Review on Hioki 3246-60 HiTester Pen-Sized DMM with Flashlight, 42 MΩ, 600V by Mike Hernandez

I have a PhD in Electrical Engineering and while it doesn't really matter I hope I can at least be trusted to check a multimeter. I think we'll see! Unless you have a good reason to avoid it, I recommend the feather type for home use. You often do not have a convenient place to place the meter where you can see it, so in practice you often have to hold the meter and both terminals in your hands. Obviously it would be more convenient if the meter were smaller and integrated into one of the feed lines. This is the Penmeter's philosophy. For example, you can measure voltage on a set of wires hanging from the ceiling while standing on a ladder, which is not possible with a standard form factor meter. (My attorney would like me to mention that I'm not suggesting you should do anything just so you can.) OPERATION With two knobs and a switch, you might think it has few functions. And vice versa; The lack of buttons is just a sign of good design. The only thing other gauges lack is a frequency meter. But nobody uses this, and the frequency meter in a household multimeter is probably junk. It does everything you'll likely need: AC/DC, diode, continuity, and resistance. Autoranging is quick and beeps when it stabilizes, which is great since you're not looking at the display when positioning the sensors. The HOLD button is conveniently located next to your thumb and allows you to capture tension without having to look at the device. Another nice feature is the light. Press and hold the HOLD button for a second and the display will light up and the bright LED will shed lots of light on the probe, illuminating your work. attached to the handle body. There is room on the back to coil a wire for another probe, and the probe itself also fits snugly into the pen body. Very clean design. The device itself isn't heavy, but still feels solid and well-made. MEASUREMENT I didn't have a calibrated reference to compare, but the unit made consistent measurements of the batteries within 10mV of acceptable. could be expected. Can't comment on long-term stability yet, but if I find any issues I'll update this review. SUMMARY I'm very glad I ended up paying a little more and getting it compared to the under $20 versions you can find as well. If you need to measure current, you need to do it right. Unless you're willing to pay more than $20 for a reliable device, I'd argue that you don't really need to measure it to begin with. Check out the reviews of cheap gauges and you will see that there is a significant proportion of people who find that the measurements are wrong or their gauge fails after a while. I wonder how many good reviews come from people who just didn't test their meter properly?