Some useful data (possibly)

[semperfiguy98]

At work, we have to have our personal measuring tools calibrated (We have a lab onsite that does this for us). I went to Harbor Freight and picked up some tools for something I'm working on at home and got one of those free multimeters that they love to give out. Just for kicks, I brought it to our instrumentation lab to have it calibrated. Here's the results. (Obviously didn't pass for use at work, but should be fine for home use)
Mike

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[Frankenchevy]

Interesting.

What do you guys use? Field Piece, Fluke, Klein?

I have all three, but use the Field Piece the most. I have a sneaking suspicion that Klein has gone downhill—with the exception of their highest end meters.

 

[bucket]

So how does that compare to the average "good" meter? Is that a miserable fail, or a good showing?

My dad once tested one of those for accuracy and said it was really good for how cheap it was. I didn't bother asking him the results. Mostly because I didn't know what acceptable was I guess.

 

[semperfiguy98]

To answer both questions.
1- We can use whatever brand we want as long as it passes calibration. Most of the techs use Fluke

2- It didn't do too terrible. The DC volts readings were all within 5%, which is our standard for passing. It was resistance below 200 Ohms that it failed. Other than that, it did OK. I have a Fluke that I use for work.

 

[yevgenievich]

They are very unpredictable on resistance readings, otherwise actually decent meters. Especially for the price

 

[Crispy]

Good to know. I was working on a VATs bypass with one of those meters and it got me close, then I started just adding resistors to the bypass since it wasnt within the vehicle tolerance even though the meter had me "dialed" in". I ended up getting a Klein meter recently but still use the HF for voltage.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[SquareRoot]

Not to hijack the thread but I recently discovered how wildly innacurate tire pressure guages are. I have 5 of them of different brands, makes and models. There was a 5-20# difference between every one of them. The cheapo free pencil type from the tire store was no less accurate than my $50 Ingersall Rand. Very frustrating.

 

[semperfiguy98]

Our instrumentation lab won't calibrate tire pressure gauges for us. But they do our tape measures, calipers, torque wrenches etc. I received a 6 inch Harbor Freight digital caliper last Christmas, so I took it in to be calibrated and it passed. I haven't taken in my cheaper torque wrenches, but my Snap On torque wrench passed. I never use it tho, because the shop has 12 torque wrenches and what I measure most is around 450 ft lbs. If I bring anything else in that fails, I'll make sure to post it for info.

 

[shiftpro]

Not to hijack the thread but I recently discovered how wildly innacurate tire pressure guages are. I have 5 of them of different brands, makes and models. There was a 5-20# difference between every one of them. The cheapo free pencil type from the tire store was no less accurate than my $50 Ingersall Rand. Very frustrating.

Yeah and torque wrenches too....

 

[Blue Ox]

Kind of confirms what I've always suspected of them. Fine for casual use, not for electronics or critical applications. Considering what they cost they're pretty good. Except for the leads. Those are utter cr@p.