How good is the UT61 series?

[karoru]

I'd get a Fluke 101 if I regularly worked with mains electricity. Only $42 delivered and one of the safest meters available at any price.

No you wouldn't. You would use a Fluke 87, just like the rest of your co-workers, unless you wanted to be the butt of their jokes.
Don't confuse safety with Joe's 'ruggedness'. The 101 is only rated 600V CAT III.

I'm yet to see Fluke 87 in household electrician bag. Only name-branded meters used outside of industrial environment are ones that you need for making measurements that require calibration, certified meter and your sign on piece of paper - ie earth fault loop impedance, insulation resistance and so on.

[Wytnucls]

I'm not familiar with Poland's general attitude towards safety, but the meter should at least be rated CAT IV, with a recognized safety agency listing.
In an industrial environment, meters are provided by the company and are usually of high quality, mostly for their reliability, ruggedness and reputation in case of accident litigation.

[Electro Detective]

If you're not playing with electricity or high current, a cheap UT61 may be ok 

If you might one day play with electricity or high current, get a cheap Fluke too,
a reputable company with lots of cash to sue, if the meter design was at fault, and not the operator

Try and catch up with Uni-T if one of their UTxxxA, B, C, D, E, F... monthly new models decides to go BANG! due to rushed design, visual eye candy addons or operator OOPS! 

[karoru]

I'm not familiar with Poland's general attitude towards safety, but the meter should at least be rated CAT IV, with a recognized safety agency listing.
In an industrial environment, meters are provided by the company and are usually of high quality, mostly for their reliability, ruggedness and reputation in case of accident litigation.

That's why I talked about non-industrial specifically. For industrial, of course, something like Fluke 87 is preferable (not that it's ideal, if we're talking about ultra-scary busbars everywhere I'd prefer something that doesn't have current via shunt measurement anyways), but for household anything more than a glorified lightbulb (one of Fluke voltsticks or an equivalent, actually Uni-T ones are ok, and even random brands - it's really hard to construct a device consisting of plastic case, thermistor, LED and a cable that won't be CAT III unless you really try) and random clamp-meter is kind of overkill.

By the way, everything a typical household electrician does is CAT III. 

Blueskull, thank you:) I have no idea where this surprisingly popular idea that anything that comes close to a mains socket should be CAT IV comes from.

[Electro Detective]

In a Cat 111 scenario a Cat 4 meter (non-BS Cat 4 meter) may tolerate an  'unknown' source of surprise BANG!     better than a Cat 3 meter,

assuming the leads are the real deal too

[Wytnucls]

Indoors only: CAT III is sufficient.
Where I live, a lot of electrical cabling is on the outside of the house: Garden lights, water pumps, pool pumps, air conditioning units. Often, 'house' electricians have to deal with those too.

[Wytnucls]

That's ambiguous. Most expanded CAT IV explanation I have read, talk about any outside wiring, due to potential lightning strike.
Here is Metrel's:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0ahUKEwjX2OPJu4DUAhVISRoKHS1cA90QFghAMAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metrel.si%2Fdl%3Fd%3DPDF_dokumentacija%2FWhite_papers%2FAng%2FWhite_paper_Overvoltages_and_high_current_breakdowns.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFBhMl5Vs87dEDjna1CoMw5j6eWmA&sig2=yhVfF276xa9HxSX6ol6CXQ&cad=rjt

[P90]

Indoors only: CAT III is sufficient.
Where I live, a lot of electrical cabling is on the outside of the house: Garden lights, water pumps, pool pumps, air conditioning units. Often, 'house' electricians have to deal with those too.

I believe "outdoor" on that fluke label refers to anything before your panel, i.e. power pole, transformer. etc. and not that GFCI outlet on the side of your garage, or that fountain pump...

[WackyGerman]

If the pool pump is inside the house it s CAT III , if it is feeded outside by a socket or the connection box of the pump it is CAT IV so the safety regulation here in Germany by the employers mutual insurance association . All installations outside the house are CAT IV rated , even they are feeded from distribution boxes which are CAT III rated . The reason for this is magnetic induction caused by thunderstorms i.e.

[WackyGerman]

I'm not familiar with Poland's general attitude towards safety, but the meter should at least be rated CAT IV, with a recognized safety agency listing.
In an industrial environment, meters are provided by the company and are usually of high quality, mostly for their reliability, ruggedness and reputation in case of accident litigation.

Right , specially the company is ISO9001 certified they were forced to use quality measurement equipment to keep the quality standard of their measurements .

[Electro Detective]

Cat 4 volt sticks, gloves, glasses and rubber boots anyone ?   

[karoru]

Cat 4 volt sticks, gloves, glasses and rubber boots anyone ?   

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

By the way, the whole conundrum about CAT IV outdoor conductors is trying to codify people not sticking probes with conductor inside connected to their small plastic black box to thingies directly connected to outdoor circuits when they hear strange sounds usually associated with lightning strikes in vicinity of few kilometers.

[slurry]

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

High rubber heels? 

[karoru]

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

High rubber heels? 

They're okay (meaning you'll remember not to do this again, but you won't die) in case of 230V RMS. Not sure about these lightning transients. I don't advocate grabbing mains conductor whilst in rubber heels and waiting till lightning strike. 

[P90]

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

High rubber heels? 

with ceramic insulator heals...   lol

[WackyGerman]

I just imagine myself an electrician with a sadomaso rubber suit in a technical room 

[Electro Detective]

Cat 4 volt sticks, gloves, glasses and rubber boots anyone ?   

