Anyone who has ever worked on anything electrical will tell you, you need a meter. And people who do it for a living will often have scads of them.

I myself have a pile you could climb to the roof on. Old Heathkit VTVM’s. Black bakelite Simpsons in ratty leather cases. Triplett desktops and even the occasional signal analyser or scope. Old Radio Shaft scopemeters, beat up shirt pocket meters, calculator sized portables.

My Goto meter is a Fluke 114. It doesn’t have a frequency counter or any of the other fancy features, but it does have a 600 volt range, very important in my line of work, it’s true RMS, which means it isn’t fooled by ghost voltages, and it’s got BIG NUMBERS in a BACKLIT DISPLAY.

Not that my eyes need the extra help or anything.

The 114 is a good solid meter that will deal with any home/shop troubleshooting. It isn’t a precision bench meter and it’s not meant to be. It’s got an overmolded case that protects it from most stupid shit you can do to it, and it has a three year warranty (Which, incidentally, does not protect you from theft).

If you need a meter, and there’s room in your life for only one, this is probably a good choice. I just stumbed across the receipt for mine and I’m afraid to tell you how old it is. And it’s been in the bottom of a full tank of oil, it’s been dropped out a second story window, it’s been kicked across an asphalt driveway more than once, and it’s been stepped on by a big fat bastard. (me).

By their tools shall ye know them, and this is an impressive tool.