EEVblog #94 - Near Death Multimeter Experience

[@RichardT2112]

Even years later this is still a highly entertaining rant :)

[@SmolPotatowo]

Even years after years later, STILL entertaining. :)

[@Kaizensan1775]

Even in 2020, it still entertains.

[@D4no00]

@@Kaizensan1775 you tell me

[@MeneGR]

I know, right?

[@nomit6033]

Even in mid 2021 :D

[@metallitech]

Maybe it was just a fluke.

[@BobofWOGGLE]

+metallitech I bet you're not even sorry. I know I wouldn't be.

[@spartanworria]

+metallitech lol It could be a fluke but if it was a Fluke it would not have blown up hahahaa

[@BobofWOGGLE]

***** wat

[@reap62]

stole my joke lol

[@Wuety06]

+Bob Woggle it's a brand bro

[@businjay]

Ha ha, this video is great, I worked at a place with 100 480v air handlers, they wanted one fixed and handed me a cheap "1 Hung Lo" volt meter and I laughed so damn hard, I went and got my fluke, makes me laugh how much people dont respect electricity, Nothing to be scared of but dont piss it off either. Nice video.

[@spartanworria]

I nearly spat my tea all over the place when he said "I was just starting to like this thing, Until it tried to kill me" fucking hell hahahahahahaha

[@Novous]

7:30 holy crap, you're 100% right. It's literally the definition of "fail safe" covered by ANY college of engineering of worth. If something is going to fail (and everything CAN), it should fail _safely_. That switch mechanism should absolutely default normally to the safest mode, so if it fails, it fails into the safest setting. Their design is equivalent to having a guard on a saw, table saw, mower, default to full open unless you latch it down. So if the latch failed, the guard would fly off and your hand would be eaten up by the blades. NOBODY DOES THAT.

[@smallenginedude71]

so its basically a bomb detonator with the bomb built into the detonator.

[@akeavid]

hahahahaha!!! good one! Miniaturization?? Multipurpose?? It's the future!

[@hentajus]

LOL. Al-Qaeda's favorite multimeter xD

[@ernststavroblofeld1961]

smallenginedude71 Wonderful!

[@josh6715]

you made my day

[@ernststavroblofeld1961]

Don't take that to a Texan school...

[@Neverforget71324]

7:45 I am almost willing to bet some engineer knew about this issue, told his manager and was ignored. Happens more than you might think.

[@ciphernemo]

I think they forgot to include in the manual that one of the Modes is "self destruct". Very important mode for secret agents.

[@Youtube_deleted_my_favourites]

My annual visit to this review never fails to to entertain me.

[@WilliamMcCormickJr]

Most individuals were never taught how to hold, and handle a meter. As you know air capacitors are a real thing. When you get internal white ARC inside your meter, you have a potential of 30,000 volts, on one side of a plastic dielectric, against a good surface area of your hand. Friends of mine have been badly shocked holding a multi-meter, and accidentally touching an electronic gas igniter output. Years ago I was taught how to hold a meter by my father. He said you put the meter down on something, hang it, whatever, never hold it. Then you pick up one lead and connect that lead to something preferably with an alligator clamp, and do not touch it. Then you take the second lead, in one hand standing on dry ground, and test. I will be honest I thought it was a bit overkill. Then one day all the little no, no's we do in life combined in one serious accident. There was a power outage, in our industrial building. My boss asked me to check out what it was. So I go down into the now darkened, little room that housed the incoming power. The power was fused through 250 amp fuses. It is a little damp down in the basement, I only have an electronic multi-meter with push buttons. In the dark, I cannot really see the buttons, I figure I better do this right. I do everything text book. But in my mind I am thinking there is a fuse in the meter anyway right, what a big sissy. I almost did not follow procedure. I put the meter down, I connect one lead to a grounded panel, I touch the incoming power line with the other. Instantly I see what looks like two four foot long snake shaped T-12 fluorescent light bulbs where my test leads were. I get pushed back, I feel the heat. And now I cannot see anything. Open panels live wires all around me. I am thinking what happened. I come upstairs kind of in a fog, with my meter and test leads dangling and bouncing with no copper inside of them. If I had a video of this I could laugh till the day I die every time I watched it. What happened, well two years before we were using this electronics meter to fix a battery operated device. It was not a great meter kind of a do whatever meter. We shorted the meter while we were measuring amperage. We were only working on battery powered equipment we had no new fuse at that location, so we cut a piece of bronze rod and put it where the fuse should have gone. Reminded ourselves that we had to put a fuse in it before we used it. Yea right. After fixing the battery operated device we were patting ourselves on the back mighty proudly. We laid the meter on the bench and the rest is history. The accident went like this, one day a month before the accident my regular meter fell and broke. So I just grabbed that electronics meter I had no other at the time. Thank God I never shorted it before then. Well the Friday before the power outage I was testing the draw of some Allen Bradley oil tight panel lights, with the meter set for amps. I never use the meter for testing amps especially on AC. I cannot say I was holding the meter in my hand but I suspect it. I hardly ever used those meters for amperage on AC it was just a fluke test I needed to do, so I really had no reason to suspect I left it in the amperage position. Monday morning I come to work and there is no power in the building. I grab my meter and off I go, Boom. There are probably a lot of morals and lessons here, just pick them all and follow them.

