EEVblog 1378 - NEW Uni-T UT61E+ Multimeter - Still bang-per-buck king? 

Something is happening with the price is this meter, it's jumping around like a jackrabbit. I have a screen capture of USD$88, but now it's USD$73 at 50% off. Maybe they know my video is coming... :->

A review about the AM870 would be awesome, I like seeing the cheap stuff being reviewed, especially if it ends up being suprisingly good for the price.

The lack of input protection resistor indicates these folks know how to use PTC protection devices.. Any resistor value big enough to limit any sort of current would limit the current needed to trigger the PTC devices. It would increase their trigger voltage, increase their trigger time or prevent them from working at all. PTCs often have enough resistance to limit peak current and increase resistance very quickly under overload conditions. A downstream clamp device like a diode, zener, or TVS will have a large peak transient current rating that will hang on for a few milliseconds until the PTC device limits current. I have used PTCs for 40 years in applications like this. Like any component you have to fully understand them to use them properly. The fact that the protection system in both meters differ indicates to me that they re-evaluated the design to make improvements. I notice more PTCs in the new meter which would not go in without cost justification. No doubt they were trying to meet some sort of test requirements and probably did. I'll bet the engineers at UNI-T that design meters for a living under extreme cost constraints don't appreciate your criticism when you really don't understand their design in detail or their test criteria. Let's not criticize a $50 meter by comparing it to a $500 one. I have a wide range of instruments from HP lab instruments that cost thousands to Harbor Freight meters that cost $2. There are plenty of applications where the $2 meter is perfectly adequate and sometimes superior. I admire these low cost instruments for their convenience and the value they offer for the money. These folks face incredible challenges to provide extraordinary instrumentation to the hobbyist for less than a set of HP meter leads. I respect them for taking on that challenge and succeeding I don't know how they do it for the money.

When I reviewed the *UT61E+* 3 months ago I was blown away by the quality and overall bang for buck. It's not a CHEAP-O persay but it's very hard to do much better at this price point with these features...Great job UNI-T!

Love how you cracked open the fuse to check - this is one thing you'll never see on normal channels reviewing multi-meters

I've been using the UT61e+ for around a year or 2 so far and really like it. Maybe not 100% the best value, but still certainly acceptable.

They've also moved from a single chip solution to a meter chip + mcu + display driver. Interestingly, the meter chip is rated for 30,000 count but they've kept the 22,000

Love this kind of reviews from you!!! Thanks

Wicked! Sure it's whatever for most people, but the transistor gain test is really useful for stuff I do with old germaniums for particular music stuff. Pretty keen!

Would love a shoot-out of all 5-digit meters with the 121GW as the reference, and all others rated relative to it, perhaps with radar plots to make the key differences more visible.

AN870 owner here, my unit had screen cover not glued correctly (there was a glue but not heated enough) but heat gun was enough to make it rock solid. Plastic on the probes isn't great but I've seen worse, NCV isn't great either but it does find wiring inside European concrete walls. So far pretty happy with it given 28 USD price (free shipping).

The fuses + backlight (although so weak) + improved continuity makes the upgrade worth it for me. Might wait a few months and see if there is an improved revision of this newer model.

Now an analog EE picking up a DMM with a hFE position on the range switch, the first thing he should ask is if the manual mentions the base current for the transistor test. I'm sure it isn't mentioned for the cheap dinky meters that Clive and I have, but for this one it's probably on a page that Dave flipped past in this video. I think Dave might be forgetting that a lot of people still use bipolar transistors in the linear region, and the manufacturing process still spits out transistors within any given batch with hFE all over the shop. For someone whose bread and butter is radio transmitter and audio amplifier repair, a dedicated hFE position on the DMM range switch might be a valuable feature. We know of a certain Canadian RU-vidr who has posted a video on building your own hFE tester and, while he has never explicitly stated this, most likely sorts through bulk transistor purchases and bins them by hFE.

Love my 61E. Its in constant use and always dependable.