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

With warm socks (and heavy duty odour eaters) they are a better bet to survive confirming voltage present outdoors,
than just bare feet or sandles standing on wet concrete, wielding a supposedly 'safer' Fluke meter ...or Uni-T 'cross your fingers' meter   

which I don't do anyway, if I observe dark clouds at a distance (lazy lightning can find another short path to earth, I don't need any more HV tingles)

[P90]

Cat 4 volt sticks, gloves, glasses and rubber boots anyone ?   

I'm not sure what your rubber boots measure if they're considered viable for CAT IV;)

With warm socks (and heavy duty odour eaters) they are a better bet to survive confirming voltage present outdoors,
than just bare feet or sandles standing on wet concrete, wielding a supposedly 'safer' Fluke meter ...or Uni-T 'cross your fingers' meter   

which I don't do anyway, if I observe dark clouds at a distance (lazy lightning can find another short path to earth, I don't need any more HV tingles)

Don't forget your aluminium foil hat...

[Electro Detective]

Good point, I better leave the 87V in the van too   

[karoru]

They pose CAT4 hazard, because person using a meter isn't qualified to discriminate between "lightning more than few kilometers away" and "oh shit". Apparently it's safe to operate your phone charger with 0.5mm paper & homeopathic enamel between your USB charger primary and secondary during thunderstorm whilst sitting in your shed connected via outdoor wiring, having your feet massaged via foot-massage bath, but a chunky multimeter (even DT830 Harbor Freight freebie is quite chunky in comparison) is a death trap.

[Wytnucls]

Where I live, a lot of electrical cabling is on the outside of the house: Garden lights, water pumps, pool pumps, air conditioning units. Often, 'house' electricians have to deal with those too.

If they are powered by power derived from an indoor distribution panel, then why they pose CAT4 hazard?
Of course, this is taking a risk since CAT3 doesn't require so high voltage transient seen by induced lightning, but let's face it, how big a chance will you be hit by an induced lightning over just a few meters of cable? Induced lightning protection is needed for long distance outdoor wires due to longer length, usually a few meters from service drop to your house. But for just a few meters from your panel to AC unit? I don't think there is a big chance.

The IEC is very influential. When the commission recommends something, it is usually adopted fairly quickly by most countries, sometimes with a few variations.

All IEC International Standards are fully consensus-based and represent the needs of key stakeholders of every nation participating in IEC work. Every member country, no matter how large or small, has one vote and a say in what goes into an IEC International Standard.
Close to 20 000 experts from industry, commerce, government, test and research labs, academia and consumer groups participate in IEC Standardization work.

[Fungus]

They pose CAT4 hazard, because person using a meter isn't qualified to discriminate between "lightning more than few kilometers away" and "oh shit". Apparently it's safe to operate your phone charger with 0.5mm paper & homeopathic enamel between your USB charger primary and secondary during thunderstorm whilst sitting in your shed connected via outdoor wiring, having your feet massaged via foot-massage bath, but a chunky multimeter (even DT830 Harbor Freight freebie is quite chunky in comparison) is a death trap.

False for several reasons:
a) Phone chargers don't have a range selector switch or other ways for people to mess it up and they're usually sealed so dirt can't get inside.
b) If you're an electrician poking around wires it often means you're modifying those wires. Not many people modify their phone chargers.
c) Joe has exploded several meters in his thread. He doesn't test on the current ranges.

Would yo also argue that your car doesn't need airbags because you're a perfect driver and the roads around your house are fine?

[karoru]

Would yo also argue that your car doesn't need airbags because you're a perfect driver and the roads around your house are fine?

Nope, that's why things like circuit breakers and GFID/RCDs exist on low voltage.

c) Joe has exploded several meters in his thread. He doesn't test on the current ranges.

And working at a substation 15kV -> 400V I haven't exploded any.

[Fungus]

Would yo also argue that your car doesn't need airbags because you're a perfect driver and the roads around your house are fine?

Nope, that's why things like circuit breakers and GFID/RCDs exist on low voltage.

They won't prevent the meter from exploding in your hand if you select the wrong range.

c) Joe has exploded several meters in his thread. He doesn't test on the current ranges.

And working at a substation 15kV -> 400V I haven't exploded any.

Would you use a UT61E if you were working around substations every day?

[WackyGerman]

They pose CAT4 hazard, because person using a meter isn't qualified to discriminate between "lightning more than few kilometers away" and "oh shit". Apparently it's safe to operate your phone charger with 0.5mm paper & homeopathic enamel between your USB charger primary and secondary during thunderstorm whilst sitting in your shed connected via outdoor wiring, having your feet massaged via foot-massage bath, but a chunky multimeter (even DT830 Harbor Freight freebie is quite chunky in comparison) is a death trap.

Seriously , who said that it s safe playing around with electrical equipment while bathing your feet in water ? Every manual of electrical equipment said to keep it away from water and to disconnect from the mains at a thunderstorm .
But even it is connected to the same circuit with outdoor socket or directly connected equipment , the phone charger is connected in a socket , so the primary side is CAT II rated because of the contact resistance between the plug and the contact of the socket . The secondary side of the charger is 5 V almost so it is a low voltage device and CAT 0 rated according the rules so it is " safer" to poke around like in your example than measuring voltage with an unsafe meter