[@photonic_induction2633]

+William McCormick if you just shorted the leads wud just burn up in like 1sec and you wudnt even see it

[@WilliamMcCormickJr]

As I said the fuse in the meter had been jumped out years before. The leads did not just fizzle out. They actually as I stated turned into wavy snake shaped four foot T-12 fluorescent bulbs to my eyes. Could be the rubber coated test leads. They held in all the heat and plasma, and expanded like a balloon. There was no copper left in any part of wire. The probes were bouncing up and down it was very comical. I laugh just thinking about it. I have shorted 220 many times and it can be very mild, before and while a fuse blows. This was violent. I was shorting a power supply fused by giant 250 amp main fuses. Sincerely, William McCormick

[@thanasisathanasi4965]

Hopefully your house is fused !

[@WilliamMcCormickJr]

Fuses or breakers are very good, however they cannot always protect you. Especially when people that do not understand the system, wire a house or building.

[@illestofdemall13]

@@WilliamMcCormickJr ​The problem is a regular 15 amp breaker or fuse, for instance, doesn't know or care if a person becomes part of the circuit. It will not trip any time soon unless there is a substantial overload. That means sparky gets fried.

[@AishaDracoGryph]

From review to teardown in a "flash". Also I really appreciate that you call out the good design aspects with the bad.

[@BTom16]

Dave is beautiful when he's agitated.

[@iwtommo]

"Bang!" Had me laughing harder than id like to admit

[@RichardWatt]

"Bang! And the multimeter is gone!"

[@EEVblog]

@thegamer589 Yes, immediate response. The found the exact problem I described and have redesigned the meter to fit it. No product recall though.

[@eternalblue2119]

10:43 The chip manufacturer considered too high a voltage flowing through this path and added the PTC and zener clamp. Switches fail both open and stuck closed and there should be adequate protection in this case.

[@niceguy60]

I was actually starting to like this thing, UNTIL IT TRIED TO KILL ME. Lol Dave.

[@repairfreak]

Just found this video, glad you weren’t hurt Dave. Great to see the company take care of the design flaw. For those of us that can’t always afford a Fluke, I have been very satisfied with my Extech clamp meter combo multimeter. I love the fact it can measure low dc current with its clamp around current probe. I great tool for the price in my opinion.

[@TheAmmoniacal]

The feedback/response from Extech is found in the 4th post by them on the forum here: www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/3-dmms-spot-the-difference-)/15/

[@camelCased]

"There were literally a handful of RC200s here and they hadn't yet entered distribution.". Poor David, manufacturers are treating him as a beta tester. He'd better start wearing some protective scafander when testing that equipment.

[@FennecTECH]

@@camelCased they know he will be brutally honest and that he will make sure 100 percent they know **EXACTLY** what they need to fix

[@JimFortune]

So it's been six years plus a bit. Did they get back to you?

[@gregs7519]

Linky no worky. I think it's the close parenthesis. Anyone have a working link? I'm bursting with anticipation of their response.