What a nice price upgrade! Thank for the review.

It’s a pet peeve of mine to see AAA where AA would be more appropriate, which would include just about everything that takes FOUR AAA batteries. I get the impression that AAA batteries must be free in China.

Thanx for the Review. I have been wondering about this unit. I do wonder if they long term calibration has been fixed. The 61E drifts bad after 1 year. Regarding HFE this is not surprising and I'm sure heavily requested feature. The 61E is a favorite of the audio hobbyist market including the guitar pedal and amplifier market and that market needs HFE for grading older, esp GE transistors so I am sure they were asking for improved HFE features since it is getting harder and harder to find meters with this feature.

I will say that these units are pretty decent for the price, especially for a hobbiest or for students just learning in school. Every so often you can even catch these at about the same price as the old one. I am far more comfortable letting kids work with this meter than the harbor freight ones especially for the input protection and accuracy when completeing learning labs. Not going to replace the 121GW or my HP bench meter but makes a great unit to have in all the vehicles as well. I am interested in that ANENG AN870 but I find they make the meters a big too small and cost cut them too much for my taste, but they still make great little meters to have beating around in the tool box.

The British fuse is on the dedicated current terminal, so doesn't need a 1000V rating, though in reality 1000V would give it no problem - that will be limited by pcb track spacing etc. More importantly a sand-filled ceramic BS1362 fuse will withstand a massive fault current of 6,000A without shattering in the way a glass fuse might.

Waiting for uni-t vs aneng comparison. Thanks.

Just got the 61D+ version, which only has a 6000 count range on it, but it has a temperature feature and the NCV function seems to work a lot better than the 61E+ for some reason. Build quality is surprisingly good as well.

11:40 imo thats nice, the old one had no auto power off because it was constantly in serial mode

I was just waiting for it as you clicked the dial round !

did i read 30000counts on that chipset datasheet? tehres a eeprom? time for some modding! this could be the next ut210e

Dave, there are tons of us analog audio circuit hobbyist out here who do indeed measure transistor gain for our pedals.. That said we have better tools than a multimeter for that but we do do that

Funny I ordered this 2 days ago, was looking for a good review and here it is. I also have the Aneng AM870 it is ok but not great, very slow range switching, not much input protection as far as I remember and NCV is equally useless.

There's actually a UL rated Uni-T UT61E version that's being sold in Germany. A bit more expensive, But certified to be safe for poking around AC. I've been using one for a couple of years now, No wockers.

Hi. Your last review of multimeters in the US $100 range was some 10 years ago. Has anything changed?

Hey Dave. I guess I am one of the few people who like the HFE transistor feature. I use it all the time to beta match diff pairs on the input stages of amplifiers. Beats having to break out the curve tracer and connect it to an oscilloscope. Also gives a quick way to figure out where the emitter is on those TO92 transistors with the base in the center pin.

Thank you for another great video. Do you have any suggestions for an accurate low current clamp meter that won't break the bank?

I found that the mV measurement input impedance value was much higher than the 10M in a fluke DMM I had. I found that it gave more accurate readings in the mV range for some high mpedance mV measurements compared to the fluke DMM.I dont recollect offhand the fluke model though.maybe someone can clarify if I am right ?

Hi Dave, please do a burden voltage test on both models. Also the comparison with AN870 will be nice. Thanks.

Picked up a Fluke 8050A (4.5 digit meter) for $110 delivered CDN works great except needed new fuses. Bloody things aren't the easiest to get or cheap. Had to educate myself on fuses too .. never knew the sand got turned into glass to prevent any kaboom :-) good to know.

If you set it to measure AC in peak mode, does it still measure the DC peak of the waveform like the UT61E, or does it measure the RMS peak like one would expect from an RMS meter?

