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Replacing a failing Fluke 77

dabone

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
1,280
Location
Chattanooga, TN - USA
I've had the same Fluke 77 meter that I got for my 17th birthday... I turn 52 next month, and the switch has finally failed enough for me to let it go.

It's a basic auto ranging meter, with Voltage, Ohms, diode and amps.

My question is what is a good replacement currently? I have a 17B+ at work, and can grab one of those, but being a modern replacement, I'm not sure it's worth the money.

I doubt I'm going to get another meter with a 35 year life span.

What would you recommend for $120 usd or under?

Keep in mind, I have a LCR meter and a 100mhz scope, so getting those kind of feature don't matter.

Having a meter I can use for general repair and the occasional car and house mains usage is.
 
Isn't the 17B+ a Chinese market/version Fluke? I didn't think they were that much money. I will say that having been used to a Fluke for so long, you will probably want another! I do think the Chinese market ones are nice and there are a few different models and various price points.
 
I'm a fan of Fluke meters, I have a Fluke 189 and a Robin automotive meter from when Fluke owned Robin, I was told to steer clear of Fluke meters available from China / Asia as there was no warranty outside of China / Asia and were often built with inferior components, They might be cheaper but not worth the hassle if they go wrong, Sending back to China etc.
 
I've had the same Fluke 77 meter that I got for my 17th birthday... I turn 52 next month, and the switch has finally failed enough for me to let it go.

It's a basic auto ranging meter, with Voltage, Ohms, diode and amps.

My question is what is a good replacement currently? I have a 17B+ at work, and can grab one of those, but being a modern replacement, I'm not sure it's worth the money.

I doubt I'm going to get another meter with a 35 year life span.

What would you recommend for $120 usd or under?

Keep in mind, I have a LCR meter and a 100mhz scope, so getting those kind of feature don't matter.

Having a meter I can use for general repair and the occasional car and house mains usage is.
Depending on your needs you can get the Fluke 101 for under $50.
 
The 17B+ is a Chinese market version, but I've had it a couple of years at the office, and apparently all the 100 series are also made in China. I was eyeing the 117.
As for warranty, 3 years for double or more the price... That's the gamble. And the 101 is way too small.

I was wondering is anyone had suggestions on amprobe, brymen, etc.
 
Just out of curiosity, what happened to the 77?

I bought a 29 back in 1993 and it still works!

Malc has a good point about the warranty, you have to look at the cost delta and decide if it is a worthwhile risk.
 
My Fluke 87-V is great but the prices are nuts now. It's almost double what I paid 10 years ago.

I also have some Fluke 107s that I use for travel, they work fine but the probes are meh. The rest of the build quality is nice, but I still think $100+ is too much. You are paying for the brand name.

Make sure whatever you get has a backlight, you will want it when you are laying under the dashboard or crouched behind the furnace...
 
Truth be told, my daily DMM is a very old one that I picked up years ago from Circuit Specialists for about $50. Not a super-duper one, but very dependable with largish backlit LCD. I really wish that the continuity test was much louder and lower in pitch, however. I'm not as young as I used to be. It's been bounced off the floor many times, but keeps on going...
 
In the day, I bought a Fluke 77 for serious hobby use, in part because that is what my employer provided at work. I loved it, and used it a lot. But over many years, the screen faded. I did what I could to restore it (which included new zebra strips) but no go. Five or so years ago, I decided to replace it. The replacement I ended up choosing was the Fluke 115C (C = Chinese version, but mine doesn't have Chinese on the front). A great replacement for my 77.

(The 77 is in the boot of my car. For the times when I visiting someone, and they surprise me with something like, "My remote control is not working. Can you take a look at it?")
 
Sometimes modem7 you can use an erase on the pcb contacts for the display, and maybe some deoxit too.
 
My 1985 Fluke 77 is on the desk beside me and still going strong, apart from the origional probes.
A freebee at the time: Fluke shipped spare meters for warranties for every so many ordered, and they were very reliable.
No doubt it is well out of calibration by now.
 
We still have a small handful of vintage Fluke 77's being used as daily drivers, where I work. Still get calibrated yearly.

For some reason, I keep accidentally turning the dial the wrong way (counter-clockwise) on these meters, and the dial definitely isn't meant to be turned in that direction past 12 o'clock. Because there's nothing to point to on the left side. But the dial has no problem going there and displaying garbage on the screen while pointing at nothing.
 
My old Fluke is still working like new. It's about 45 years old. One of my fellow workers had to go to S. America to repair some equipment at a iron ore mine and his Fluke started to act up due to ore dust seeping into it. He took the PCB into the shower with him and gave it a good scrub and when put back together it worked like new. Those meters are beasts. I'd use some Detxoit on the rotary switch contacts followed by tuner cleaner.
 
Here's the switch before I cleaned it, scrubbed it up, used deoxit, as you can see I even removed it from the board to clean the bottom, the the fingers also have pitting and corrosion, etc.

The cleaning helped, but its still prone to erratic readings if moved/bumped.
switch.JPG


I ended up with the Kaiweets HT118E, the only annoying thing so far is the auto power off happens even if you are using it for measurements, where the fluke would do it if you stopped using it and just set it down. But you can disable it on turn on.
 
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