[@GroupDenmark]

#Extech response' July 26, 2011, 12:26:06 AM- I am very well aware of Dave's RC200 experience. As Dave will attest, I was in very close direct communication with him immediately after he posted the video and was ready to board a plane to meet with him. In light of what transpired, Dave was a real gentleman in generously keeping the lines of constructive communication open. We listened attentively not only to what took place but also to all of his points about what was wrong with the product. Believe me, Dave's inimitable voice exclaiming "heap o' sh!t" echoed loudly around here! What was the result? The new product was stopped, promptly re-designed in direct response to Dave's criticism and released with those changes. Not only he did he make a direct impact on what we were doing, we did not sit on his feedback. We ran with it, implementing and testing it so that when the product was released -- still on time -- it satisfied our most vocal -- and welcome --critic. Regarding the recall comparison, when I had sent the RC200 to Dave, it was an all-new product for Extech. We originally intended to send him an RC100 as a precursor to the LCR meter reviews, but I had just gotten my paws on an RC200 and wanted to share the new product. There were literally a handful of RC200s here and they hadn't yet entered distribution. We basically stopped it, re-tooled, and rolled out the corrected RC200 in record time.# .. ------------------------ +1 for there approach and keeping in touch and keeping the consumers in the loop.(nahh' not the amp-loop, but still you get my drift.. Extech seem open for input)

[@elninorosario]

@@gregs7519 About your other discussion, I am very well aware of Dave's RC200 experience. As Dave will attest, I was in very close direct communication with him immediately after he posted the video and was ready to board a plane to meet with him. In light of what transpired, Dave was a real gentleman in generously keeping the lines of constructive communication open. We listened attentively not only to what took place but also to all of his points about what was wrong with the product. Believe me, Dave's inimitable voice exclaiming "heap o' sh!t" echoed loudly around here! What was the result? The new product was stopped, promptly re-designed in direct response to Dave's criticism and released with those changes. Not only he did he make a direct impact on what we were doing, we did not sit on his feedback. We ran with it, implementing and testing it so that when the product was released -- still on time -- it satisfied our most vocal -- and welcome --critic. Regarding the recall comparison, when I had sent the RC200 to Dave, it was an all-new product for Extech. We originally intended to send him an RC100 as a precursor to the LCR meter reviews, but I had just gotten my paws on an RC200 and wanted to share the new product. There were literally a handful of RC200s here and they hadn't yet entered distribution. We basically stopped it, re-tooled, and rolled out the corrected RC200 in record time.

[@KarlHamilton]

This comment should be pinned.

[@elfakyn]

About your other discussion, I am very well aware of Dave's RC200 experience. As Dave will attest, I was in very close direct communication with him immediately after he posted the video and was ready to board a plane to meet with him. In light of what transpired, Dave was a real gentleman in generously keeping the lines of constructive communication open. We listened attentively not only to what took place but also to all of his points about what was wrong with the product. Believe me, Dave's inimitable voice exclaiming "heap o' sh!t" echoed loudly around here! What was the result? The new product was stopped, promptly re-designed in direct response to Dave's criticism and released with those changes. Not only he did he make a direct impact on what we were doing, we did not sit on his feedback. We ran with it, implementing and testing it so that when the product was released -- still on time -- it satisfied our most vocal -- and welcome --critic. Regarding the recall comparison, when I had sent the RC200 to Dave, it was an all-new product for Extech. We originally intended to send him an RC100 as a precursor to the LCR meter reviews, but I had just gotten my paws on an RC200 and wanted to share the new product. There were literally a handful of RC200s here and they hadn't yet entered distribution. We basically stopped it, re-tooled, and rolled out the corrected RC200 in record time.

[@crcrewso]

Not sure if others said this but the pic shows 120V North American 20A mains, not 240V.

[@jon87386]

Just wanted to let you all know, I checked Amazon and apparently Extech fixed the design flaw, though it's still marketed under the same model number.

[@KiR_3d]

they could made a mini-rotary switch because this design is a shit itself. Looks like a toy for small children.

[@PhilipBallGarry]

@@KiR_3d looks like standard issue for those Toy Story green plastic army men 😁👍

[@keeganharmon8595]

5:37 to 5:41 LOL I cant with this dude! My entire computer's memory is littered with screenshots of the RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME GOLD THIS MAN CREATES.

[@T3CHEVOLVED]

7 years ago and I'm still here

[@72dodge340]

@Marcin Berman And yet another year. I wonder if shaq is still hangin' around?

