RANT - Buying a 3458A why is that hard?

[Macbeth]

In general I wonder what the exact reason is why KS terminates the sales of the 3458A in europe ? Most likely due to RoHS regulations

That is exactly correct. Keysight is not updating the 3458A to be EU RoHS compliant. They will no longer sell one with a final destination inside the EU.
It is still fully supported, I imagine for a long time in to the future.

Insanity. Even when these meters are totally decommissioned, some poor child scavenging dumps in the Philippines or somewhere resurrects them and passes them on to a junkyard operator who then gives the kid a few lollipops and recycles them to some other middleman and then on to ebay. So the dangerous "Hazardous Substance" (leaded solder) all come back to haunt the EU no matter what. In the most miniscule amount possible.

Sadly I think despite #Brexit these meters will still be banned from direct sale in the UK. Precisely because the sale of them is so minuscule as to not even warrant a change in legislation.

Then again Trump has UK "at the front of the queue", unlike Obamas "back of the queue" and maybe Keysight being american can influence this?

[mimmus78]

When I speak with some Microlease guy few weeks ago (they are the one to call if you want a 3458A new in Italy) they told me that there was this problem, but they didn't told me that this instrument will be "banned" for sure ... they just didn't know yet what was the strategy. Anyway I think ROHS directive allow some authorised exceptions and this will probably be the way to shortcut the problem.

[rastro]

I wonder if they could sell them in kit form.  Then someone else could deal with the compliance of politically correct solder.   

[Messtechniker]

Anyway I think ROHS directive allow some authorised exceptions and this will probably be the way to shortcut the problem.

Non-ROHS compliant equipment, (i.e. lead in components and lead in solder) is allowed in the EU for military and medicinal applications.

So if you run the right kind of company ....

Yours  Messtechniker

[TheSteve]

Anyone up for a challenge?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/112246180384
http://www.ebay.com/itm/112246269329

[guenthert]

Anyone up for a challenge?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/112246180384
http://www.ebay.com/itm/112246269329

I'm not in the market (need to keep my pennies together and so far my 3456a entertains me well enough), but still I enjoy the show.  I hope some expert technician gets it and makes a repair blog. 

[TiN]

I had enough bad luck with A3 replacements, so I'll pass on these units number 3 and 4 

[mimmus78]

You'll can never have enough 8.5 digits multimeters. Are you sure?

[mimmus78]

Ohhh I realised. Someone should have hacked TiN account. Those ain't his words!

Inviato dal mio Nexus 6P utilizzando Tapatalk

[Echo88]

Living in Germany and seeing those repairable 3458As being auctioned off in the USA only, with no shipping to Germany, brings a tear to my eye. Seems like i will never get a fully working one for <3k.

[Theboel]

Hi All,

What about Japan auction site ?
something like this :
http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/k234851443?lang=en&rc=yaucc
after shipment I believe still under 3K USD

[guenthert]

Living in Germany and seeing those repairable 3458As being auctioned off in the USA only, with no shipping to Germany, brings a tear to my eye. Seems like i will never get a fully working one for <3k.

Repairable?  Perhaps.  We don't know the history of those units.  Did the banged up just fell of the a rack, smashing the display lens or did that happen first and then was used to swap parts with other units which aged out of tolerance?  A working 3458a in a banged up chassis would be great, a drifting, not calibrated, not be able to be calibrated one in a banged up chassis isn't.  Quite a gamble.

[Echo88]

As im comparing the prices on various ebay-sites(.com,.it,.fr,.co.uk,.de) im coming to the conclusion that used 3458As are available for not much less than 4k at the moment (including tax/vat from the usa to germany). Time to reach out for other marketplaces. 

[mimmus78]

Yes ebay is not the right place to buy one of this beast ... unless you what to go the TiN way.

[Echo88]

Where did you get yours?

[Robert763]

Arguably the RoHS regulations don't apply to the 3458A. There are two grounds for this. Firstly it was first placed on the market before 2006. Secondly and more importantly, a DMM does not actually fit into any of the categories of equipment the regulations apply to. At leas according to UK official guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31803/11-526-rohs-regulations-government-guidance-notes.pdf For other EU regulations it would be considered measuring or labaoratory equipment, neither of which are mentioned in the RoHS guidance. A loophole? Maybe but the quantiites are so low it's immaterial.
The requlations only apply to new equipment so an alternative work-around would be to by an ex-rental unit from North America.

