Products > Test Equipment
Multimeter fuses
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Berni:

--- Quote from: David Hess on July 08, 2016, 01:37:51 am ---The reason these fuses are so expensive is that they have to be able to interrupt high voltage DC while not arcing.  For instance common 250 volt AC rated fuses are only good to like 32 volts DC.

--- End quote ---

True these proper HRC fuses will interrupt massive fault currents safely versus the regular cheep glass fuses that tend to explode and draw the arc out in to the surroundings.

But why are they so much more expensive? Id assume its just a matter of using a better wire material inside and filling it with sand to absorb the energy.
iXod:

--- Quote from: Berni on July 08, 2016, 05:01:28 am ---But why are they so much more expensive? Id assume its just a matter of using a better wire material inside and filling it with sand to absorb the energy.

--- End quote ---

Certainly not the cost of components that justifies the retail price. I'm sure it's that meter owners know that to use a non-DMM rated fuse is risking damage so they can charge whatever they want.

iX
MosherIV:

--- Quote ---But why are they so much more expensive? Id assume its just a matter of using a better wire material inside and filling it with sand to absorb the energy.
--- End quote ---
Proving regulatory compliance. Good quality control, testing batches of fuses to prove they do their job (considering how small the volume is for this kind of fuse, compared with the cheaper ones, this may be a considerable cost in their manufacture).
All the red tape costs money.
All so that you know the fuse does what it says on the case.
Fungus:

--- Quote from: David Hess on July 08, 2016, 01:37:51 am ---The reason these fuses are so expensive is that they have to be able to interrupt high voltage DC while not arcing.  For instance common 250 volt AC rated fuses are only good to like 32 volts DC.

--- End quote ---

Yep, we get that.

But what makes them expensive? There's no high tech inside them. It's basically just a fuse filled with sand to prevent formation of a plasma arc when there's enough energy to vaporize the wire instead of just melting it.


--- Quote from: MosherIV on July 08, 2016, 12:15:05 pm ---All the red tape costs money.

--- End quote ---
That might explain some of it but I think there's a large amount of charging extra just because they can.

They're not like aircraft parts where every single nut and bolt has its own audit trail.

DenzilPenberthy:
I'd say they are exactly like aircraft parts in that they are a safety component which if it does not perform as expected then someone will very likely be maimed or killed.  Put a normal 32mm glass fuse in a multimeter, set it to Amps range then put the probes across two phases of a large 3 phase busbar and see what happens!

They are expensive for all of the same reasons that an aircraft bolt is more expensive than one from an ebay hardware shop

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