[@k6eep593]

Got my beer. (It is a BBQ.) Put my feet up. Gonna watch Dave on a good rant. They did redesign this as I recall.

[@abigguitar]

Hi Dave, a question (even though I realize it's now almost 7 years later). Shouldn't a multi-meter (no matter the size) such as Extech's RC200, be outfitted with a fuse to prevent such explosive circumstances if attached to the mains? It seems to me that if the mode matters, that the bare minimum would be a fuse to prevent not only the loss of the multi-meter, but possible injury. Wouldn't a fuse have really prevented this whole problem with the RC200? I mean, the fuse would have blown and that could be easily replaced. Is there no such design requirements to place fuses onto products as a bare minimum safety measure when designed to be attached directly to the mains?

[@RobbieFPV]

You are on top of my top #3 favorite aussies. Cheers mate!

[@EEVblog]

Thanks.

[@leisergeist]

To be fair the picture showed it probing 120v American mains :P but the fact still stands, that's just quirky. I hope they've taken this four years to fix this, because not everyone's going to read the manual (like Dave!)

[@leisergeist]

I think we're talking about two different times. I meant 2:00, it's a NEMA-5-20R plug and the meter reads 120 lol! I know it's not why the meter blew up anyway but yeah

[@leisergeist]

***** It's all good lol

[@AnthonyDiSano]

***** The "T" means it's a 20A circuit rather than a standard 15A

[@CoronaHD1]

***** Some 120v sockets are installed upside down for wiring difficulties.

[@waylangoddard7178]

Pretty sure that voids the warranty......

[@RadarRon77]

Dave your quality control work is superb! You have done the company a huge favor (although Extech may not see it that way). Thanks

[@EEVblog]

@wa4aos I was a tad mild wasn't I? :->

[@landstrider1897]

Don't worry man, I was almost killed by a multimeter too, vicious thing... I recommend putting a muzzle on it, and maybe giving the ol' snip, that will calm it right down

[@jacobhendrickson8935]

Hey before that blew did you happen to get your reading you was looking for. Looks like a 115/120 to me. Either way your right.

[@TheLinkIsLost]

Gotta love the enthusiasm of the near death experience!

[@27613James]

Reminds me of our electrician who did not want to go back to his truck, we are on 19 floor, so he grabbed a radio shack multimeter, he wanted to measure the legs on three phase panel in our data center, the thing exploded in his hand, good thing he had safety glasses on.

[@antonypilepich8947]

couldn't wade through all the comments. but i hope they got back to you, especially because of effort you put into the troubleshooting..

[@Wiresgalore]

The slanted pin is to accommodate a 20A plug, being that it is a 120V 20A receptacle, which are more common in shops or kitchens where extra current capacity is required. without that extra pin configuration you're left with a standard household 15A 120V receptacle. 20 amp receptacles accept both forms of male plug pin-outs but the voltage stays constant.

[@randywatson8347]

lol no fuse??

[@38911bytefree]

Default setting should be to high voltagge unless tweezers are firmly plugued to change it to low voltage mode. In that way, a bad conection won't damage or injure you.

[@dave-d]

I always love Daves use of technical terminology!

[@bulwinkle]

Sounds like a very good review to me!

[@craxd1]

A friend of mine, back in the late eighties, had a cheap analog meter blow up in his hand while working on mining equipment. Third-degree burns on a couple of fingers, his palm, and a hospital visit. I'd say he left it on the ohms scale, and he hit 440 VAC with it, but they shouldn't blow like that. Good ones are fused with a way for the gas to escape.

[@geoffhoweth]

BECAUSE THE POS BLEW UP IN MY HAND XD LOL

[@power-max]

My Amprobe AM220 blew up by leaving it in capacitance mode by accident when probing a 200Vdc supply rail on a broken oscilloscope. The meter still works on most ranges, but the resistance range is very inaccurate now, and reads 40Kohm open load, and the capacitance range is completly dead. I took it apart to see if it might be a easy fault. The capacitance range seems like it is has simply gone high impedance and does not connect to the probes, and it seems like maybe something (like a charred capacitor or something) has shorted the resistance range preventing it from being accurate. However I have not found anything damaged at glance inside. I will need to have a closer look.