I have two UT61E and two AN870. I discovered by accident the good 0.05% accuracy on AN870 degrades quite a bit over temp., At about 90 deg F, 32 degs C the accuracy dropped from 0.05% at 25C to 0.14% at 90F. I like the UT61E internal calibation pot adjustment for DC volts verses firmware eeprom cal storage on AN870. If your working with Li-Ion cells, neither allows 4 decimal readout which require at least 50,000 count meter.

Hi Dave, you know what, this meter the 61E+ is being sold here in the UK through Amazon for £139, much more than the more reasonably priced 61E which is just £59, I wish it were just half as much again as the E, I would buy one, but at the price they are being offered in the UK I don't think its worth it, I can get a used but working Fluke for that price. Love your videos BTW and your Ausie sense of humour... Keep up the good work buddy.... Mel - Yorkshire, England

I've been waiting for you to make a video about my meter since I got it a couple years ago. Best I could ever find was your review way back ago on the UT61B, but unfortunately you just crapped all over it. Maybe it deserved it, but the comments didn't seem to think so. Either way, it may not be a review, but it's good to hear you saying positive things about the UT61E. Cheers, m8. :D

I know this is a dumb one, but I always go straight to meter leads with "alligator clamps" support, and I use the probe holders to keep my alligator clamps when I'm not using them. It's a option you would never know you missed until it's not there. But, I usually upgrade the leads instantly on any meter I buy anyway, and support for alligator clamps is a must in my line of work. Good leads & alligator clamps is a must (at least the good leads part). Many people dont understand just how good it is to have a decent set of meter leads.

The main thing that needed improving about the UT61E was the input protection. Everything else about it was a perfectly competent meter.

I have the UT61E and it´s fine for me. As long as it would work or there is not a significant better multimeter at the same price range, I will not replace it. thx for the comparison :)

Would love to watch a comparison with Aneng AN870. I had forgotten about this youtube bug

I'd love you to compare with the ANENG AM870!

The greater-than-expected price may be related to shortages and other procurement problems caused by the pandemic. So, would you recommend a pair of these DMMs for a starting, but committed/serious, hobbyist?

Which one is the best multimeter for everything. ( home, industrial, electricians and for electrical users)

I measure transistor gain (matching pairs of AC128s etc.), thought everyone did!

I LIKE YOUR VIDEO. BUT HOW DO I CALIBRATE THE UT61E+, I HEARD THAT IT IS THROUGH THE MANUFACTURER'S SOFTWARE. DO YOU HAVE THIS SOFTWARE?

Looks like you can easily desolder the fuse holders and put them in the other holes available so you can use larger fuses.

Probably the price will go down soon. I think it's a nice meter. Not very fond of the new red knob in there. But the bigger display and the change from the 9V battery is very nice. I have the original UT61E also and would consider buying this as a second (well, maybe... 5th) meter.

Thanks for the review. I was thinking about buying one, but those fuses are a deal breaker for me. I have a Cliff Quicktest that uses them. At least in the US, genuine BS1362 fuses are rare as unicorns. All the ones I've found are counterfeits, with no sand.

Absolutely perplexed why they wasted a function position with the Hfe test, and what's the point of the non contact voltage detect if it doesn't work properly, I was all set to buy one for back up purposes, Thanks for the review and thanks for saving me some money 👍

I had to replace the main IC in the 61E after someone tried to measure a car battery and had the leads in the amps range. Blew the fuse and the chip. Worked fine after replacing the main IC and doing a re-cal. Point being the original 61E has terrible input protection. What's the group of resistors near the inputs on the 61E+? It almost looked like they might have used resistors in series for the input protection. Guess I could go look at the hi-rez photos but too lazy right now.

Threaded insert on the back is for a magnet. Used a lot in the field for affixing to electrical cabinet doors.

Thank you for another great video.

i worry about the rubber on that range switch degrading due to hand oils and high pressure

Currently here in the US I can't seem to get the BM786 for a reasonable price ($250 on eBay is not reasonable, lol). It seems like the Uni-T UT61E+ is just so-so. What other meters do you recommend in the same price catagory?

