Features:

  • VoltAlert technology for non-contact voltage detection
  • AutoVolt automatic AC/DC voltage selection. DC millivolts - Range : 600.0 mV, Resolution : 0.1 mV
  • Low input impedance: helps prevent false readings due to ghost voltage
  • Large white LED backlight to work in poorly lit areas
  • True RMS for accurate measurements on non-linear loads.Operating temperature:-10°C to +50°C.Battery life:400 hours typical, without backlight
Great for everyone

Great meter for any facility tech or electrician. Good range for resistance, fast continuity and plenty of features to diagnose equipment or line power work. Can't do temperature and a amp clamp costs as much as the meter. I would say as long as you don't need a thermocouple, this will be a better buy than the 170 series. Note low-z is around 6k ohms and will trip gfi devices if testing to ground. Still very nice just slapping it to auto v for control voltage if you're not sure if that system is ac or DC. Oh, and it accepts the t-paks so add a magnetic hanger as it will change your life.

my life would have been so much better and more meaningful if I had just bought this ...

By all that is right in the world, my life would have been so much better and more meaningful if I had just bought this damn thing in the first place. Too soon old, too late smart. I absolutely love it. I have had cheap analogs, bench top digitals, Simpson 260s, cheap digitals, test lights, buzers, bells, and a canary in a cage. This tops them all. This is their bottom end and it isn't made in the US, but the quality and ruggedness is there. Just buy one. Hell, buy two; you'll always know where at least one of them is.

A Fluke, not a fluke

Two things makes this meter stand out. The LOW impedance mode for determining stray voltage and the beeping mode when near hot circuits without using any meter leads. Everything else is just normal multimeter specs. This meter is not for the electronic specialist doing serious electronic board work. It is suited for the average homeowner and electrical contractor. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Very nice measurement tool

I would like to start by saying that I have gone through many multimeters and finally landed this one. I have always wanted a fluke multimeter but could not convince myself to buy one. I finally decided to buy it because I needed a capacitance meter and I wanted one tool to do it all. This one certainly fit the bill. I will say I was quite surprised by the non contact voltage detector. The sensitivity of the voltage detector was quite impressive. I was quite skeptical until I tried it. One more tool I don't need to carry around anymore. I was also able to find a hard plastic case on Amazon to protect "the precious". I would also like to add that I do both electronics and household electric and this works well for both. Although anyone using this for electronics needs to remember this is an RMS multimeter. You can't always trust the output unless you have some information about the input.

Solid Meter

This is my favorite multimeter for general use by far. The 117 accurately reads resistance, voltage, and continuity for quick troubleshooting. The built in non-contact voltage detector comes in handy from time to time, but using the meter is more cumbersome than the pen style. The screen freeze feature is particularly helpful when you need to compare actual readings to manufacturer specifications and you're prone to forgetting what the reading was like I am. Not really any obvious negatives. It reads accurately, measure what you need to measure, and has a user friendly layout. Again, for general purpose troubleshooting and performances checking this meter is perfect. The little bonuses like digital bar graph, screen freeze, and non-contact voltage detection are added bonuses which certainly add to the usefulness.

Fluke does it again.

I have owned and used a Fluke 85 for nearly two decades. They are tough and well made, they are accurate and simple to use. While you can get a ten dollar multimeter, and it will function Fluke puts quality and accuracy above price. When you are repairing an electrical device accuracy is utmost important, Fluke delivers that in spades. They are rugged, quality devices that will last for years without issues. One would be doing a great favor to yourself if you go with a Fluke Unit rather than go for low value cheapo meters.

Electricians.... You've found your meter!

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.

Yes, the holster IS included with the Fluke 117!

I just purchased this meter - I bought one for my son-in-law at Christmas and he loves it. My old Fluke - 29 years old - is getting tired, so I decided to get a new 117. It's great and everyone has already reviewed it so i just want to say one thing: Amazon states in their description that it does NOT include the holster. Whoever wrote that is incorrect! The holster is the yellow rubber casing that surrounds the meter - it is integrated and it is DEFINITELY included with the meter! I almost didn't buy from Amazon because i thought they were selling a stripped down version. But i decided, from the photos, that it was just bad information and i was correct. Holster IS included...

This is the most beautiful for the price multimeter from Fluke

Hnggg you wanna talk about quality. This is the most beautiful for the price multimeter from Fluke. This is 100% warrantied and repairable through Fluke. DO NOT LET MADE IN CHINA FOOL YOU. Fluke is in their shops DAILY ensuring immensely high quality products to be produced. It sucks that we can't buy in the U.S. or Japan, or Germany, but this still is probably the best thing to ever come out of China.

There is no better value in the 100 series

Delivered on 12/8/17. Mine came with the yellow "holster" in spite of what the add says. To be clear, the holster can be ordered as FLUKE part # C10 for $35, but there is no need to. It came with the protective yellow rubber around the meter referred to as the holster by FLUKE. I think what the description is referring to is the soft case that comes with some of the meters.+ It also comes with FLUKE test leads. There is no better value in the 100 series. Wireless voltage detect feature, wide range capacitance, frequency counter and even an option to measure if your don't know if its AC or DC. The meter will figure that out for you. The only thing that would make this better is a 20A range instead of 10.

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