Best Multimeter for Electricians: Fluke 117 Review
The Best Multimeter for Electricians: Fluke 117
If you’re working in the electrical field, the Fluke 117 is the multimeter you should own. It’s been the industry standard for two decades, and for good reason—it delivers the reliability and accuracy that professional electricians depend on when diagnosing circuit problems, testing voltages, and verifying continuity.
The Fluke 117 checks all the boxes. It measures AC/DC voltage, current, resistance, and continuity with solid accuracy. The autorange feature eliminates the guesswork of manual selection, letting you focus on the actual problem instead of hunting for the right setting. The display is crisp and responsive, updating quickly enough to catch voltage fluctuations. True RMS measurement means you get accurate readings even on variable frequencies, which matters when dealing with VFD-driven motors or dimmer circuits.
What makes the Fluke 117 stand out is its build quality. It’s rubberized, survives drops, and the probes feel substantial. The battery compartment is accessible—you’re not fighting a proprietary design. Fuses are standard replacements. If you drop it from a ladder or it spends a week in a wet basement, it keeps working. That’s not marketing language; that’s why electricians recommend it to apprentices.
The real-world advantages become clear once you’re using it on job sites. The screen stays readable in bright sunlight, which is rare for budget meters. The input impedance is high enough that you won’t get phantom readings on long runs or near 480V equipment. The frequency response is flat across the audio-range voltage measurements you actually care about. If you’re checking residential panel voltage, troubleshooting a 3-phase motor circuit, or verifying ground continuity, the Fluke 117 gives you information you can trust.
There are honest drawbacks. At $150-200, it’s not the cheapest option—but the price buys you reputation and reliability. The Fluke 117 isn’t a fancy smart-meter; it doesn’t log data or connect to your phone. If you need trendy features or a full data-logging experience, you’re paying for software overhead that doesn’t make you faster on a service call. The display, while clear, is monochrome and basic. For some, that’s a feature—fewer failure points means fewer things to replace.
Battery life is solid—expect 3-4 months of regular use before you’re changing AAs. The auto-shutoff happens after 30 minutes, so you won’t kill batteries by leaving it on overnight. The carrying case is minimal but functional; most electricians throw theirs in their back pocket and call it done.
Who should buy this: Any electrician doing troubleshooting work, maintenance, or service calls. If you’re working on live circuits in residential or light commercial settings, the Fluke 117 gives you the accuracy and durability you need. Apprentices should own one before they own anything else. Experienced electricians might already have one—and if they do, they know why.
If you’re working with complex industrial equipment where 0.1% accuracy matters or you need data logging for trend analysis, you might explore higher-end Fluke models. But for the vast majority of electrical work—finding dead circuits, confirming power, testing grounds, checking resistance—the Fluke 117 is the right answer. It’s not the flashiest tool in your bag, but it’s the one that actually makes you money by saving you troubleshooting time.
For more on electrical measurements, check out our voltage drop calculator—it helps you interpret multimeter readings in the context of actual code requirements.
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This site uses affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you purchase through the links above at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tools we’d actually use on our own job sites, and the Fluke 117 is a staple in the electrical trade for solid reasons.