"Now, Do I Look Like I've Got The Word Stupid......?"

Put a Harley emblem on it and the idots will give $150.

There is a price difference like that between clamp meters that do/do not measure DC current. It isn't clear from the pictures if these measure DC.

I got a $40 one on ebay that measures DC and am very pleased with it.

Ooooooooooooooooooo, a black leather encased ammeter, with spikey thingees sticking out all over. Bikerbabes otta swoon...

Depends on if your livelyhood depends on it. I use a cheap meter that works as well as I need it, maybe once a month or so. My friend, a master electronics person, uses Triplett. My tool set is Craftsman. My auto repair person uses
Snapon. Each to his own use.

I have a Radio Shack that I'd swear is a Fluke. Repainted. And I got it at fire sale prices too.

If I were a pro I would stick with the professional meters. The two may well be near identical in appearance and function but as a trained electronics person I know that you can get a resistor (Just as an example of one component) with 20% tollerance, that is a 100K resistor may be 80k, 120K or anything in between, Or you can get it with 10% (90 to 110 K) or if you want 2% or even 1%.

Of course the smaller the tolerance range the higher the price.

And that is only one of the differences between a top quality and a bargain basement.

That said: I usually use the Bargain basement,, Why, cause it is good enough for most work, If I need accuracy I grab one of my better meters. And I can always parallel (or series) connect the two and compare readings.

Want to see my "Been There - Done That" T-shirt? (I didn't buy the picture.)
What has often happened in recent years is interesting....
Company T sets up an order for an instrument of their design and buys the tooling to produce same. The production runs for a few years and when sales start to falter, they stop ordering and may release to tools. (Many companies charge the client for storage of unused tools. So someone at company T says to scrape the tools. So, the "scape tools" get sold to right where they are.

Now Company E has everything it needs to produce the part with no tooling investment. This happens all the time in the manufacturing sectors.

It may be the same as the Triplett, but it also might not and you will probably not get the support that you could get from Triplett - if it is needed.

Matt

I prefer this one lots of goodies can be attached but then again used it in HVAC business. I have a fluke but like this one better. Now that I have had better meters could not go backwards.

http://www.fieldpiece.com/products/detail/hs36-true-rms-with-backlight/stick-meters/

After a hurricane gets to them...Fluke to Tektronix, to Glorious Valiant Butterfly brand, they all don't work. The storm took a side off the house - 152 mph wind. Should have had it sealed up in a ziploc bag, hurricane should have missed us shudda this, shudda that. I would have cried harder had it been a four hundred dollar Fluke. Anyway wrapped in 10 ziplocs the wall would have fallen on top of it.

"Is it repairable?"

"No"

End of Triplett support - End of my support for Triplett. Mutual support.

To say that someone in China is playing games with a unique style of meter is, well let me put it this way....it is unlikely. It's the same meter with a different decal. When resistors are changed when capacitors are changed, setup and calibration is changed and the ticky-tacky philosophy of Chinese manufacturing cannot endure that. They are robot "rote" assemblers never mind robot designers. If someone wanted to change a supplier/vendor for .014 cents savings there would be gunshots.