AHGG! My new FP 680 already in for repair.

[mgenius33]

So, I guess this is common complaint, durability.

The other stuff I've used from them hasn't been this cheaply made. The clamp mechanism seems to hinge on cheap plastic. Won't hinge without popping out anymore. Now, I'm stuck paying $25 to ship this thing in for repairs.

Anyone else have this issue with FP clamp meters? I hope this is just a faulty unit, and not something that keeps happening. I've never had a clamp meter fail like this. In fact I don't think I've ever had a clamp meter fail at all. Even my 20 year old cheap Crapsman meters still work. Come to think of it, the only thing I've ever had fail on any dmm is the test leads, which is just wear and tear.

[JayMan7]

I used my field piece clamp meter for one day and couldn't stand it...cheap, slow, and not as accurate. Bought a fluke 902 (which I should have done from the beginning). The fluke is noticeably better than the field piece in every aspect.

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[mgenius33]

The one thing I am impressed by FP is the amp clamp accuracy. It beats my old model 902 in that category, but the voltage is slight off with the FP. My Testo 770-3 has an excellent design amp clamp but the accuracy is off slightly. I have the 770 in a box like new. The 902 is still my work horse. It’s a shame, I thought I had the whole set up with all the FP smart probes. I hope they fixed the clamp issue. I’m pretty gentle with my meters, but I’ll bet I could throw my 902 out of the van at 35mph and it still work fine. The FP just seems like it’s going to break if I look at it the wrong way.

[JayMan7]

The one thing I am impressed by FP is the amp clamp accuracy. It beats my old model 902 in that category, but the voltage is slight off with the FP. My Testo 770-3 has an excellent design amp clamp but the accuracy is off slightly. I have the 770 in a box like new. The 902 is still my work horse. It’s a shame, I thought I had the whole set up with all the FP smart probes. I hope they fixed the clamp issue. I’m pretty gentle with my meters, but I’ll bet I could throw my 902 out of the van at 35mph and it still work fine. The FP just seems like it’s going to break if I look at it the wrong way.

Hahaha the 902 is certainly built like a tank

What kind of accuracy issues were you having. When I initially bench tested mine it was accurate. Other than the normal inaccuracy innate to clamp meters trying to measure very very low amperages.

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[channellxbob]

Wow! all this trouble with FP meters. I had two SC440s that were awesome, compared to my brothers Flukes, and his access to calibration equipment, proved that the 440s were dead accurate. I got a wild hair and sold one, (to him) and bought a SC480 and like it even better and yes, it's dead on too. My brother is a Fluke guy thru and thru and he can't believe he actually likes the FP meters even better. I have never questioned a reading, been let down by a meter that wouldn't work, etc. I guess I'm just lucky. I've tried a lot of clamp meters between my brother and both of our work friends, the only others I liked was the Amprobes, the 14-PRO is fast as all get out, but doesn't do milli volts, the Nav-51 is a very cool meter but the backlight is near useless.

[JayMan7]

Wow! all this trouble with FP meters. I had two SC440s that were awesome, compared to my brothers Flukes, and his access to calibration equipment, proved that the 440s were dead accurate. I got a wild hair and sold one, (to him) and bought a SC480 and like it even better and yes, it's dead on too. My brother is a Fluke guy thru and thru and he can't believe he actually likes the FP meters even better. I have never questioned a reading, been let down by a meter that wouldn't work, etc. I guess I'm just lucky. I've tried a lot of clamp meters between my brother and both of our work friends, the only others I liked was the Amprobes, the 14-PRO is fast as all get out, but doesn't do milli volts, the Nav-51 is a very cool meter but the backlight is near useless.

I understand that people get attached to the meter they use but meter evaluation is more in the area of electronics than hvac. You need to check out some of the tear downs and reviews of fluke and other meters on eev blog/forum. I have taken apart both fluke and fp and I really don't think fp compares to fluke. But whatever, I mean it's only HVAC. It not like we need the precision of a bench top agilent or anything haha.

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[channellxbob]

I agree, it's HVAC and it doesn't require bench accuracy. I also love EEV Blog, that's what keeps me from buying some of the other popular HVAC clamp meters. Fluke just doesn't seem to be marketing to HVAC techs, or they'd be offering more functions. I'm not saying they're bad, not at all. What I am saying is FP is good. Are they the best, goodness who knows, I'm not into that.

