Are Fluke Multimeters Worth The Substantial Extra Money?

[Fixr]

(Answering the OP) If as a home shop guy you actually need a multimeter that is precise, accurate, tough and fast, so you can accurately diagnose that fleeting transient .3 volt variation in a sensor signal and save the day, maybe so. If you just need to see if the charging system is putting out 12.3 or 13.7 volts, or measure voltage drop on a ground circuit, probably not.

And if you need really precise and reliable results for critical work, a Fluke 11X isn't remotely the tool. The actual good stuff costs at least tens of thousands of dollars.

For nearly every home garage gearhead, something like Extech or a $30 Amazon special is just fine. We're talking 50 year old technology for most of that stuff at this point.

 

[richfinn]

(Answering the OP) If as a home shop guy you actually need a multimeter that is precise, accurate, tough and fast, so you can accurately diagnose that fleeting transient .3 volt variation in a sensor signal and save the day, maybe so. If you just need to see if the charging system is putting out 12.3 or 13.7 volts, or measure voltage drop on a ground circuit, probably not.

And if you need really precise and reliable results for critical work, a Fluke 11X isn't remotely the tool. The actual good stuff costs at least tens of thousands of dollars.

For nearly every home garage gearhead, something like Extech or a $30 Amazon special is just fine. We're talking 50 year old technology for most of that stuff at this point.

I don't think this debate is really about accuracy to be honest, I think Fluke is a great choice for everybody (from the Chinese budget meters up). The biggest advantage with Fluke products is that the user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn where all the functions are (too complex to master and the meter will sit in the packaging on a shelf for 20 years).

You really want the most used functions to be absolutely foolproof and any bonus features a button push away on a separate menu (Fluke have perfected this and the pictograms make it very obvious what each control does). Just compare the dial on a Fluke to almost any other Multimeter to see how visually user friendly they are in comparison.

Generally Fluke leads and probes are decent quality and they will survive a fair amount of abuse, they are also built to be safe from the outset.

You can also purchase spares/accessories/user manuals etc. for them long after other brands models have gone out of production as they choose futuristic styling and gizmos (I'm talking about you Snap-On) over Flukes pure utilitarian functionality.

When you add all this up I think they are just better value for money (and nicer to use) than almost any other meter.

 

[89MustangGX]

I recently bought a Fluke 87-3 that I don't think was ever used, or very little anyway. It came in the original box, original unopened owner's manual, etc. It's something I've always wanted. I have a 101 I use for a lot of "daily" stuff, it's a surprisingly nice little meter. But it's definitely not an 87. I also have a 335 clamp meter, 62 Max Infrared Thermometer, and all the usual accessories like the voltage detector pens, amp clamps for the other meters, etc. After using Fluke equipment for years at work, I felt like it was the best and I finally got to a point in life where I wanted the best. I'm sure for my uses any number of other meters would work fine, but these make me happy. Just like my Snap-on tools. I think of them the same way.