[@michalhejl9730]

I love those last 20 seconds ! You guessed it !

[@olmostgudinaf8100]

My dad blew up my first multimetr when I was about 14. It was an analogue one with a big rotor switch for the range. He thought he was safe to measure the mains voltage when he switched it to 3000. Unfortunately, mA.

[@linksmith1057]

I think that switch design could work quite well if the probes engaged the switch *before* mating with their own contacts. Think of the UK wall socket design, the ground post makes contact with the socket before live and neutral do. If they did that, you could operate it with confidence that the thing was locked into high voltage mode before the probes could even be used.

[@devolov1]

Richard Stifle I agree, a better option would still be to have the switch work the opposite way. As in, it'll be in voltage mode when not engaged. That means less redesigning mechanically, and more importantly: it'll fail safe.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

12 years later and I'm back to watch it. Did anything happen with this? Did they admit there was a design flaw?

[@achemachew]

QC went out the door when they manufactured those horrible things! I fell a sucker for the Cold Heat soldering iron, finding out how horrible it was!!

[@theonlyari]

Assuming that is the design they employed, those zeners would have turned on and converted much of the overvoltage to current, which would have blown up the passives. That's ignoring what magic is happening in the chip itself.

[@djijspeakerguy4628]

In the picture they were measuring 120v, not 240!

[@GertvandenBerg]

EEVblog Can you maybe update the discription with a link to Extech's feedback? (There is a forum thread that was mention by someone, not sure if it was mentioned in a later video as well?)

[@Sypaka]

That's why the dial on a multimeter makes perfect sense now.

[@JAKOB1977]

Thats our Dave in a nutshell... love the enthusiasme.

[@fbonacic]

Your conclusions are fast and great! You must be a great engineer in your real job! Keep up Dave!!

[@anthonyhiscox]

of course there are exceptions... some meters are meant for small voltages only, but they are clearly rated as such.

[@bassl0va]

I'm going to make a mains tester that just has lots of low voltage electrolytics inside it

[@f.wagner]

I remember my granddad let me measure the mains once. Had the meter in amps mode accidentally, and he just gave a big grin when the fuse blew. Never made that mistake again.

[@EEVblog]

@FoamPackingPeanuts P=V*I, so it's the same power available to blow up the meter regardless!

[@dizzolve]

Luv ya Dave. Crack me up every time. King of the one liners

[@robmacdonald7004]

Had that happen to me once. It wasn't a name brand meter, but it was from the local electrical wholesaler, wasn't a POS from Walmart or the Dollar Store. We were checking for power on some crane rails, I was probing with the probes while another fellow held the meter. It might have been in current mode, but I doubt it. Even it if was, the fuse should have dealt with it (HRC). The meter blew up in the guy's hand, the leads melted and fused, from multi-conductor to single conductor. This was in an aluminum smelter, in the potroom where the aluminum is produced. He was so spooked, he nearly jumped back into the pot! The meter had all the right ratings, in theory, on the case: Cat III or IV, 1000 VAC, etc. We got a Fluke after that. Only Cat. III rated, 600 VAC, but we never had any more troubles like that.

[@NotMuchHere]

Blowing up in your hand... One of the days with solar flairs the power was going up and down. I touched an arc fault breaker ... boom. The case was shattered and I got a nice zap. Found out the transfer station had 2 old transformers, the first one blew and took the second one with it. Solar matter probably high wires here in the country.

[@edwaggonersr.7446]

No fuses, 600 volts CatIII?

[@spartanworria]

+Ed Waggoner Sr. (Papatch) No fuses, 600 volts = hospital/grave yard.

[@Killerspieler0815]

+spartanworria This explosive Multimeter was designed by Al-Qaeda / ISIS or CIA ? ^^

[@spartanworria]

Killerspieler0815 Isis are to stupid to build multimeters, They must have bought them from the CIA.lmao

[@Killerspieler0815]

YES ... but makes no difference, ISIS is already made by CIA ^^

[@spartanworria]

Killerspieler0815 CIA is the code word for "head quarters" to Isis.lol

[@douglas787]

I once was working on a air conditioning unit up on a high roof. The 600 psi rated freon hose going to my pressure gauges blew, making a loud bang, scared me and I almost fell 30 feet.

