Question about buying a multimeter

[bud--]

If you are measuring on circuits with high available current you might appreciate the Fluke fuse. Particularly on a residential service and many commercial/industrial locations you want a meter that is "category" rated for the hazard of the location. Fluke will be rated (may not all be rated for the most severe). I wouldn't bet HF is. You could wind up wearing the meter. Fortunately that is not much of a hazard in a house except the service panel. If you are using a meter for work it could be an OSHA issue.

[Bob F]

I was thinking that several people were confused.

[Bob F]

Mine does that when the battery gets low. So does my Fluke.

[Stormin Mormon]

I suspect the HF meters also have fuses. What irritates me, is that the fuses are twelve bucks each. I can buy the glass car fuses for under a buck each, and the plastic push in fuses, also under a buck. However, with the Fluke meter, only a Fluke fuse will fit.

[bud--]

Having a fuse does not mean the meter won't explode on a high capacity circuit.

Glass fuses used in a car are probably rated 32V. The same size ceramic body fuses might be rated up to 250V. None of them have an adequate current interrupt capacity (for a short circuit). Buss FRN fuses are rated for circuits with a source current capacity of 200,000A. That is different from the fuse current rating, which might only be 20A. The source current capacity ("available fault current") for a house is probably 5,000-10,000A.

Fluke fuses are high interrupt capacity.

[Jim Yanik]

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:gr2esq$p5s$ [e-mail]:

I just opened up my HF DMM(no-backlight model),and it has a 5x20mm fuse.