Cen-Tech makes an even cheaper multimeter with no CT model number, but it’s Harbor Freight item ITEM 90899; it’s currently listed at $4.99 and I’ve seen it at $2.99 in the local store. This is a fine little meter and while I also own a Fluke, this is the one I grab when it might get dropped in a puddle of muddy water (I own three of them for this reason). It measures current up to 10A, voltage to 1000VDC or 750VAC, resistance to 2 megohms, has diode and transistor check, and tests batteries under load. It doesn’t have the cool lead wrap feature, though.

what the point of comparing crap multimeters ?

Fluke 87, Fluke 87, Fluke 87.

Another thing to bear in mind… cheap meters generally do *not* read rms voltages… rather, they assume a sine wave. while this is fine for the occasional test of a wall outlet, if you use such an instrument to measure non-sinusoidal waveforms (like the strange stuff coming from collapsing fields in coils) you are likely to get meaningless numbers. many a well-intended and otherwise honest “free energy” experimenter has been fooled into believing he had achieved over-unity. spend the extra money for a true-rms meter, and pay attention to crest factor.

You guys have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to small multimeters. Here’s mine:
http://i37.tinypic.com/jg1ou8.jpg

Runs on a 3v cr2032 watch battery. I could fit five or six of them in my pocket.

@David Ruger, Maybe you should put some model and price information from that meter.

I don’t think the point of this article was to compare the size but rather the available small/handy and very cheap models.

I noticed that every pawn shop in my town had at least 3 meters and at least one of them was a nice lightly-used fluke.
Shop around for nice stuff if you want nice stuff on a budget.

However, I think having even a decent meter isn’t the point of this – we’re talking pocket sized here. I don’t know how many times I just wanted a continuity tester or something to see if there’s any voltage at all (is there a short? do you need new batteries? the specific voltage often doesn’t matter if you’re just checking something out on a whim at a party or something).

Back in college, my prof tried to convince us that you didn’t need batteries in a digital meter to check voltage (keep in mind this is 20+ years when digitals first came out and most of us were using analogs) I bet him a grade level he was wrong and proceeded to prove it. never gave me the extra grade though

I don’t know why everyone goes on and on about Flukes. If you’re a lineman, sure. If you regularly troubleshoot RF circuits or something, maybe. But for 95% of us hackers, there’s no need to spend more than $40 or so. I have a $39 Extech that runs on AAAs (not those lovely 450mAh 9v), does all the regular stuff to 4,000 count, autoranging with manual range selection, plus capacitance, frequency, duty cycle, temperature and non-contact voltage to boot.

I have a older version of the radioshack one. Very nice. Just doesn’t do Current readings. Held up nice in over 8 years.

One tip. To get a better/more precise/closer reading then those big tip probes it come with (Which are useful), is to wrap some bell wire (22ga) solid core wire and use that as a probe tip. So much better for SMD testing.

Arguing that “comparing cheap meters is pointless” isn’t always true. It depends on what you’re working on.

I’d be damned if I was going to take a $300+ multimeter into the field if there was a chance of dropping it into a sewer or something similar.

My regular meter is a Fluke 189 and Peter already said everything I have to say on the subject of good tools. Buy the best Fluke you can afford.

That said, the $2.99 Harbor Freight meter is better than it has any right to be. We buy them at work for the technicians to beat up and for monitoring multiple voltages in test setups and so on. I keep one in my bag of cheap tools in the trunk of my car, too. My only complaint with them so far is that they don’t have an auto-shutoff feature. Since a decent 9V alkaline battery costs about $2.49 it’s almost not worth replacing the battery in them.

I picked up a great multi-meter at harbor freight for a couple bucks each! I got one for me and one for a friend, I couldn’t believe ho cheep they were!

I have this pocket meter. works very well and it’s name brand. It has plenty of features for such a small, thin unit. unfortunately, it does not measure current…

Greenlee’s PDMM-20
They run about $35.
http://www.greenlee.com/product/pdmm-20/start.html

As handy as cellular phones, no doubt why people are looking forward having this type of testing gear. Online test equipment rental also offer this kind of multimeters.

@bjonnh you could pick up the one from harbor freight for 2.50$ (coupon code:59026906) and put a rechargeable 9v battery in it (i’m 85% sure the cen-tech models use 9v), there might also be enough room for a small 9v regulator board for external power