[@eddy4890]

at 2:03 the outlet he's measuring from is a North American outlet that runs on 110-120v ac, which is half the voltage in EU, 220-240v. its still a shit meter but something to consider

[@MVVblog2]

This video is still spectacular even today :-)

[@stevetobias4890]

Just seen this for the first time before noticing how old the video is. I hope they have fixed the problem and replaced your unit with an upgraded version as well as doing a product recall of the models that do not have the protection against mains voltage safety switching.

[@stevetobias4890]

Cool rant however, loved it

[@EEVblog]

@sciguy14 Yep, let's see what their response is.

[@JoshuasRecordings]

I like it when you get on a rant! I also once shorted the mains when I was measuring amperage on something and my probes slipped, the meter shorted and a big pop shot out from my strip (where I had it probed). I think that there still a burn mark on my power strip! Though my multimeter still works!

[@TomaszWota]

Joshua's Recordings Happens to the best of us. :) I don't use my MM much, since I'm more into software (I'd seriously like to get into electronics though, and use otherwise unused C skills to _build_ something) - however, I still have one lying around. (that alone tells you something - just one? :P Yeah.) A friend of mine once picked it up and attempted to measure the mains (230V)... Needless to say without my knowledge, permission or whatever - I caught him redhanded. Almost literally, since he had the wrong setting in, and popped the smoke out of my socket! He was quite okay, but one of the probes _melted_.

[@JoshuasRecordings]

Tomasz Wota Opts! 230V is a lot of power! I am glad that I have 120VAC here in the US, a little safer when something goes wrong.

[@TomaszWota]

Joshua's Recordings Meh, I live in a rural area, so most households here have three phase power - so we have European standard 230V in our regular sockets, and 400V in a big special purpose sockets to power some big machines. :P en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country Most of the world uses 220-240V 50Hz so I wouldn't really panic over it. It's not like you can touch mains with your finger after all. ;) And after all, anything above ~30V is dangerous to human health/life, so if really bad luck strikes... Yeah. Other than that I've felt the kick of 230V on my hands a couple of times, since I tinkered with it, and it's nothing to sneeze at, but as long as you're adult (...and not wet! ;P) it's maybe not to be sneezed at, but then again, I'm here, no perma-damage, no lasting phycological damage. ;P

[@cabasse_music]

i love that it actually blew through the processor, back to the future style

[@warywolfen]

In that picture showing the meter plugged in to an AC outlet, it appears that the outlet is a 120V type. It's a bit fuzzy, I think the meter is reading "12 something."

[@TomaszWota]

Clyde Wary It should work up until 600V though?

[@mrosenblatt]

Clyde Wary That's because it's in an american edison plug. That does not, however, infer that it will only read up to 120V. Always read the ratings on your meter before you buy it, but I've never come across one that isn't rated to at least 600V (Cat III)

[@RoelNicky]

lol nice rant there, been watching your vids for a while , but this one made me subscribe lol

[@michaelverde2886]

I love your enthusiasm you legend

[@rednet217]

man i get a good laugh out of your reviews. Your expressions are FANTASTIC! Subbed!

[@gavincurtis]

But if these can measure line voltage, they need a detection circuit to prevent damage to the low impedance modes (LCR modes).

[@TV-my2xt]

That's dangerous! I use two multimeters, one for current only and the other one for voltage, capacity, resistance... I don't have to tell you why LOL!

[@Groovy1965]

I don't know much about eelectronics, but find this educational and entertaining

[@GodLike-pe6kj]

I have a DMM (Voltcraft VC270). I was trying to measure my 230V and I thought well, why not measure the frequency. So I turned the switch to Hz. Turns out, resistance is between voltage and frequency, and from that day the dmm displays 80kohms at open circuit...

[@chue]

Safety by design gets lost on a lot of companies... One of my old meters did not follow this principle either. I was doing something with my mains, and I used that meter to test the voltage. Normally what I do is to measure the mains to make sure there IS voltage, and then if I need to, I shut off the mains and then measure again to make sure there is NO voltage. So to do my initial measurement I turn on the meter, set it to measure AC voltage, and then measure. I get voltage, which is expected. I then go to shut off the mains and come back to measure voltage again. The meter had turned off, and I turn it back on and measure. It reads zero volts, as expected. I think everything is good until I try to handle some bare wire and get a funny feeling in my hand... Later I realize that the darn meter had reverted to measuring DC voltage when it had shut off! Of course we know that a DC measurement of AC voltage will read zero. It turned out that I had flipped the wrong switch at my electrical panel, and was handling live mains with my hands! Let's just say I got a new meter after that incident.