[mgenius33]

Hahaha the 902 is certainly built like a tank

What kind of accuracy issues were you having. When I initially bench tested mine it was accurate. Other than the normal inaccuracy innate to clamp meters trying to measure very very low amperages.

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I found the FP clamp to be within .01A, the 902 doesn’t even have that low of resolution.
Very good for low current motors like draft inducers. I just can’t believe the friggin clamp hinge broke.

The FP did read about .4VAC off though. The Testo 770-3 is a great meter if they could fix the 0.2AAC error. Unfortunately, if your AC current is off then the Watts are as well.

[JayMan7]

I agree, it's HVAC and it doesn't require bench accuracy. I also love EEV Blog, that's what keeps me from buying some of the other popular HVAC clamp meters. Fluke just doesn't seem to be marketing to HVAC techs, or they'd be offering more functions. I'm not saying they're bad, not at all. What I am saying is FP is good. Are they the best, goodness who knows, I'm not into that.

Yes hvac is like an afterthought to fluke...I do wish they would change that

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[mgenius33]

Yes hvac is like an afterthought to fluke...I do wish they would change that

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Sadly, Fluke won't work with anyone to integrate smart probes with their meters.

[JayMan7]

Sadly, Fluke won't work with anyone to integrate smart probes with their meters.

That is a real shame. My 902 has an app but the range absolutely sucks. It's like 10 feet. If they could get the range that fieldpiece is getting with their new stuff it would be awesome!

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[channellxbob]

I borrowed a 902FC for a while, and I swear, it seemed like every time I went to use it, I needed to measure something it didn't do. I mean, I don't see thermocouples every day, but sure enough, I had a couple a week when I had it. The continuity beeper is almost silent to my ears. Yatta, Yatta, Yatta. One thing I did love was the diplay, it bold, with a prominent decimal point, which can easily be missed on some meters. I dunno, everything seems to be a tradeoff, and I'll stick with FP for now. I'd just like to see a company like Fluke dive head long into making an HVAC meter with all the bells and whistles. I mean this is the 21st century, it's not the stone age, a company can make anything they want.

[channellxbob]

I forgot to mention also. A guy I work with bought a Klein CL450 and I used it for a while, and I'll be darned it worked great. The only real gripe I could muster about it, was it was a tad bit large and that was it. I was pretty surprised.
The other thing I forgot to mention was I used the Amprobe NAV-51 and it had that feature that automatically detected AC or DC, and I actually thought that was a gimick, but I grew to love that, just flick it on and measure voltage, really cool. That meter was lightning fast too.
I could go on all day, there's some neat features out there, but you have to decide which you can and cannot do without.
I just think it's a shame it all can't be in one meter.

[Gleng]

The Fluke 902Fc does not measure millivolts ,True.But it is a very good meter in every other aspect.I have several Fieldpiece meters,But i prefer the 902 for everyday use.I do use a fieldpiece meter for some other things,But my everyday Volts and amps is the 902. Partly the reason is also that i have used the meter for so man-years.I'm used to it.i have a brand new Fieldpiece Sc680 and a brand new SC660.Still in the box!!!Also have a new redfish to use with Measure Quick.Not really used it yet.I'm sure these meters are good.I'm just so used to the 902.In time ,Will probably use the other meters.

[channellxbob]

I can respect that. I've contemplated using a 902FC and even had one a while. It does most things you need and I've only used inrush a time or two and probably could have gotten by without it. Does the fluke measure low amps to 100 mA? I can't remember, would it work for low amps fans?

[Gleng]

As The fluke 902 reads low amps well.I can't comment on the range of the Blue tooth,I haven't used it much.I'm going to start to use the new Fieldpiece SC680 more ,to see how i like it.I do like the swivel meters.The other day when using the 902 ,I had trouble hanging it on a wire and reading it.It would have been nice to swivel the meter.As mentioned before,Different meters have different features.Hard to say what is the best.Would be better if the 902 swiveled !!!As for the new FC680 in for repair,I think that is a rare occurrence.Hopefully mins does well.

[channellxbob]

I have to admit, I could care less about by range. The only time I've used it was to check starting amps under a reach
-in cooler, so I was only a couple of feet away.