I think Aneng is still the most bang for buck. Their new 9002 has Bluetooth and data retention for $22 but sadly only 6k counts but I think there is 1 with 10k. Their Q1 is still only $27 though. Their Bench meter is $70 has bluetooth, a radio, Alarm clock 19k counts and better precision than this one. I saw something about multi function calibration as well but the description didn't mention it.

Got this meter,, malfunction on its 2nd month,, shorted lest leads shows 2 ohms,, so I do the IPA bath. Now open leads show 6meg, diode test and buzzer are also affected,, shorted test leads shows 38 ohms,, ncv beeps non stop,, never abuse the meter,,, just sitting on my desk no batt leaks, leads are ok. Tested the front end, no issues,, it seems cal just drifted so soon.

Absolutely no competition at this price! It sets new trends in the construction of meters for service and electronics hobbyists.

Speed of continuity and continuity lead voltage is a MUST for meter comparisons. more of my circuits are now below 3.3 volts. testing components power the whole DUT when the lead voltage is 5 to 7 volts like the fluke !

Plz suggest me which model is best for us, how about Fluke, and other makes ...

Great comparison, although I didn't understand everything because I speak Swiss German, I still understood a lot haha. And yes, it's a shame that the temperature measurement was omitted. Nevertheless, I bought, well, the plus model and, as an amateur radio operator, I am extremely satisfied with it. Price performance is excellent and what is also impressive is the extremely fast continuity tester when troubleshooting. Your video helped me decide, thank you very much. Greetings from the Bernese Oberland Thomas

UT70A It's very old, but it is RLC + multimeter and because it is very old you can find one for 50$. I've opened it and I believe it has a decent design. Only drawback is a lack of auto-ranging.

excellent video as always. But every time a measurement is made you could put a temperature meter to know at what ambient temperature you are making the measurements. Thank you. greetings from Chile Mauricio

Is this meter okay for home mains voltage? Fluke 177 is really too expensive for me.

My boss bought one of this new DMM uni-t models, the 17B pro and I admit not bad at all. It's accurate and full of features, for 80 bucks with shipping included not bad.

Thanks for the video. I bought the 61E+. In your video you don't talk about the sokett accessory for measuring components. With mine it is impossible to plant a component in the 2 small rectangular holes provided for this purpose. absence of contact "clamps" inside. Have you noticed this defect ???

I certainly would enjoy an Aneng 870 review.

15:25 Guys at the local power distribution center looking at their instruments and spilling their coffees: Oh no, it's Jones again!

since the UT61e (yes, not the + one) rose in price ($60) compared to several years ago (~$45 in 2017), I'm wondering what's out there for around $50... I like fast continuity and the serial output.

🤔Thanks and Greetings from Poland .

Does the backlight stay on indefinitely? That alone would be a reason to buy it.

As someone with many 70s analog music units, transistor testing is useful for me!

I just checked, and it's now $100 US on Amazon.

My decision was the AN870 is better bang for buck, getting up around 100USD one may as well make the jump to the BM235 or something else with proper safety features.

You can measure a current of about 150-200 mA with a UT61E+ multimeter in milliAmp mode, take a reading and, without changing the current, switch the limit to Ampere mode (20 A) and also take a reading. Mine shows 170 mA and 0.182 A. Will there be such differences on yours or not? Is it normal for readings to differ?

Lol Dave's reaction about the hfe was hilarious.

know your userbase. multimeters are used to test continuity (why does my thing not work?), resistance (I can't read color values), and voltage (is it 5v or 3v3?) most often. Beyond that, mA current (real diagnostics), mains voltage, and _maybe_ capacitance.

Hi, in the price range of the UT61-E is it the best or is it better ?

I've never used temp on any of my meters. Being a hobbyist the addition of a backlight and 22000 counts makes it great for measuring small values. I can see why it's not professional grade but you get what you pay for

For me, the major difference is the mechanical design and packaging of the new meter. It is much more robust as far as teat lead terminals, rotary selector tracks and case and internal shielding design. They finally wised up and hired a mechanical product design engineer to properly package the product. People don't realize mechanical packaging of a product is as important as the electronic specs. Nobody likes a chintzy product. The Aneng might be a good meter but it's nowhere near as well-built as the UT61E+, not even close.