[@edgarbrocke1807]

Love your reviews, Dave!

[@JustinHallPlus]

I'm guessing they blamed you for operator error. Not that it was, but I know how this stuff goes, they'll probably blame you.

[@deepinthought469]

If you had used it correctly measuring the voltage in a circuit, and then unplug the meter from the harness to swap probes, it will blow up the instant you unplug from the leads connected to a live circuit! Very bad!

[@runforitman]

what I learnt to keep in mind is that everything should default to its safest mode

[@rlamb51]

Makes me appreciate my old Simpson 260. At least it is big enough you would never think about holding it while measuring 240 VAC mains which isn't usually a good idea to begin with.

[@dynorat12]

that picture that you showed of the mains was 120 volts mains in the USA

[@CoronaHD1]

This will still have the same effect on the meter.

[@shoominati23]

It's amazing how easy they give out CE certification to these kind of products, I've even seen $10 jaycar DMM's with it. And that should clearly not have it sine it can demonstrably harm or kill the operator doing the job it's purported to do! They must just give the inspector a carton of beer and let him play world of warcraft on the plant server for a few hours to get their cert. rediculous. I can't talk with my $50 digitech engine analyser, but hey I'm only working on my own engines in my backyard and it hasn't failed me yet! I'd love a fluke 88V , but it's a big leap in price for something in all honesty I am probably lucky to use more than once a fortnight.

[@shoominati23]

I'll probably give the 88VA kit to myself for christmas as it has the cool clip on thru-wire probe you can use on your battery cable to see how well your alternator is charging in the kit and comes in a nice little hard plastic case

[@RoelNicky]

shoominati23 CE certification is not a quality label as alot of people think, CE is just to allow the manufacturer to import his product to europe and other countrys. even some cups and forks/knifes etc have CE labels.CE has absolutely nothing todo with electronic/electric tested products ;-)

[@RoelNicky]

digitalradiohacker i guess depends the country, here in Belgium it's not worth much, hence we call it Chinese Export..... you wouldnt believe the electrical crap they sell with the CE label. not 1 week ago i had a TL balast explode on me .... was a cheap "CE" labeld piece of crap. And like you already explained CE is a litle labtest to make sure import export is go. It doesnt mean thourough testing has been done with a QC on the whole process line ;-) I might have been a bit short on the CE label in my first comment but CE doesnt perse stand for quality ;-)

[@rich1051414]

***** Well, we have a lot of 'UL certified' stuff coming out of china here that are very obviously NOT UL certified. I would like to know what their excuse is for that one, cause the China Export thing wouldn't work :P I believe a UL certification comprises much of the same requirements as CE(other than some of the mains things), but much stricter and many companies will first self certify for CE to get most things taken care of quickly, before spending the money on the UL certification, that and Canada requires it I believe, and obviously, so does Europe. Because of that, UL usually is next to CE. CE does not comply with NRTL(because of this, CE holds no significance in the US at all), however, UL does, and must be independently tested. I suppose Europeans can look for the inclusion of both. Of course, there is always possibility both are a lie, but since UL certification is not a self certification, you can verify its status on UL's site. Also, ETL and CSA are much more creditable than CE.

[@shana_dmr]

+Richard Smith Chinese fabs (especially the more dodgy ones in bad parts of Shenzhen) will print anything you want, even a piece of paper that says Pope itself certified your meter;)

[@Backyardinstallers]

"the piece of shit blew up in my hand..."just when I thought you sold out Dave you made me smile like in you early video's. Thanks for be you. I really needed this laugh on Friday.

[@Cineenvenordquist]

Is there no cheapo probeset that will nonetheless curl away as you approach an 880V outlet to see what it is? The VoIP provider to the ODM in China was probably fired as a result of this failure to shock an EE properly.

