- Fluke 117 Digital Multimeter, Non-Contact AC Voltage Detection, Measures Resistance/Continuity/Frequency/Capacitance/Min Max Average, Automatic AC/DC Selection, Low Impedance Mode

As always, Fluke makes excellent products. The price on Amazon was reasonable. The meter has performed flawlessly for the many months I've owned it now.

Great multimeter.

The best purchase I've ever made. I've always liked Fluke multimeters for their outstanding quality, and Amazon delivers on all its promises regarding this multimeter. I love it. Thank you, Amazon.

The Fluke “110 series” is Fluke's cheapest "Fluke Branded" line. (Note: as of 2015 there are two cheaper lines made by Fluke but I know little about them aside from the fact that they are stripped down a bit.) It's a Fluke so you know you're getting an instrument worth its salt. The 117 is the most feature packed and highest priced in the series. It's a smaller form factor than some of the other Fluke meters. It features all the traditional fields that you'll find on most modern DMMs. Volts AC (True RMS) & DC both to 600V. A full mV range. Resistance, continuity, diode check, capacitance, and frequency. It features AC & DC current measurement to 10A however it lacks a mA and uA range since this is an electrician's meter, not an electronics meter. Two more modes it offers are “volt alert” and a LoZ voltage measurement. What sets the 117 apart... The 117 has a 6000 count display with 4 updates per second, plus a 33 segment bar graph with 32 updates per second. The bar graph I find extremely responsive and reliable. This is a True-RMS meter as you would expect from Fluke (and any meter in this price range.) That's not such a big deal if you're taking measurements from a clean / pure sine wave source, but if it's a distorted waveform or not a sine wave (such as a measurement on a modified sine wave AC inverter), your measurement can be off quite a bit on non-RMS meter. The 117 has a CATIII rating. It has a maximum working voltage of 600V in both AC and DC ranges. The CAT ratings can a bit ambiguous but I'll attempt to summarize CATIII. Basically, you can work on most panel boards / switch gear and anything down stream of them (i.e. - feeders, outlets, hard wired equipment, and anything plugged into them.) CATIV is the only rating higher and it adds service drops to the list as well as underground installations. So basically CATIII is the MINIMUM rating you want on your meter and you can't probe the main drop from the power company. But “generally” once you're on the switched side of your main breaker, you're in CATIII territory. DO NOT exceed the CAT rating of ANY meter because doing so, in a Murphey's Law scenario can open you to the possibility of a potentially fatal shock or catastrophic failure of your meter. The voltage that accompanies the CAT rating isn't all that complicated. It's simply the maximum "working voltage " or "max line voltage" of the meter, maximum surge and destructive voltage can be a little harder to find if not posted in the literature. I believe the 117 has a peak surge rating of 6kV. I love the sturdiness of this meter, it a Fluke, so it's the brick crap house of DMMs. I'm serious, this can really take a beating. It does have a protruding dial on the face which in a face down drop could be venerable, but I still believe the 117 to be one of the sturdiest meters on the market. The rubber holster offers excellent 5 side protection and it feels good in the hand. Also there are some terrific tear down videos on the web if you're interested in the guts of the device. I love the battery access compartment! It's very innovative...no thin wires to worry about yanking out of the PCB. It features direct PCB soldiered tabs and a “one-way” 9V battery door that helps in properly installing the battery. The mode dial is great aside from what I mentioned above. It has an off center design that can be rolled from the side with your thumb. It's large and easy to grip with gloves on. The over current protection is another win. Most people fail to realize just how much force 10A can carry; this meter uses a single high quality ceramic HRC fuse and all of the standard additional suppression devices to give the user maximum protection. The case is designed with a deep lip / blast shield as well to protect against debris being blown out the sides in the event of truly catastrophic failure. I love the LoZ Volts voltage measurement. This is a low impedance voltage test that operates on something close to a 3,ooo Ohm resistance. Quite often if you have parallel runs of wiring where one line is de-energized and another is not. The "dead" line can show a voltage reading on a traditional DMM. Very simply this happens due to induction, but the voltage present is at an almost non-existent current level that cannot “push through” a typical high resistance resister used in DMMs to measure voltages. I've personally seen 70V on supposedly “switched off” 120V circuits. Flipping to the low impedance mode allows this ghost voltage to “dissipate” and read what's really on the line (which should be less than half a volt on a circuit that’s de-energized.) One note however, if you use this meter on electronics DO NOT use this mode. The resistance on a PCB in electronics circuit can often be much higher than 3,000 Ohms...you could short out that segment of your board by allowing current to flow through the meter as apposed in parallel to it. This is why traditional meters use mega ohm class resistors to test voltage, and most of the time that's fine. So always start out in "normal" volts AC or DC then if ghost voltages are suspect, then switch to the LoZ range. What else is there to like... The continuity check is great! It's a latched system which means you get a positive tone every time a circuit is completed. The response time is excellent as well. The "Volt Alert" is a non-contact voltage detector that functions the same as those pen style testers that have been on the market for years. It's nice to test walls for live electrical lines prior to drilling or nailing into them. Also it's handy if you need to trace the path of a run of wire behind a wall. It features high and low sensitivity modes for different wall thicknesses. Still I caution you not to trust your life to it. The Amperage range is decent. It's reads .001A to 6.000A in .001A increments and 6.01A to 10.00A in .01A increments in both AC and DC amps ranges. There is no mA nor uA range on this meter as it is geared primarily to electricians. However in my opinion the amperage range is quite useful for a general purpose meter and perfectly geared for electricians or homeowners. The resistance tester has a good range; going from .01 ohms to 40.00 mega-ohms. The capacitance tester is decent enough. Accuracy isn't too bad for it and its measurement range goes down to 1 nF. Honestly, this is more than enough for a general purpose meter. Any lower and you really should be looking for something more specialized like and LCR meter. The manual that comes with the 117 is great. It's written in 9 languages