BTDT. I've had a free one in the garage at home and one in my study (for pc etc setup). At the ranch, one on the house and one in the barn. All are the yellow ones from a few years ago.Then last year I got a fifth free meter, my first red one, and left it at the tractor that has a battery maintainer on it.
Then I noticed these five meters all read differently!
See my post #8244 above. So I got another red one. Now six different readings on the same battery! I went back and got a seventh free one. Different again!
So Saturday the three meters farthest from the average of this group got dropped off at Goodwill. (I stuck tags on each noting the variance. So nobody gets cheated).
The four meters I kept all show within 4/100 of a volt measuring the same '9 volt' battery, good enough.
Then Sunday I took the 25%-off coupon from the newspaper and bought
the good meter, $18 after coupon.
Guess what. The 'pro' meter shows a few hundredths higher for '9 volts' than the highest in the group of four free meters I kept. A couple of tenths to a full a volt higher than the four free meters for 120 volts AC. So is the expensive one more accurate???? :confused2: It's manual says it should be 'calibrated annually by a professional service'. Ya sure. Is this like the 'some assembly required' on the power tools?
I'm undecided whether to return the new meter. I need the 20 amp range which isn't on any cheap meter. The continuity beeper is valuable and the big screen is nice. But it is awkwardly large, as big as an 8 inch long chunk of 2x4 and heavier. The temperature scale is Centigrade only while the equivalent China meters on Ebay have C/F. Not at all pocketable, so it isn't likely to be the first one to reach for.