[TheSteve]

Yes ebay is not the right place to buy one of this beast ... unless you what to go the TiN way.

If you're a business that needs a 3458A right away then a new one from a retailer is the way to go, if you're a home nut or a business that can wait for a good looking unit then ebay totally rocks as a place to buy one.

edit

And another one was just listed - this one has an isolator failure. It isn't buy it now though so the price will be bid way too high.

[plesa]

Happy New Year to all VoltNuts,

This morning I spotted this reseller bettyboopbii09 from HongKong - his pricing has been up and down last weeks - starting from 3500 USD and went up to 5600 USD when he spotted that a similar unit - blocking his cealing level - was sold.
That other one was from Korea (3000 euro) and in perfect condition, then his price went suddenly up of course nobody bites ...
The more funny is that he has 2 entries on eBay with 2 different prices for the same unit:one at 4732.8 USD and another at 3910 USD. The latter is a fair price - but do not know if this is a trustworthy reseller or whether he is hiding defects (like DC gain drift CAL?72) - he has not been pro-active answering questions from EEVBLOG members I was whispered.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Agilent-HP-3458A-Digital-Multimeter-8-1-2-Digit-/262754095314?hash=item3d2d5d50d2:g:41EAAOSw-kdX1LY-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Agilent-HP-3458A-Digital-Multimeter-8-1-2-Digit-/262784479466?hash=item3d2f2cf0ea:g:41EAAOSw-kdX1LY-

As I have a good working unit - I am not interested - more interested in ordering spare parts to survive the years to come.

Best regards
Flinstone

Happy new year
What is strange, that the SN sticker is missing. Without serial will be difficult to track history of unit. Unit looks like new, so maybe it can be covered by warranty.

[HighVoltage]

Yes ebay is not the right place to buy one of this beast ... unless you what to go the TiN way.

Happy new year to all of you.

I found my "almost new" 3458A on ebay and I am totally happy with it.
If you take the time to look around and ask the seller lots of questions, eventually you will find a good one.
But the restrictions of 2017 will probably change all of that.
So, I am happy to have a good working one.

Also, it might be difficult, starting today, to get a used one imported in to the EU.
Only time will tell

[HighVoltage]

Happy new year
What is strange, that the SN sticker is missing. Without serial will be difficult to track history of unit. Unit looks like new, so maybe it can be covered by warranty.

This meter was one that I tried to buy from the seller.
But he never responded to my questions about the missing sticker.
Something is not right about this meter or the seller, I think.
 

[plesa]

Happy new year
What is strange, that the SN sticker is missing. Without serial will be difficult to track history of unit. Unit looks like new, so maybe it can be covered by warranty.

This meter was one that I tried to buy from the seller.
But he never responded to my questions about the missing sticker.
Something is not right about this meter or the seller, I think.

Maybe, that's the reason why unit is on eBay for long time. Strange is that some units looks like sold and after few month there is new seller offering them again

[saturnin]

Happy new year to everybody

The mentioned seller has received very negative/alarming feedback recently, so I would be very cautious in case of buying anything from him (and 3458A especially ):

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=bettyboopbii09&iid=262784479466&de=off&items=25&searchInterval=30&which=negative&interval=30&_trkparms=negative_30

[HighVoltage]

Happy new year to everybody

The mentioned seller has received very negative/alarming feedback recently, so I would be very cautious in case of buying anything from him (and 3458A especially ):

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=bettyboopbii09&iid=262784479466&de=off&items=25&searchInterval=30&which=negative&interval=30&_trkparms=negative_30

Good catch, I had not even noticed that.
And some items he sold are not cheap.
This seller has a pattern of very bad feedback.

[mimmus78]

Four negative feedbacks is a no no. You must act very badly to get such high number of negative feedbacks. This is professional stuff ... no cheap 1 EUR things, you will not receive negative feedbacks selling this stuff if you really don't deserve it.

[HighVoltage]

One just showed up on ebay Germany:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/152378840725

HP branded 3458A for Euro 5000
It seems the expected price is already rising.