but it's still simple and easy to understand while at the same time giving the user all the information and data that they could possibly need about this meter. And of course you should read this start to finish before using your meter for the first time! This meter has good numeric resolution on the screen being a 6000 count meter. In brief terms I will attempt to explain accuracy vs. counts. This meter will display three digits after the MOST significant digit up to the significant digit being a 6, after that the meter drops to two digits after the most significant digit. In other words, it will display 5.999V but once the reading crosses the 6V threshold it will display 6.01V on the screen. This is true at any range. So it drops a digit every factor of 10 up to 600.0 (i.e - 6.000, 60.00, 600.0) Now having said all of that, the accuracy isn't reflected in the screen's numeric resolution. Still though, that's pretty standard in handheld meters. This meter has a basic DC volts accuracy of +/- 0.5% +2. "What the heck does that mean?!" Basically, you look at the reading on the display (we'll imagine measuring against a precision voltage reference of 1.000V) The first step is to add AND subtract half of a percent to get a range (in our example 0.995V & 1.005V) then you add and subtract 2 counts. A count is the least significant digit displayed on screen. So again if our meter is measuring against 1.000V source, the farthest out our meter “should” be displaying is 0.993V and 1.007V. Honestly for precision testing that could be quite a bit, which is why high accuracy bench top meters costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, however for general purpose measurments, this is actually is really good accuracy. That said, this accuracy falls on a bell curve. In most cases you aren't going to be that far out and in fact will be close to spot on. There are videos on youtube that show meters being tested against precision voltage references and with most I've seen on Fluke hardware, their always right at the voltage or a count or two high or low. As for the rest of the accuracy, AC volts is +/- 1.0% + 3 cts, ohms to 6 mega ohms is 0.9% + 1ct (6-40 mega ohms is 5% + 2), and amperage is 1.5% + 3 (AC) and 1.0% + 3 on DC. Lastly on the accuracy point, it does float a bit as the meter ages. So a meter that’s new from the factory will have a much better chance of near pinpoint accuracy than a meter that’s been in the field for years. Areas that have room for improvement... The diode check is average (limited to 2V) but it works. Frankly I never check diodes so it’s of little consequence to me. The frequency measurement could stand to be a little better. It's limited to 50kHz which might me low for some users. The test leads that come with this meter are Fluke TL75's. They are of decent quality being rated to CATIII 1000V/CATIV 600V if the tips are shrouded. That said I still have pet peeve. The jackets on these are not as flexible as other Fluke leads and even some of their competition. The TL71’s sell right here on Amazon for roughly $10-20... The TL175's which are much nicer in both feel and usage are roughly $25... Seriously, tack on the $10 to the MSRP and give us the better leads. Still, they do work and work well. (Note: Some lower end meters from other manufacturers are shipped with leads that are not rated to the same CAT standard as the meter they’re paired with and in some cases, not rated at all. This is something watch out for when purchasing a DMM.) Another place I see room for improvement is the backlight. I might be being a little overly critical here but I did a backlight comparison with my 87-V. I have to say the 117's backlight isn't nearly as bright. It's bright enough, but in a side by side comparison it just felt like it was lacking. This section is dedicated to things I don't like about the 117... First is the hold feature. Fluke traditionally offers an "auto hold" AKA “touch hold” feature. I have to say, I'm disappointed they didn't include that feature on this model. With a push button hold, you have to find a way to push a hold button with both of your hands tied up holding probes. Now let's say for instance I used an alligator clip to attach one probe to a bus bar and used the other to probe around. This would leave my other hand free to hold the meter and push the button. But if I could hold the meter, I could just get it in front of my face and LOOK at the digits on the display...completely eliminating the need for a hold feature. The second complaint is with the Fluke company's lack of accessories. This is a common problem with all of their meters and products. No case! I want something to store my meter in! And I don't want to spend 10 or 20 dollars on it either. Just mark the price up another 2 bucks and give us a pouch for our meters here Fluke! A set of alligator clips would've been nice, but alas nope... Sold separately. I have several meters and thus have them laying around, but I'm speaking from the value standpoint. Honestly, I have a few Fluke products and a disappointing lack of accessories is actually a common problem. If you find a Fluke Kit for the meter you're interested in at a reasonable price...GET IT! You'll spend more buying cases and lead accessories piece by piece then getting the kit up front. That said, being part Fluke's economy line...I don't know of any kits offered for this meter. Go figure... So assuming you've made it this far I hear your question. This all sounds great but this meter is ~$140-$170 and I can get most or all of this in a meter in ~$100-$120 range right? Why should I spend 50 more of my hard earned dollars to get this? Well it can be summed up in three words, "build quality" & "safety". Most manufactures build their equipment to a price that was set the day they started planning to build that instrument (or even prior to designing it.) Sure Fluke has a "market" and therefore a "price" in mind, but they build their units to a "standard" first. The final price reflects what it took to get there. Back up in the first section I spoke of safety ratings, this meter is a genuine CATIII meter that is ready for commercial and light industrial use. To ensure that, Fluke sends every one of their products to several of the major safety & standards testing groups for testing and proofing. That is why Fluke is the industry standard in nearly all commercial and industrial environments and why nearly all electricians have at least one their products in their tool box. At the end of the day, they know that these units have been tested rigorously and "proven" so that when they need quality and survivability, as well as maximum personal protection these meters will perform. Personally, I wouldn't use anything BUT a Fluke on CATIII installations. Just about the time the high voltage transient comes down the electric utility and causes a flash arc inside the meter's casing is not the time to be wishing you had something built and tested to protect YOU against it. Expensive meters are still cheaper than the cheapest hospital stay.

