NOT laboratory work), I'd personally be looking in the 20 to 40 dollar range (WITHOUT ruling out the 10 to 20 dollar range) for a meter with the features I want, and a built in and/or slip on protective case. What usually makes a meter " good" or "seem like crap" is the lead set.
How are you going to use this? I've got money in my meter at work, and I've got pocket change in my meter at home. Using the same lead set, they do NOT get different results. The difference is the housing, the waterproofness, and the size of the display, and the brand name. Although the displays are cheap enough now that 13 bucks buys a comperable meter to my "home" meter.
Let me suggest purchasing a quality, changeable tip lead set separately from the meter. These are excellent. There are others that are excellent as well. Same results as a 500 or 1000 dollar meter, (with some caveats, put a pin in that...), but you're out the door at well under a hundred bucks, probably well less.
www.aeswave.com
You will want to look at some features that you might need. True RMS might be valuable to you. If it is, that's worth paying for. Personally, I'll never buy a meter again that has auto ranging, and I'll never buy another meter again that has an automatic power off feature. Neither of those is beneficial to good measurements. The auto ranging not only slows every reading, it also misses "glitches" during a "wiggle test" And there's nothing quite like watching your meter and having it just shut off. How does that fit your use case? I much prefer the "dial" settings vs digital "button" ones. Quick, easy, intuitive. Far faster and far more "confirmation" when you're "set" than scrolling buttons through menus with "appologetic" notations on the edges and corners of the screen. What settings do you need? That's your call. For example, do you need a diode test? Do you need a capacitor test? Do you need presets to test AAA, AA, or coin batteries? Probably not. A separate continuity function? The beeper is a nice feature, it turns the meter into a test light at the flick of a switch. But what do YOU use. Nothing wrong with unused features, just make sure you're not missing something of value. Check Amazon. Check Walmart. Literally. Outside of a laboratory (or possibly board level work), even cheap meters get good, accurate results.
And those caveats I mentioned-
If you are measuring stuff that requires a particularly high internal resistance, a particularly high min/max for voltages, milivolt accuracy at line voltage... That's a whole 'nother level and it sounds like you do not need (or care) about that, but if you do- Good DSO options (digital oscilloscopes, or essentially "video volt meters") for that purpose are very much available in the 3 to 4 hundred range, Not "good" as oscilloscopes go, but unfreaginbelievable good as far as high end meters go, and 500 percent overkill for general repair work. These will not only outdo these meters as far as speed and efficiency when you need insane precision, but you're into the thousand dollar range for a meter that will let you fight to get "some" of those results the hard way. That (in my opinion) really limits the value of a high end and most "mid range" volt meters. Not only testing a relay to see if the contacts close, but also showing the condition of the contacts. Or a mechanical or hydraulic solenoid, watching it close enough to see if the coil not only draws the right amps, but to see if it builds properly, watching the pintle move without taking things apart... Even the "graphing" meters can't touch that level of accuracy at five times the price. If you can run a volt meter, you can run one of these to do the same things. And if you "speak fluent electricity", using it above and beyond that capacity is very intuitive. So yeah, times have changed, and the need for precision from a volt meter is very much not there any more. because the next step up has come WAY down in price since vacuum tubes went away and chips got cheap. Volt meters, the ones that are "that good", including some that include some rudementary scope (graphing multi-meter) functions, they are so because they're "industry standards" and giant corporate entities have the entirety of their documentation built around one exact meter, because it's a "known commodity" and they want the SAME meter in every technicians hands, so that the technicians measurements, settings, and results match that of the engineers, exactly. Industry will pay a HIGH price for a "known commodity" even if it's mediocre, because it keeps entire systems unified. Not because they're "that" much better.
If I needed another volt meter tomorrow, and I did NOT need it to be resiliant to being dropped in the engine coolant drain pan- I'd buy this heap o' crap (and a lead set) and not think twice. It's got everything I'll ever use a volt meter for, it's accuracy is going to be plenty good and then some for general repair work. I would not consider it an heirloom, I'd consider it replacable vs repairable. Replacement of the whole thing is in a day or two, at a price that's less than the SHIPPING for repair parts for another meter. It's got the right features (for me), and the results will be within a tolerance that far exceeds real world repair work level accuracy. What more do you need?
If "what more do you need" includes being ruggedized, heavy duty, drop proof... I'd go for a lower level Fluke. Whichever one fits of course, but those give you the warm fuzzy feeling of being industry standard. All in, (with leads and such) you should oughtta be out of there with leads, clips, clamps, probes and the whole package for 300 bucks, and have a meter that will stand up to "rugged" use, occasional drops, I'm not sure if they're water reisistant at that price point, but they are "industrial" quality. The 114 meter and the next few teens up from that are common callouts for industrial manuals these days, depending on the perscribed features...
