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Review on πŸ“ˆ Extech 407860 Heavy Vibration Meter: Reliable Measurement for Heavy Vibrations by Mike Bogan

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Great vibration sensor and software for the price - highly recommend!

I would choose this meter over most vibration meters in the $1000-2000 range - just add a cheap laptop and you have a much more versatile and capable hardware than standalone mid/low range meters . I plan to buy 2-3 more for field use - one for each of my crews that align rotary equipment in the field. This device has the ability to display real-time FFT data, including a frequency versus magnitude plot, which is very useful when troubleshooting vibrations. Questions about equipment in the workshop or in the field. There are many free courses and resources online that will tell you what the various peaks etc mean in the FFT frequency domain. So check them out before you travel and save them to your laptop. I felt a lot better with it. to a customer site in an "unstable" country than the $10,000 CSI vibrometer I used to go to. It's small and inexpensive enough that customs wouldn't care and I wouldn't get upset if I had to leave. It looks like an inflated flash drive, not a gauge. No import/export documents, no separate shipping, just take it with you in your computer bag and off you go. With the software that came with it, I felt I had all the functionality I needed to field test a vibration issue and do a root cause analysis, including a report with professional looking graphics etc. I have it in a shop versus a CSI -Tested the meter I normally use and found it performs the same basic functions I use when diagnosing. to connect to my laptop but I was able to call Extech customer service and Forest was very helpful. He quickly solved my problem and I had no problems until the end of the trip. Buy some extra batteries as these 1/2 AA lithium batteries are hard to find outside of a battery supply store. If you use it for real-time analysis connected to a laptop, you don't need a battery as it is powered by the USB port.

Pros
  • Stores/replays up to 500 readings
Cons
  • Attenuation