I was a Maintenance Technician for Honeywell for 23 years and Fluke multimeters were the ONLY meters we were allowed to use when servicing and testing our extremely high accuracy multi-million dollar pieces of semiconductor test equipment. So during these years where I used a meter every day, I became very comfortable and confident in Fluke meters. Now that I am retired and my personal Beckman HD100 meter finally gave it up after an admirable lifespan, I ordered this Fluke 117. I am equally as impressed as I always have been with Fluke build quality and accuracy! Plus it is in a very sturdy rubber case. The integrated "non contact voltage detection" is great and something I know I'll use from time to time. My meter says "Made in Malaysia" which is of absolutely no issue to me. Whatever country manufactures Fluke meters builds them to Fluke specs which are quite demanding in my opinion. The only ding I'll give Fluke on this is (like many others have mentioned in their reviews) is the quality of the leads included with this meter. Come on Fluke, consider including better quality leads that match the high quality of this meter! But as I have a bunch of other better leads accumulated through the years, this isn't as big of a deal to me as it might be for some. Overall, going to give the Fluke 117 5 stars! Purchase this meter with confidence!

I purchased this Fluke 117 Multimeter on sale which was a incredible deal that I couldn't pass on. This Multimeter is a overkill for a DIYer like myself. Fluke is known to be a reliable and trustworthy brand, what more can I say....

Very accurate and high quality.

Very good

It’s fake apparently, I couldn’t rate minus-5 unfortunately! I was waiting for the regular version.

The Fluke 117 Digital Multimeter is everything you’d expect from a professional-grade tool. It’s fast, accurate, and incredibly easy to use, even for more complex diagnostics. The non-contact voltage detection and auto-ranging features are especially handy, and the build quality is rock-solid. Perfect for both home and professional use.

Que dire de plus quand on sait que c'est un Fluke ? Parfait, rapide, solide, construction nickel. La fonction détection de tension est efficace (j'ai pas encore testé pour un câble dans un mur). Modèle 117 parfait pour les électriciens dans un budget limité. Pour un professionnel je recommanderai plutôt un modèle 175 ou 179. En tout cas, vous pouvez y aller les yeux fermés !