2500V vs a UT61E, guess who wins? Bonus: 5000V vs a Brymen BM869

How do you kill a multimeter? Well it depends on the multimeter!

[bvillas]

Great demonstration! I've seen lots os videos talking about input protection or the lack of it, but actually see it's effects is way better. Thank you for the video.

[marcucristian]

I just ordered UT61E but I do not have those voltages to kill my meter! Who works with this kind of voltages they should use a FLUKE professional! 

[hyperluminalreality]

The UT61E is fine. You would have NEVER fried it in real world use. I normally test voltages higher than most anyone else will be testing. 700VDC in Ampeg SVT tube amps. To imply that a static charge from a rug will fry it is complete bullshit. It is a 22000 count meter that will run off of 2.5 vdc supply, thus using all of a 9v battery. In over 20 years of testing high voltage circuits and mains panel voltages with numerous meters, I have never needed even 2500v protection. Go look at Mjlorton for a great review of the UT61E including it's inferior but still perfectly adequate input protection for a $50 meter. The BM869 is over 200 dollars which you also fail to mention. Like racing a new Cooper Mini against a new Ford GT500. Heavy mismatch. And realistically, once again, you would NEVER have fried the UT61E in real world use.

[markcummings]

Nice to know my brymen bm869 is adequately protected. Thanks for the great demo.

[ingenierocristian]

Thanks for the demonstration, it makes me change my mind, I gonna buy the Brymen 867/9. By the way, it's quite ironic you are killing an UNI-T DMM with an UNI-T equipment =D.

[xmenken]

Each multimeter has threshold voltage and it is listed in manual. It is usually 1000Vdc and 600Vac. If you follow this limit, it won’t break.

[nathanruben]

brymen is top of the line meter and fluke competitors and UL listed cat iv certification, and cost 4 times more. Not a fair comparision. People buy 61e for electronik work for low voltages.

[mjlorton]

Great post, thumbs up and shared! Cheers, Martin.

[LightAges]

Putting in the MOVs will help of course. I would be more inclined to use something like 1000V rated MOVs though.

[raytech]

These are varistor protected inputs which clamps the input.

[pathfinderreality]

I have a UNI T UT 61E GS, made for German market and I can say that it is of much better quality than the one you showed. It has HRC input protection fuses, much beefier PTC and MOV-s, better shielding etc.
All in all, a much better design, and scaled down to Cat III 300V.

[DLTX]

I can hear a bit of a wideband noise emitting from something when the 2.5kv and 5kv tests were performed on the brymen though. I'm very sure it's wideband noise

[LightAges]

Hmmm, I posted this days before Dave posted anything about his tests. I am supposed to do nothing just in case Dave might do it too? I think not. I think you can ask Dave directly too and he will say even if I did post this after him that he would have no problem with it. He would encourage it as a matter of fact.

And even if Dave was upset, too bad for him. It is my right to post what I want on youtube. If he doesn't want these things on his forums he can delete them but I know he never will.

[IgorAlov]

Oops. Sorry, first video, that I have seen was Dave's video. So, your video I have seen after the Dave's video. I checked the dates of the videos, and yes, I was wrong.
Good luck!

[iamthearmul]

I have to point out, that UT61E is a good 38€ meter for low voltage use. Comparing input protection against a 250€ meter is not really a fair "vs" comparison. For a mains voltage at Brymen price, I would just buy a Fluke 177 and keep UT61E for the counts.

[gfx]

Nice demo! In my UT61E I put two 600V MOV's over those 2 spark gaps' unpopulated footprints. Do you think that helps the input protection?

[LightAges]

Don't think you are hearing anything real here. I had a problem with the audio that I didn't discover until the video was shot and I wasn't going to shoot it again. There is some pretty heavy handed audio processing in this video so ignore anything you think you hear.

[ronniepirtlejr]

I only use mine up to 30 volts. I shouldn't have any problems! Thank you for the video!

[nlhans]

Dave posted the same test 3 days ago, this has been online for 7 days.

[LightAges]

Yes I posted a link to this video on the eevblog forums. What is your point? I made the video and I am a member of his forums.