I would love to see you do a comparison between the Uni-T and the Aneng.

Greetings, do you know what cutoff frequency the LPF filter is set to in measuring vac (low pass filter) of this multimeter ???, I looked for that information on the unitrend page and it does not appear ... Thanks saludos, sabes a que frecuencia de corte esta fijada el filtro LPF en medición de vac ( filtro pasa bajo) de este multimetro???, he buscado esa información en la pagina de unitrend y no aparece...Gracias

hFE might come in handy if it works properly. I have an old Beckman Industrial DM27xl from the late 80's (early 90's?) which I bought as my first DMM. It has hFE, and it actually does a much better job (realistic measure) than the Atmega based component tester thingies floating around in the Chinese markets. I still use it and when I need to choose a couple of transistors out of a 100 pack with matching gains, it is my "go to" instrument. Yes, a temperature function is clearly missing from this new UNI-T meter, but I would rather have it as not "instead of", but together with hFE. Nice review as always, checked the internet, it has become available in Chinese sellers, but not made it yet to the local distributor here in Istanbul. For the price, I totally agree, there is NOTHING in this meter that can justify the difference, and I am sure they will quickly discontinue the old model and the only "budget" 22000 count UNI-T will no longer be in the 60USD range, shame...

I have a UT89XD model and works fine for me. Can you test the UT89XD model and what you think is a good meter?

00:11:47 The delay/light is because if the resistance is below 300 ohm the light will illuminate green, if over 300 the light is red.

Been wanting their mini UTG932 signal gen for a while but at $140USD seems a bit pricey.

My 10$ UNI-T meter has a really good NCV mode tho, works flawlessly. Im honestly shocked that this one failed

The European version of UT61E was equipped with MOVs and was independently tested (GS/Tüv).

I have a Voltcraft MT-52, and the NCV sometimes falsely triggers on any metal object.

Good review, I'm curious why they cover only one of the PTC?

A shoot-out with the AN870 would be nice.

Thanks for the review. Good work. For an eletrician multimeter, the NCV it's pretty far away of the V AC position. :( Other thing, does the UT61+ (it's an eletrician multimeter) have live wire feature? Why UNI-T (for the eletrician multimeters) don't implement the live wire feature on the V AC position?

Does it measure correctly on near flat batteries?

what´s the point of backlight if you can´t see the settings whels and the symbols in the dark?

Own an Aneng an870 myself, fine for my uses, just don't expect the ncv to actually be a useful feature on that one.

Is this good for biasing a tube amp. I don't need it for repairs. I'll take it to a technician for that. I just need to replace poweramp tubes every few years.

20A max. / MAX 10 seconds / each 15 minutes... but what about less current? Does the manual have a graph or table to show how long for less current? How long can you use that jack at 10A, 5A, 2A, 1A, etc. Plus it is using only 10A fuse... 8-/

If only new meters would stop stacking the ohms/diode/beeper functions together. Definitely a peeve with the little Sanwa pocket, along with the 3 to 4 seconds it takes to boot.

Hello my good man, nice video. I can see it gone 2 years. I am on a look for a new meter, what would you say now is the most bang for the bucks ?

The "No contact voltage sensing" seems a bit like a gimmick, even when well implemented. (I much prefer using the traditional pen type, since poking a whole multimeter into an electrical cabinet seems down right silly...) The lack of temperature measurement is a bit of a bummer, but I can live without it to be fair. Though, I don't know why Dave needs to hate the transistor gain measurement as hard as he does... I have found transistor gain measurements actually useful a fair few time. (Though, usually I want a known base/collector current, and typically graph it a bit as well. Ie, a straight up "beta" is a bit lack luster. But I don't discredit a whole meter just because it has the feature.....)