Well my Gumtree bargain arrived today and it was just as the seller described but with one difference, it came with not one but two thermocouples. As you can see its branded Rapid 85-0716 and it was listed as new for just £15 which whetted my appetite although meters are my weakness
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Digging a bit I discovered that it is now a discontinued line by Rapid but it is still available under its parents name, Extech as EX530 and as such is still on sale for anything between £180 and £240 and its been reviewed by M J Lorton and our own Joe Smith (although to be fair, he tested the EX540, essentially the same animal but with infra-red thermometer built-in). It seems to be a reasonable meter with DC accuracy of .06% + 2 digits by all accounts.
First impression was OK, it came with soft pouch to store it in, 2 thermocouples, set of meter leads, 2 sealing plugs and instruction manual, all in English. It feels very sturdy and indeed it is, Extech have released a video showing just how tough it is
it is a good size but not as big as the brick of a meter, Brymen BM867.
While it looks to have a rubber bumper round the case, it is just made to look like it has. Anyway in the best tradition, I took it a part. The battery compartment uses 2 screws with metal inserts for the screws and takes a 9V PP3, all in a sealed compartment, it has a nice kick stand but it lacks the heft of the Brymen so while it can be switched single-handedly, it does sort of skate about on the bench while switching ranges.
Next after removing 6 self-tapping screws, the case splits into 2 parts and it is easy to see how they were able to get IP67 rating as the case on one half has a 10mm tongue and the other half has a slot that the tongue enters when screwing back together again. Screws have rubber o rings beneath them so its well sealed and also is well-designed so should anything go wrong internally, any explosion debris will be retained within the body. There is a 10 pin header as well as trimmer pots, so the header might be for software updates or it could be for calibration as well-being able to calibrate by hand as well if required., there is plenty of input protection and the fuses are not only HRC type but also 1,000V rated, well done there. The same cannot be side about the continuity tester, it is so slow, the screen reacts before the buzzer does and while it does the job and sounds nice enough, it is no speed demon. There is noway that it competes with the Brymen with which you can slide a probe along the pins of IC trying a find a connection, quickly.
The display is a 40,000 count and is pretty large number with a pretty good backlight, but the backlight is only on a for about 10 seconds, a bit longer would be nice. Accuracy on DCV is quoted as being .06% and 2 counts, which it seems to meet.
Would I pay full price for it, no, I'd rather buy another Brymen which would also cost less as well, but then, the Brymen was a really lucky find and has kind of spoilt me for other meters other than perhaps a Fluke, which is what Brymen appear to be competing with. Do I like the Rapid, yes I do like it and it might well find a permanent spot in my meter line up. I now might flip a couple of lower manual ranger meters and maybe a lower auto ranger as well.
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