fieldpiece users

[blue_r1]

i got a hs36 meter a few months back, i was wondering how long your batteries have been lasting. up here in new york with the temps falling i am noticing the battery needs to be replaced almost every 3 weeks or so thats with hardly anyuse. i have 3 fluke meters that the battery lasts almost all year, even the one that is backlit. i hardly ever shut off the meters they always auto shut off, ususlly while i am doing something else. also is there anyway to increase the backlit time on the fieldpiece, i always find if i am working in a ceiling as soon as i get a need to check the meter the backlight shuts off. seams reading are too slow to respond when reading amps and voltage, especially 480v the meter jumps to 700+ then ramps back down to the actual reading

[davidr]

This is the same reason I put up my fieldpiece HS 33.
I bought mine to replace my fluke 16 but found myself pulling the fluke back out when the fieldpiece kept doing it's thing.
You may want to consider returning it. Those batteries should last longer than that.
My money will go to fluke 100% from now on.

[mike3]

I used a HS35 for quite a while and batteries lasted a long time. (how long you ask ???)

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by davidr
This is the same reason I put up my fieldpiece HS 33.
I bought mine to replace my fluke 16 but found myself pulling the fluke back out when the fieldpiece kept doing it's thing.
You may want to consider returning it. Those batteries should last longer than that.
My money will go to fluke 100% from now on.

[cde72]

Okay, I've had an hs35? for over a year and it has never needed a battery... Have an sc76 now..

[oroy54]

I've had a sc66 for over a year now. No battery problems. The only this about this meter is that is it only reads up to 20VDC. My son and grandson's wheelchairs are a 24VDC system, the same for the motorized scissor-lift at the church. I think the sc76 will read a higher DC voltage, will it?

[Edited by oroy54 on 01-16-2005 at 09:21 PM]

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by cde72
Okay, I've had an hs35? for over a year and it has never needed a battery... Have an sc76 now..

LMAO. Turn it on and use it for awhile.

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by oroy54
I've had a sc66 for over a year now. No battery problems. The only this about this meter is that is it only reads up to 20VDC. My son and grandson's wheelchairs are a 24VDC system, the same for the motorized scissor-lift at the church. I think the sc76 will read a higher DC voltage, will it?

[Edited by oroy54 on 01-16-2005 at 09:21 PM]

I wonder why that meter only reads up to 20 VDC? Most every meter on the market has the same DC range as AC.

Odd.

[serviceguy]

i have the hs35 as well...lol used it 3 times and not since...voltage ramped all over the place and then some...i will not grace fieldpiece with anymore of my money either...maybe they think they've invented some new type of variable speed voltage reader or something lol...oh well back to my oh so trusty flukes........

[oroy54]

When I found that my meter would read only up to 20VDC, I wanted to up-grade, you know get a little something for the sc66. The supply store said no, call the fieldpiece distributor....Buy a new meter.

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by oroy54
When I found that my meter would read only up to 20VDC, I wanted to up-grade, you know get a little something for the sc66. The supply store said no, call the fieldpiece distributor....Buy a new meter.

What a great help.

I'd tell them where to insert their fieldpiece attachments.

[condenseddave]

Fieldpiece is really low-end, low-budget stuff that just about anybody can afford.

They offer up a bunch of shiny, fancy-looking attachments, and use smoke and mirrors to market them, but they lack in qualities and certifications, unlike their competitors, who have spent decades (literally) and hundreds of thousands of dollars (literally) in research and development, to ensure that the technicians that use their meters have the highest quality product available. Their prices reflect this, of course.

It's just like Dell computers. Great marketing, not such great quality or support.

Do people buy Dell? Yeah. Hell Yeah. More than IBM? Yeah. Hell yeah.

Why? People want cheap, not good.

That is the ONLY reason that Fieldpiece as able to make any inroadsz at all into this industry. They price their meters like UEI, to compete with meters that are far and above higher quality.

It's awful. The meters that they sell so cheaply contribute to the dumbing down of our trade. They make you think that if they don't make it, you don't need it.

Really, hand a tech with 5 years experience a Fluke 189 and ask him to explain each function. 9 out of 10 won't be able to.

Now, pick a group of ten year techs, hand them a pitot tube, and tell them to give you the cfm and ESP of that duct. You're gonna see a LOT of dumbass looks. Maybe one will have a clue. The other 9 would tell you that they can give you the cfm if you give them an anemometer. I'm gonna tell you that that vane anemometer isn't as accurate, and can't give you ESP, anyway. More dumbass looks.

It's sad what our industry is becoming. It's good to see instructors like the ones on this board stepping up and trying to improve it, but the sad fact of the matter is that there is a large group of techs already in the field that don't REALLY knowwhat they're doing, and are just getting by. That BLOWS.

Thanks, fieldpiece, for screwing up our industry with your imitation testers.

[markwolf]

I have fieldpiece,fluke,sperry,uei,& extech meters.I am that tool nut that has four times the tools as the other guys at the shop.I use & like the fieldpiece meter that I have every day for the last 15 years.It has fallen off ladders,taken abuse/misused when loaned to a friend,etc.My battery lasts about a year.personally I think just the bare bones meter is a good meter but you can keep all the gadgets.

[mallron]

i don't agree with the negative remarks about fieldpiece at all. i own a fieldpiece hs32 and a fluke 322. i have never had any problems with either. i acually like the fieldpiece alittle better because of the attachments. oh and by-the-way my hs32 was far from cheap or low-end and measures to 200 vdc.

[cde72]

Man all this is crazy... Stop trashing Fieldpiece... If you want low end crap go with meterman, amprobe, craftsman, or the like...

[square2round]

I bought a Fieldpiece SC76 for the simple fact that it does the job I need it to do. I didn't buy it for the accessory heads option. I think that's worthless. I'll buy the appropriate tool for the job it does. I can't say people don't buy these meters with loving the option of the heads...but,

I wouldn't buy a hammer with a lawnmower accessory head. They make a specific tool for it's specific purpose.

[jay302]

I bought a fieldpiece SC76 back in November, so far it's been good to me. I'll keep you posted as I use it more, but so far, no complaints.

(Hey, for a 1st year apprentice's limited budget, it seemed the best bang for the buck)

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by cde72
Man all this is crazy... Stop trashing Fieldpiece... If you want low end crap go with meterman, amprobe, craftsman, or the like...

What's crazy is trying to group a piece of shit manufacturer like fieldpiece with Fluke. Again, we're not talking Ford and Chevy, we're talking Yugo (Fieldpiece) and Cadillac (Fluke). Hell, I'd buy a new Amprobe meter long before I'd buy fieldpiece.

[mark beiser]

Originally posted by condenseddave
I'd buy a new Amprobe meter long before I'd buy fieldpiece.

I still have an Amprobe ACD-10 that I got 13 years ago when i first started going to school. It is in my automotive tool box now though. I actually replaced it with an early fieldpiece stick meeter with a clamp head. I replaced the Fieldpiece with a Fluke 77 and Fluke 30 within a month, and threw the Fieldpiece in the trash, it was total garbage.
I still have that Amprobe though...

I think Fieldpiece does have a place though. It is cheep enough that someone that is just starting out can get a decent setup to do the job. Then they can work on building up a good set of quality test instruments over a few years, and keep the Fieldpiece stuff as backups.

[condenseddave]

Remember, you can get the Fluke HVAC combo kit for under 200 bucks.

That's the Fluke 16, which has temperature, and capacitance, in addition to standard DVM meters, and the Fluke 322 clamp DMM. A GOOD, high quality set of leads and a case for the hole outfit.

Like the Fielpiece OEM leads? Didn't think so.