[@chandin69]

after seeing that company Cyrustek which made the chip inside the meter, I was wondering are there heaps of little companies in asia that make chips? what costs are involved in setting up a factory to design such chips(something like the cyrustek chip)?

[@untrust2033]

Any reason why half of the resistors are tht? I'm guessing it's because they are higher power but I'm not sure :/

[@puma4646don]

I like it when you swear. It shows your disapproval. You don't swear that much, swear more.

[@WilliamMcCormickJr]

One other thing to consider is that like most things as you send more and more power to them, they start to self-induct. If you take an older car tail light and power it with a six volt battery. Keeping one hand on each lead from the bulb, as you touch the battery and then lift one wire. You will at some point feel the electrical current. Even though you will not feel the six volt battery voltage. It is the same as if you hold both leads feeding a transformer, and touch and lift one wire from the battery powering, while you have a hand on each terminal of the primary of the transformer. I am not recommending you do this in any way. It can cause you to cringe a bit, the feeling is often rather powerful. People have died doing this on larger devices. My point is that air is no different, when you see light from air, it is in a self-inducting state. It can and will emit higher voltages then the power source creating it. That is why an ARC inside a multi-meter is so dangerous.

[@Jmaca32]

i agree with the mains but that wasn't an Australian main's it was different (120v) not 240. But nun the less it should be able to handle the Australian bad ass 240vs

[@CPLBSS88]

HA! "Dave" and "timid" really should never be used in the same sentence...I wish I knew him better though, he makes my day quite often :) The opening to this vid is just...pure Dave. LOL.

[@shockingguy]

Dave, just found you and already a big fan, keep it up and remember, when you plug it in the first time, don't hold it and look away, far far away. ;-)

[@Satchmoeddie]

One of the copper mines in Arizona has an electric room/transformer vault with a pair of exposed test points for the 69KV primaries. I have seen Volcons, Wiggies, Extec, you name it, voltage testers, VOM, and DVMs destroyed trying to probe 69,000 volts AC. The Volcons, & Wiggins would literally explode, sending the solenoid core out like a bullet. The Extec's capacitors would explode through the meter face. The Fluke meters would just smoke, so I gained a lot of respect for Fluke meters at the Baghdad Copper Mine. I never blew up a meter tying to test 69KV. I have probed those test points with an O Scope with differential probe set rated for 150,000 volts, but never a hand held anything. The silly thing, is, those test points are marked "Warning, 69,000 Volts AC". I guess some people are just too curious for their own good. If my meter is rated for 750 VAC what would I expect it to do, at 69,000 volts AC? Thank god I had an endless supply of idiot to test that for me, with their own equipment.

[@airgliderz]

I be been to Bagdad, loved how the bar at the main intersection not far from the Copper Cafe had a sign on the door "Closed on Tuesday for AA meetings". Cant imagine ever attempting to be anywhere near enough to that high of a voltage to use a hand held meter with the power on or off! I saw what 460vac 3 phase did to a Sears meter on a 4,000amo service, big loud bang, nothing left of the meter but a black spot on the ground and two believed leads.... At the time I was was there visiting all the home were owned by the Copper mine the mine was looking at hiring a property management company to run the town, I recall they inspected all the homes and found some with a lot of stolen mine equipment.

[@rubber20021]

Extech responded as of yet? Quite a simple issue.... BTW I do not read manuals either! I tend to like its size myself... does appear to make measurements much easier!!!

[@gato712]

Omg is this video really 6 years old. I remember watching this the day it was posted. I must be a long time sub.

[@andydelle4509]

Well what kind of recognized safety lab certifications does it have? I saw the CE mark in the video but CE is not a strict safety standard. In the USA, we have UL and ETL. I know all other first world countries have similar certifications and Australia is no exception. If any multi meter lacks those, I would have to assume it's not safe for line or high voltage measurements. And to some extent that's OK provided you know that and use the meter accordingly.

[@robertwolf9380]

I had the same with one rated 300v ac! Turned the dial to HV ac put the probes on ficked power and BANG blew the solder off melted everything!

[@0ceanview]

Dave, I'm not sure how relevant this is but the image of the multimeter plugged into a wall socket shows a measurement of 120v, not 240v.

[@rogervanbommel1086]

I did try to measure 220volt in current mode, i was measuring current but forgot to Flip it back